Drum Sound: Is it in the Heads or the Shells? Studio Sound Comparison

[@turbosoggy8404]

I’m going to be honest, here. I really can’t tell much of a difference between the two kits. At least, not nearly a big enough one to justify spending out the ass for the more expensive one. I think these dudes are experiencing what is called the placebo effect.

[@FakeDave]

I’m a massive believer in the Stage custom kits having owned one from new in 1999. I think budget kits are primarily bought by new/fresh drummers who almost certainly haven’t mastered tuning techniques which is why most budget kits sound terrible. I think you have proven that budget kits can sound more than reasonable with the right heads tuned well.

[@williamperri3437]

I just learned that the stage Customs from 1999 to 2005 were part mahogany. Was your kit mahogany and Birch? I absolutely love mahogany drums and I feel like I may have liked the 99 to 2005 the best if I was able to hear them. I know that when the stage Customs first came out in 1996 I was so disappointed that I like the bass drum better than my recording custom.

[@davix8669]

​@@williamperri3437that was made of birch/poplar and Philippine mahogany (not the brown African mahogany used in high-end kits) and it sounds very well. I've always thought the Stage Custom a very good sounding kit and very easy to tune due to its wood and its bearing edge

[@williamperri3437]

@@davix8669 I got a mid 90s Premier kit when premier opened their doors to Yamaha and shared the same factory in England. That kits made of eucalyptus and mahogany which is in my opinion better than the Yamaha stage custom’s but they got the same one piece lugs and hoops. Regardless they’re very similar almost identical Drumz but the Premiers May be a bit warmer.

[@jonashellborg8320]

Thank you so much for this video, that’s an awesome comparison! And I can clearly hear it, the shell makes the big difference! I sit with studio quality tracking headphones, and the shells come across as clearly different. Heads make a smaller difference. I agree with the comments that say don’t obsess about the shell price, material, bearing edge degree etc, just listen to the drums - if you like them, buy them!

[@magatone1]

Good video. Drum shell material is a huge marketing scam. Just find drums you like the sound of and buy them regardless of what type of wood they are made of. Then experiment with different heads and find sounds you like.

[@drumdog]

Rock on!

[@michaelgrahamwongacutemadness]

I replaced all of the heads on my stock toms and a mismatched stand-mounted tom with coated Remo Emperors, and now they sound almost like they're from the same kit; even the floor tom before sounded fairly different to the rack toms.

[@sbskking]

I think both are important.

[@SonorGeek05]

Shells definitely. Sonor vs everything else. Sonor wins.

[@edvinlindvallmusic]

@fartpoobox ohyeah yeah for recordings. But at live gigs and your own practice, small differnces in Shell can be fun. :)

[@ruelsmith]

Your comparison is flawed because the quality of the construction, and specifically, the bearing edge finish and the hoops, are quite different. A real test would compared the same kit with different woods. A quality drum with an all maple construction vs one with a birch shell, a maple/gum or maple/ poplar recipe or whatever or even thin shell with reinforcement vs thick. Personally, I think shell wood is mostly inconsequential. Shell wood equates to projection and heads, tuning, and attack are your sound. Think of it as the heads are the speaker and the shell as the speaker cabinet.

[@effusivefugitive]

You totally missed the point. The difference in quality is exactly what they were testing. They wanted to see if a higher-end (i.e. more expensive) kit sounded better, not if maple sounds different from birch.

[@royal_gambit_e4]

@@effusivefugitive @Ruel Smith has a point just didn't put it together so well. A better comparison would have been to compare two drum kits from the same brand with the same wood but different prize range.

[@theDeathJoy]

@fartpoobox ohyeah Bearing edges make a huge difference. The steeper the apex, the lesser pronounced the fundamental is because it increases overtones. The inverse is the case with baseball bat edges. Pronounced fundamental with hardly any overtones. The more head to shell contact, the more the shell gets activated and the more the edge of the drumhead gets dampened. The edge is where the high freqs originate. This is also why muffling is applied on the edge; to specifically dampen those frequencies. Thickness also determines shell resonance. A thicker shell requires more energy to resonate, but once resonating it'll continue longer. Just as with heads. Shell resonance is what makes an unmiked drum sound less like ass a few metres away. Neither of the above has to do anything with the wood species used. Unfortunately most drummers barely know what truly has effect on the drum sound apart from the head choice itself and tuning. Marketing gimmicks didn't help either. The shell construction is quintessential to how the head sound is acoustically altered/enhanced. Tonewood is just one part of that, possibly even the least consequential.

[@Ramshackled17]

It's crazy but I preffer the first drum kit with stock heads. Beautiful open sound.

[@watsytooya8107]

Wow that mapex tornado ain't bad at all. Imma get one and be my traveling kit to friends garage whoever calls for jammin.

[@webodrums3518]

I like the Tornado with stock heads

[@davuljul]

Bearing edge is very important and this is a key part of the combination shell-drumhead. But the question sounds stupid if you don't know what kind of sound you expect to get from the drums.

[@russellesimonetta9071]

Uhh the heads are speakers and the shells are the cabinet! But the bearing edges are a thing! Old school rounded or sharp 45 degree! Personally I like maple shells because they are tough as nails! I have a set of Slingerland custom all maple from 1972'. Sound great in 2023!! Got a decade maple set from Pearl for beboping and they are more open and lively!! The difference is the bearing edge! Poplar drums?, Birch drums?? Maple?? Exotic woods?? Thick or thinner shells are probably more of a difference!

[@ElectricianU]

Love the vids! Suggestion from a youtuber here - At 4:55 please link a card on screen for us to click and go to the G1 vs G2 video so we don’t have to spend 10 minutes looking around your channel to find it. Very frustrating as a viewer, but other than that keep making content! 🤘⚡️⚡️

[@drumdog]

Hey man, thank you for your comments today they are really helpful. Thanks for watching

[@XeRo333]

The Yamaha Stage Customs sound so much better than the other drum set, especially with the new heads

[@jamesadams7131]

The Mapex kit is about the lowest end kit they make, to be fare to Mapex.

[@williamperri3437]

@@jamesadams7131 do they still make that kit? I think it sounded awesome!

[@jamesadams7131]

@@williamperri3437 I believe so. I know they have introduced a new model starter kit call Venus that sounds killer.

[@williamperri3437]

@@jamesadams7131 I can't imagine going lower than the Mars. The Mars sounds amazing

[@jamesadams7131]

@@williamperri3437 yes they do, Mapex is way underrated!

[@jefvancalster5162]

Not fair you used moongel on the evans snare head but not on the mapex stock heads!!!

[@drumdog]

That was a conscious decision in order to compare completely stock heads with upgraded heads, a single moongel on the snare being part of the upgrade 🙂🥁

[@jefvancalster5162]

@@drumdog that's like a video for starter drums out of the box, or tuned and dampened... there are lots of (free) things you can do to make cheap drums sound decent

[@johncollins5552]

Both kits sound good to me, nice even tuning. An amateur/beginner won't have the experience to tune that well! I have an old pearl export, loud,solid kit for teaching, a mid range mapex pro M for rocking gigs and a sixties, beech, vintage sonor kit for pop/blues/jazzy fun. A mix of stock/remo heads but always an Emad bass batter for rock. Ambassador coated bass drum batter for the vintage sound. Heads make a big difference but tuning more so. I like bubinga shells, love birch for snare and Tom's but maple or beech is better for bass drum imo.

[@giantl9196]

IMO when it comes to sound it goes tuning heads then shells

[@dougfinlay7531]

I own a Gretsch Catalina Maple kit which is intermediate in the Gretsch line but every time I hear a supposedly higher end Gretsch kit such as the Renown, Broadcaster, Brooklyn or US Custom I am wondering what the difference is as some of these kits sound awful to me. Is it in the tuning? The shell differences are generally Asian maple, North American maple or a combination of maple, gum or popular. I thought gum and popular were cheap woods and maple was higher end by itself?

[@seppoinnanen5577]

Listening with good headphones, the cheap kit sounded warmer and had a bit longer sustain than Stage Customs. That can be (and is) because of many factors in the drums' construction. One thing might be the long tuning lugs that make the Yamaha shell stiffer and less apt to resonate.

[@davix8669]

Just use a subwoofer and you'll notice even more basses😂

[@johnbertasius2612]

That was a great idea. Very interesting video.

[@dragobotica]

if you have two similar quality heads, the difference is made exclusively by the shell, but with worse heads, the shells are not fully responsible.

[@pacmanlp8876]

why you added a gel on the snare for the evans drumheads? that made the comparisson unfair

[@Diatonic5th]

Well done! The shells definitely made a big difference here.

[@burakozc3079]

im using tornado with g2 coated heads on stage and it sounds good enough but you must know reso heads makes also a big difference. I bought a 2ply evans reso for my snare and it sounds worse than before whatever i do.

[@drumdog]

Hi Burak! A 2-ply head is too thick for a snare reso head, you want something really thin like an Evans hazy-300 👌

[@burakozc3079]

@@drumdog Thank you for your answer. Yes it is too thick i know now but i could be able to get my old sound (like gunshot) now. But it is very muted. I had to raise my snare and change the angle i hit. I hit like a rimshot without hitting rim. :D

[@jettsom]

Save yourself some trouble. Buy a Yamaha Stage Custom, put good heads on it with some nice cymbals and be happy the rest of your life. You don't need anything else.

[@erictorres4889]

Nope tama superstar classic for me .

[@thezogs95]

Honestly tho that tornado doesnt sound that bad. The Yamaha has more sustain and oomph

[@darklight4815]

You should try a cheapest you can find off brand Chinese kit as the cheap set with quality heads and compare it to a decent kit if you could.

[@drumdog]

Yeah good idea

[@darklight4815]

@@drumdog 🤘💀🤘. 👍👍

[@benking9160]

Let's remember the bearing edge is the main influence on the drum head not so much the shell material. Better quality kit = better cut bearing edge.

[@bryanherward4679]

Good point...the 30 degree edge is very much part of that great Gretsch sound

[@Assimilator702]

There’s not as much difference in the bearing edge effect in the overall drum sound. The most important detail is having flat edges to start and consistent edges that make even contact over the entire circumference of the head.

[@N617A]

Ok so both made a difference. The heads added more detail to the sound but the shell added a slight difference actual tone.

[@drumdog]

That's a nice summary, we'd agree with you there 👌

[@mojodrum3215]

Not sure if you guys listen closely the only difference is the snare which is tuned differently and the bass drum which are two different sizes but the toms sound the same. I don’t understand how both of you can say the shells are the difference.

[@drumdog]

Just out of interest, what are you listening on Mojo? The toms sound worlds apart to our ears 🤷‍♂️

[@ivanbajovic3476]

Try listening with decent headphones and you'll here the difference.

[@tasteapiana]

Thanks, now I wanna sit around the house, get high and watch the tube.

[@arrowintheknee9956]

The guy on the right looks like Tom Meadows.

[@iRideuWatch]

We only learn at the end of the video that the Tornado heads are single ply.

[@Neil-Aspinall]

Good heads on an average kit is the way to go if cash is the problem.

[@magedzaki9637]

95% it's the head

[@mecdrum7]

It’s head only not drums

[@ColocasiaCorm]

these mostly sounded like drums. iono tho.

[@morgunstyles7253]

Doesnt matter how pretty, good, expensive, the shells are. Crap heads, crap sound