Drumhead Coating Conspiracy? | Season Five, Episode 49

[@aluminati9918]

That was a great comparison! I run clear heads on our Acrolite, simply because it looks so cool inside.

[@jacksonmiller3016]

The tuning accuracy these guys have is incredible. It's so hard to hear a difference because of how perfect the heads are tuned to match. Bravo!

[@miikaroysko9591]

I believe it's the same exact head and they didn't even have to remove it to remove the coating so that's why the tuning is exactly the same

[@overindulgence6168]

​@@miikaroysko9591 what?😂

[@overindulgence6168]

Probably used a drum dial

[@mattlionmusic]

Get a tunebot, it’ll give you exact hz reading of each lug and it’s basically a guitar tuner for drums

[@zackedge2456]

@@mattlionmusic drum dial is far more accurate

[@RockerBug17]

Thank you! Drummers' preconceived notions about gear has always bothered me. I just bought 18 clear, unbranded heads off Amazon, and I love them! Cost me about $230 ($12 to $13 per head). It shouldn't take us decades to figure out not everything matters as much as the manufactures would like us to believe.

[@BedPanAlley]

Tony Williams famously played clear CS Black Dots with brushes. And, they sounded amazing. Zildjian Day drum clinic, mid-80’s. Neil Peart played clear snare heads for years. Nobody complained.

[@jonathanreddish8590]

ive actually complained a ton about pearts snare head choice....... maybe just not loud enough... sigh..

[@BedPanAlley]

@@jonathanreddish8590 OK. You’re gonna be *that* guy? Then I’ll rephrase my point. Neil Peart played clear snare heads for a significant portion of his career, and it didn’t stop him from becoming one of the most inspirational, admired, and influential drummers of all time.

[@section8usmc53]

​@@BedPanAlleyI can't tell if he's being that guy or bring sarcastic either, and if your audience doesn't know, then you're just that guy, because sarcasm is supposed to be able to be spotted unless you're trying to pull one over on that other guy and everyone else is in on the joke already. ...and I agree with the rest of what you said. 👍🏼👍🏼

[@OFLHLGZ28]

Coated heads were (I think) mostly done for brush playing. Vistalite snares came with clear heads with silver dots and they sounded fine

[@lelhothedevil]

i would have really loved a brush comparison between coated and clear.

[@peteshifter]

Brushes don't work on clear heads.

[@SydneyDrums]

The coating remains popular on the snare for brush playing. That’s it. The coating applied to the drum head does very slightly mute & the sound & control overtones on any drum. It’s very slight, John Bonham used coated heads on the resonant side of toms. Try it for yourself 👍🏼

[@weschilton]

Fascinating stuff. When you got to the part about tension possibly making a difference in the sound, I definitely agree, as coated vs clear heads on toms has a VERY noticeable difference, in both attack and tone.... than it does on the snare. Although I did hear a small bit of difference with the snare, it was negligible. Looking forward to seeing future results!

[@TheQuestion31]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I could've sworn the coated and clear heads had a different sound on my toms

[@jc3drums916]

Oddly enough, the fully coated head sounded to me a tiny bit brighter in this video than the partially coated or uncoated heads, although less so in the blind test. IRL I've never really noticed a difference. Maybe I heard a bit more airiness with clear heads, but it's so small that 1) it could be my imagination due to the way clear heads look, and 2) it's imperceptible except in isolation. But I've always used coated heads, because of brushes. I don't use brushes often, but I don't want to have to think about changing snares or heads or whatever when I do. However, I can hear a difference between the G1 coated and UV1 heads on snares, with the UV1 sounding slightly darker/deader. Because of that, I always buy the G1.

[@mickmutante]

4:08... Same thing... for me.. .if it sounds good for you and you like it... well you know...

[@michalostv9725]

Another educative content, thank you for the video. You guys inspire to learn and experiment with tuning/muffling, so you do not have to necessary buy new stuff, rather to get excited to create new music possibilities. Also, looking at the clear snare is something refreshing.

[@WoodenMinds]

This is the way.

[@alexgarza4513]

Wow this video was perfectly timed. Currently looking into clear controlled sound heads for my gretsch g4160 cause thats what charlie watts used in the 70s! But was afraid the sound would be strange, so this definitely clears that up

[@TsunamiBeefPies]

Boy, did I love this one! There are times when you're doing A/B comparisons and the differences are striking, and I'm right there with you. Other times, some of the subtleties are lost on me; you'll come out of the sequence and say something along the lines of "Hard tot imagine that you could get THAT MUCH difference from that one little..." I figure that 50+ years of drumming--most of it with no ear protection--has taken its toll, and my ears just aren't as discerning as they once were. So, in this video, as you were going through the various degrees of coating-removal, I was thinking "Beyond the tiniest bit of ring in the dead center, none of these sounds any different to me." And then Cody came back on talking about doing experiments and achieving dramatic differences, I figured I was sunk again. But no! The blind test came, and I was vindicated! My hearing hasn't been completely destroyed! Thanks, guys! Another great video.

[@drummercarson896]

This video blows my mind

[@ItsABOUTflamTIME]

I listened, rather than watched, so I was a bit surprised at 3:55 when you mention how "dramatic" the change was! Lol. I thought I finally heard a teeeeny difference in the blind test, but nope... got that one wrong too. Looking forward to the tom version of this video.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Oh that was 100% sarcasm thrown in there.

[@dhonnar]

When Crush brought back the acrylic kits in fashion, people used coated heads on the snares, which for me defeated the idea of ha ing a see-through drum. Coated heads are more for brush work. I bought an Evans Black Chrome head for my Tama Metalworks snare.

[@jeremy355]

I never could hear a difference, but every engineer I've ever worked with insisted on them. I never argued , and continue to use them, just to make the engineers happy.

[@Tdrums8]

a difference i noticed is that i had a metal snare that a Clear pinstripe sounded amazing on..BUT it would crack in the center .When i put a coated pinstripe it didnt crack just worn out like a reg coated head .So i think clear heads tend to crack ..Great Vid Stay well

[@joc8]

Wow, fascinating! I could hear no difference at all, but despite that, watching Cody play on the completely clear snare head, to my eyes looked odd... which is the point you are making. Drummers do shop, and play with their eyes (without a doubt, I'm guilty of this phenomenon). BTY, I did pick the blind test, but that was just luck. Thanks guys, another great video!

[@robertdore9592]

I have seen the great British Drummer Tony Levin using a pinstripe on his snare and the great Tony Williams using a CS Black Dot on his snare too.. RIP Tony & Tony

[@TylerOath]

You guys should check out the Hooplug sometime soon! its like that time Remo did pre-tuned heads, but way better! id love to see your opinion on it!

[@tavoridrumss]

Awesome video and haircut bro ✌️

[@catalinlulea]

You guys always inspire me to experiment. I just started using an Evans black chrome (which is uncoated and advertised as a tom batter) on my share and it just sounds amazing, was blown away...

[@Laurence_Balfour]

Fabulous vid as usual, you guys rock! Further pushing me towards trying a pink P77 😅 Quick vid idea: does the position of the snare mechanism on the stand matter sonically? I have a mate, who like Nick D’Virgilio has his mechanism from 6 to 12 o’clock, do a session with an engineer who worked with Radiohead who was adamant that he positioned the snare with mechanism from 9 to 3 o’clock for sonic reasons. His reasoning was that if you hit left of the centre by say an inch and a half with the snares at 12-6 you don’t get as much snare sound as the other config because the stick isn’t striking directly above the wires. Same with if you buzz roll, like in this video, from 12 to centre you lose out on articulation compared to rolling from 3 and 9. Personally, I think it’s bollocks and a personal preference to where you want your mechanism placed but would be interesting to know if there is any difference or just a visual thing like you address in this vid 👀

[@valda8925]

I prefer coated snare more to clear one because it's just way more durable. Also the hitmarks or cleared field are very nice to see if they've been made by myself. just a glimpse of motivation. But yes, coated nor clear may change or not dramatically the sound that I want. BUT any coating won't replace good tuning yet definitely it will help get through rough drums that just won't ever tune just because they might be too used/old/damaged.

[@jondrummer1989]

That's definitely very interesting. I also find it interesting that the isopropyl didn't seem to touch the head logo in anyway? Just looked like a brand new clear G12 in the end

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

We used an uncoated head tuned to the same pitch for the final variation.

[@jondrummer1989]

@@SoundsLikeADrum thats why it looks like a new head then, it was :D thanks for clarifying

[@dustinkirker5622]

I'm glad u mentioned using alcohol to take the coating off because i have tape residue on one of my reso heads after buying and old ludwig and i was thinkin of using alcohol to get it off.

[@carlupthegrove262]

Very Interesting stuff. I wonder if different types of coatings make a difference. Most of us THINK there is a difference between say Remo, Evans and Aquarian. And even a difference between Evans G1 coating and UV coating. Now I am questioning that. Thanks

[@SebCo77]

The thickness of the base film (12mil as opposed to the standard 10mil, or the thin 7.5mil) might lead to slighter change: the coating adds relatively less mass to a thicker base. Note that coated Ambassadors also use a different, opaque, base film than clear ones. Interesting bit about higher tension possibly mitigating the differences.

[@JoeOspallaDrums]

"You don't need to buy anything new..." International drum manufacturers are going through their phonebooks looking for someone to sort you out 🤣. Brilliant video, thanks

[@flanger001]

“Turn on your location” - Evans

[@jonashellborg8320]

Amazing video, loved this one. I do play with brushes, and I’ve assumed I need coated heads for that. But I should challenge that, so I can be less picky with what head I need. And who knows, I might even prefer that sound! For hitting, it sounded too similar for me to pick one over the other. Again, really nice video. I really liked the immediate back to back followed by discussion, worked really well. The fact our brains see something and then expects as certain sound from that is both hilarious and so sad. Just yesterday I was playing two pairs of hi hats, once thicker, one thinner bottom. And straight away in my head I went “of course, the thicker one will have a stronger chick and the thinner one more wash…”. Well, no that wasn’t the case. They sounded different, yes. That’s it. Both good. :-)

[@greenenoiseaudio]

I'd love to hear a comparison of different stick tip types and how much difference they actually make to the sound. Personally it seems as if there is a feel component to it but I suspect it might make substantially less difference than the stick weight does to the sound.

[@DarthCiliatus]

On the ride cymbal different tips can almost sound like a completely different cymbal but on drums I can't hear a difference except for extremes like 7a's to marching snare sticks.

[@greenenoiseaudio]

​@@DarthCiliatus ​ My experience would lead me to agree with you re ride cymbals, especially when they're on the thinner side and can be 'activated' easily, relatively speaking. I still think though that there can be confounders in that and to be clear i'm only questioning it in the spirit of this channel and how we should do so and update our priors should the evidence lead us to do so. Here are some possible confounders to that experience and it's rather nerdy but sure, we're watching Sounds Like A Drum so... 1) Expectations. You're playing a heavy rock/metal gig and you to play hard and heavy so perhaps appropriately you decide okay, I'm going to go with some 2B's and my prior assumptions tell me to go with a bigger tip, an Oval or large Acorn perhaps. Naturally the way you play influences the outcome so it appears to align with your priors that the bigger tip leads to a drastically different cymbal response. Similarly, if you were playing a jazz gig, you might opt of 7A's or something similar and this time with a ball, barrel or Hybrid tip. Again the way you play and the stick weight probably have a much greater bearing on the outcome. In these real life scenarios it's hard to parse out what's what. Is it completely biased by stick weight and your manner of playing? Hard to tell so you say, 'Okay, let's test this' and move onto number 2. 2) You decide to sit down and just test the sticks individually, trying to be as consistent as possible with your strokes. You choose a medium stick, say a 5A with a range of different tips. I believe I hear a range of different sounds, I truly do. I sit down and do the test and I hear it but again, your expectations are playing a role. This test isn't completely controlled. You may not be hitting the cymbal as consistently as you think. You aren't blinded to the test. Placebo is still a real possible factor in biasing your perception of the outcome. You could obviously robotically control the playing aspect but realistically maybe not something we could reasonably set up. You can at least get rid of some of the bias by doing a blind A/B. With those controls i'd be awful interested in if I can still hear the degree of difference I hear when I do it myself. The difference, if it is in any way substantial, must come down to the contact area of the stick and the shape of that area when it makes contact. Yet, i'm not sure if even this bears out in reality except for extremes of a Ball tip vs say a large Oval. When you think of the opposing convex shapes of both the cymbal and many tips, i'm skeptical as to how much actual additional surface area makes contact between most tips and the cymbal. This is perhaps why the difference doesn't exist as strongly on the shells or is greatly muted anyway, as the skin 'forms' around the contact point of the stick much more than the surface of the cymbal. Much like was alluded to in this video, it would be interesting to see if even that changes with different tensions on the drum and is maybe why you'll see massive marching sticks with ball tips, because it does begin to influence the sound more on drums at higher tensions. This is rather long now but needless to say, i'd love to see tests on it, just for some nerdy drum fun.

[@DrummerRIP]

GREAT SCOTT! I love this channel for this exact reason! PROVE EVERYTHING. EXPERIMENT. 🤓

[@onikn9138]

Something I was curious about today was, will a really thick batter head make it easier to play "softer". I thought of gluing a heap of skins to a head. Crazy idea but my preference is to play without much ear protection and learn how to grade the volume of a drum set completely. Recently realized that stacking two identical cymbals makes a softer and better sound than low volume ones. If you would be interested in the thick head test that would be great. Great video as always.

[@xyanide1986]

That's very surprising! I'd swear coated sounds less slappy on toms, but maybe that was due to other things I changed.

[@artcorvolet]

They said they noticed a difference on toms… they did a previous video

[@poserp]

I'll play along, I think B, or the second example, was the uncoated. I don't know if the answer is given anywhere (haven't watched all the way to the end yet). Listening on laptop speakers, no headphones.

[@poserp]

O.k., now I watched to the end. This helps me understand something, especially the examples with progressively removing the coating. I have a preference, on my snare at least, for a Remo Pinstripe with a bit of the coating worn away, maybe about the size of a quarter to a half-dollar (and wearing on other parts of the head too, just not all the way through the coating in those areas). It's something my ears have picked up from listening to a lot of early funk, especially James Brown, and how the drums sound on those records. There's a certain sort of "beach ball" set of harmonics that I like, not to ring but to be there right after the attack (that's where I hear the most difference, and the overtones ring louder for longer as the coating is removed). I feel that they are about at the right balance with that pattern of wear, and as a head is worn beyond that point I feel like they get too strong. Now, I'll bet that what it actually comes down to is the weight of the head, and that a totally clear head with exactly the same weight as a coated head will respond in pretty much the same way. Or, at least, that's my theory based on the bits of physics I think might be at work.

[@chromebull884]

I will say that from using aquarian products their coating is much thicker and denser. Could it be that between the three major head brands their coating is aplied in different amounts and that they possibly use different kinds?

[@theDeathJoy]

Based on this experiment: I wonder whether the clear edge on the UV heads is even necessary or just an aesthetic thing.

[@pupoctus]

I think it's just simply easier for manufacturer to apply this type of coating this way. And it looks cool :)

[@daltonidaho]

Great experiment! I got the blind test wrong. I use coated heads on all my Gretsch Renown drums simply because I can't stand the appearance of the silver paint inside 😅

[@artcorvolet]

Weird🤔

[@daltonidaho]

@@artcorvolet Oh I know lol

[@craigtoots3391]

I find the clear black dot to be a bad ass snare batter head. ✌️❤️🥁

[@jerrygamez5723]

Thank you so much for the video.

[@drumdad1242]

Great video!

[@JazzyJonas]

I heard a faint high overtone with the un-coated head that wasn't there with the coated, but the difference was negligible. I'm curious now about this comparison for lower tuning/larger drums.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Any variation you heard is easily eclipsed by the human factor- strike zone, velocity, grip, etc. Pretty wild in the end...

[@andrewdkahl]

I agree that the sound differences are surprisingly minimal, but I still hear a difference between the two. If I had to describe the difference, it would be a softer/warmer attack with the coated, and a harder/colder attack with the uncoated. I identified the two heads correctly in the blind test as well. This whole thing reminds me of the Pepsi Challenge, haha.

[@fpagliato]

I always thought that the skins were coated for playing with brushes. I've come acoss cheap coated skins in which it didn't make any difference, but there are some coated skins that you can feel it with your fingers.

[@johnreardon4944]

I don't disagree with your findings. But I do think there is a slight difference on the transient attack. Coated is "ah" and clear is "oh". After that, there is no audible difference. It's precisely this reason why I use coated batter heads. Especially on my toms. Moreover, my rack toms are coated Ambassadors and my 16 and 18 floor toms are coated Emperors. I just ended up there after fine tuning the "ah" and "oh" transient attack sound for each individual drum. I'd love to put all clear heads on my Reference Pure kit, but this is what sounds best for my situation. It's the house kit at my venue that always stays in the same room. So every week our drums sound amazing while different snare drums totally change the entire character of the overall sound. It's hit or miss. Even great sounding snare drums can sound not so good in our room. And vice versa. My sound tech loves it when drummers use our house snare. Haha! The Coated CS Dot seems to work well in our room. I may go coated Ambassador next time. My best advice is to get your snare sound the way you like it, and then be very open minded when talking to the sound tech. He knows your gig's room better than you do. Be knowledgeable and know how to change your snare head tuning quickly. Trust me. It will always sound better in the mix if you are cool about just raising or lowering your batter head tension or pitch. Serve the music, not your ego. You'll sound better AND make new friends. But come prepared. These videos are awesome preparation videos from my perspective as both a drummer and small live venue owner. I can't overstate how lucky you are if you have a professional and enthusiastic sound tech. Your show will be awesome if you have good teamwork.

[@Drumbo_Limbo]

Fascinating. I too heard no difference here. I’ve always perceived noticeable differences between coated and clear on toms, at least in the high end of the attack. So am I fooling myself there, or does the crunch from snare wires mask any differences? Is there a difference when the snares are turned off? Or does a snare drum’s unique tension and depth also factor in and reduce any differences? How many questions is too many? How about this many? Or this many?

[@Bradwick1]

Like to hear a comparison of bottom snare heads using different thickness. Starting at the thinnest mil and moving up.

[@pedrockz]

they've already made that video

[@jeanrogerlamoot7632]

coated is mainly for brushes and that cool retro look before there where clears.

[@danwatrus9146]

I use a pinstripe on my 13" side snare -wood pdp and coated on my 14 steel Tama. More than one flavor for me!

[@johnfartson4080]

I don’t think it matters on snares a lot because of the higher tension. Clear toms have more of a click sound imo, likely made more prominent on toms because of the lower tension. It won’t be super noticeable on room mics but you will hear and feel it at the throne.

[@kushking420]

i use an uncoated remo emperor head on my 10" pearl pop corn snare and flip a used 10" head to make it fat, use it only as an auxiliary snare , kind of happened cause i had an unused 10" emperor sitting around

[@aZeddPrattFilm]

I just wanna say I had a clear head on a vistalite snare and really didn't like what I was getting. I then put on a coated ambassador and had much better results. I'm not sure what's placebo these days.

[@mike.camille]

I think where you hit the drum head makes more of a difference than the coating.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

100%

[@ryangroom2959]

Was that climbing up the walls at the end?

[@alexanderjamieson7971]

I wonder if the coating adds any durability or longevity to the heads?

[@ghiblinerd6196]

You should do the same blind test for the snares from the last video!

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

We still could but that video was packed full enough, don't you think?

[@stanfordkoch1271]

I use the clear remo p77 for some years, i think the coated version dampens a bit but in the end it comes down to personal taste. Cool info video though

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

What would you say if the personal taste was affected entirely on the existence of placebo and that the coating didn't actually make a sonic difference? That's the point we're making here. A lot of opinions and hypothesis are left untested and we simply assume we know what's up. We're challenging everyone to question those pre-existing notions. Thanks for watching!

[@stanfordkoch1271]

@@SoundsLikeADrum you have a point there

[@joshuabyrd9166]

I use coated heads on part of my snare drums and CS clear heads on others

[@mancuniancandidatem]

It sounds to me like, everytime a layer of coating is removed, the overtones sustain for longer and are more pronounced.

[@section8usmc53]

You mentioned going back to redo the coated tom head experiments, as the reasons for your outcomes were not what you were expecting now that you have this new information, which means we have to find out, just how much coating (by weight and volume) is on a specific size head. 🤔 Then you can see how much difference there is between that coating weight, and the thinnest second ply you can find. This could actually turn into a whole new drum head. I'll explain. Let's say the thinnest second ply on the market is 5 mil, paired with a slightly larger 7 mil as the main ply. Now let's say we get info from head companies saying the coating is X weight wet, and X weight dry on a 12" head. Since they likely will not give up this proprietary information, you'll probably have to find a way to remove it all and weigh it yourself. Now, let's say for ease of pushing numbers, that coating dry weighs out to X, which is even to a 1 mil ply. I've often thought drum head manufacturers were going to heavy on the second plies, or not offering enough options. 2 x 7 mil plies and such, and I think they have thought this too, as many have given various options for controlling sound like 1 inch rings, dots, the holes in the Evans heads which are a great idea, and so on. What none of them have done so far is what you'd think would be the obvious, cheapest, and already tried and true way. They've been doing two ply forever. Instead of adding a 5 mil, or another 7 mil, why not just add a 1 mil or a 2 mil second ply instead of the coating? You could even use Evans' idea with the holes for the thin ply. I've often wondered what effect putting those same holes in one or both plies of a 2 ply head would do to the playability since you'd be allowing air between plies. That alone may make a huge difference. I may have to try this with a tiny hole punch and a few different two ply heads, and I doubt they will see this, or entertain this idea. This could be fun. *Edit: I was just made aware by another video here that the dry hole head IS indeed two ply, so I guess there would be air getting in between the plies. One less experiment I need to try.*

[@jamesgoetz6100]

Was there a difference when the snares were off?

[@pedrockz]

drums mythbusters

[@brent3760]

Aquarian texture coated 100% For me

[@jonathanreddish8590]

coated heads and dots count on stage, they catch light better, and easy to see in the dark....

[@TomBelknapRoc]

"If you're not using brushes and you're not doing lateral movements on the drum head, you don't need a coating." Disagree. Speaking for myself, I just really don't want to look down and see my feet. Also: Lateral Movements on the Drum Head (LMDH) was one of my favourite 80's bands.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

It sounds like you're conflating wants and needs but we get your meaning. Hopefully the bigger picture of this episode came across as well. Cheers!

[@thepluggy1]

Guys, could we please, please have a snare wire comparison vid. Like puresound vs canapus, tama pearl etc, I think that would be great

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

We would need a sponsor to support something like that and/or a significant increase in support form viewers via our Patreon. These videos take an incredible amount of time to produce and we simply can’t afford to make that happen without help.

[@thepluggy1]

Thats completely understandable,you guys do great work I might add always love when a new video drops 🤘😎🤘

[@galendeig6747]

The 2nd snare comparison had more overtones. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Guessing clear.

[@alsdrumhang]

HERESY! How DARE you put a clear head on a snare? HEATHENS!! 🤣 I thought I could hear a few more overtones on the clear head but when you got to the blind taste test, yeah, I couldn't tell. I thought the second iteration of the partially coated head sounded really nice, btw.

[@bojackharkness1971]

Definitely, atleast i can on toms for sure

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

How'd you do on the blind test?

[@mccbuddytaras6637]

this is another one of those rabbit holes. clear, coated, single ply, 2 ply, dots, no dots, rings, no rings, etc. too many combinations to really scientifically test. that video would be days long. also, i got the blind test right. sounded higher pitched to me. i know anyone can say that but i'll die on this hill :P

[@ristretto24]

So, then there shouldn't be a difference between coated and clear tom heads either?

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

We covered this in the episode.

[@nate6692]

But but but - what about brushes! Never mind that 93% of the internet doesn't even know what box the brushes they bought 23 years are in. You MUST buy coated in case you ever get the call

[@SvenElven]

But surely, SURELY clear and coated heads sound different on toms?!? If they don't I think I need to go for a little walk and sort my brain out 😅

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Yep, we mentioned this along with a hypothesis in the episode towards the end.

[@SvenElven]

@@SoundsLikeADrum Yeah, you did, I commented in the middle of watching… I look forward to an episode on the subject (featuring blind tests). In my head, clear tom heads go «slam slam slam», while coated ones go «blam blam blam»!

[@AT-wl9yq]

You may want to think about doing this test again. Removing the coating with alcohol was probably not the best choice. Alcohol eats into things like plastic and rubber, causing them to break down. Any alcohol that touched the clear part of the head in the removal process had some type of effect on the plastic. How much of an effect is hard to say. I would get a clear head and listen to it next to the heads you modified for the comparison.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

This was considered but we decided that it wouldn't likely have enough of a noticeable sonic effect. A clear head was used in the final stage of the comparison and the results weren't surprisingly difference from the previous stages.

[@mykneeshurt8393]

I just got a Tama kit. First drum kit.. The snare is SO LOUD that after five minutes of basic playing, my ears are ringing.. Do you have any suggestions? I have watched every 'how to tune your snare' video on YT..

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Please don't take this the wrong way- play the drum softer. This is your first kit so you've likely got a bit of a journey ahead of you for working on balance and control. Take the time to work on your technique for dynamic control and it will make all of the difference in your quality of sound with everything you play in the future.

[@peteshifter]

Ear protections!!! Until you can play soft. Or maybe you'll be a heavy hitter and will never play soft, just like me. I always protect my ears. Always!

[@jjfloyd618]

I thought the reason for the coating on drum heads was because it’s just weirdly disturbing being able to see inside the drums while you’re playing them. Also oddly enough I actually thought the second sound sample was a tad drier than the first.

[@section8usmc53]

How is seeing the inside of your drums "disturbing?" 🤔🥴🤷🏻‍♂️ I've switched to clear batters as my drum interiors have a gorgeous finish and deserve to be seen.

[@jjfloyd618]

@@section8usmc53 🤣 I did say “weirdly” disturbing, as in I’m a weirdo who finds such things disturbing sometimes. I was @ least 1/2 joking though and agree that if the inside of your drums are as beautiful as the outside there’s no reason to hide them. For reference though I am also quite glad that acrylic drums are for example rather cost prohibitive & impractical because I really want to love them but being able to see all the mounting hardware on the inside is for me a little bit of an unattractive visual distraction.

[@edsterling5258]

I challenge anyone to listen to this with the video off. THEN see if you "hear" a difference. It is interesting!

[@ChristopherSmithNYC]

Of course you can.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Really though? You thought you could hear a difference with your eyes closed? I'm willing to bet that we could "drop the needle" on any section within the comparison 10 times and you wouldn't guess the right amount of coating more than 25% of the time.

[@bromasi]

What about the bass drum?

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Based on our hypothesis, that would fall under the same category as toms based on tension.

[@martyylitalo]

Are you telling me that you cannot hear that the first blind sample has lower fundamental than the second blind sample?

[@remygaron8311]

Must be diff with brushes i believe

[@P43L1j0]

I had a cheap drumhead that was so heavy coated that maybe can cause some effect... but in general i do not think that the coating is relevant to the sound.

[@kerryewen3624]

I thought coating was for brush performance

[@Spomajom]

Who is this new host with the short hair?

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Some rando we grabbed on the street. He's got a decent pocket though so we'll let him hang around. 😉

[@Spomajom]

@@SoundsLikeADrum looks good man!

[@mikaelsnare]

So, the DW coated/clear heads, 100% a gimmick.

[@RimshotsandNamaste]

Aaaamen!!! .. Does the wood type influences the sound that much? (From several videos on yt: not really! .. Even the last dcp Sonor comparison: -_-) .. Does the depth of a tom matters? There's a video of a 12x8 vs 12x12 tom comparison: yes..kinda.. It seems that what will make most of the difference: at the same level of importance: I would say : Tuning and heads (heads for toms and bass drums!) After that Bearing edges? (Shell thickness, dimensions, rims, ) ..And wood type might be at the bottom of the list!! And most importantly: the player and sound recording/editing. Marketing scams all over the place? Most likely!

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Funny you should bring up the shell material since we JUST released a comparison of four different wooden snare shells last Friday! In short- it's subtle but definitely apparent, particularly at the extremes of the tuning spectrum. There are certainly some placebos and even shady marketing going on out there but let's be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Hypothesize, test/experiment, re-assess.

[@RimshotsandNamaste]

@@SoundsLikeADrum hey tnx for your feedback!!! .. Yeah! I saw that you did a snare comparison just after! You're right: it seems that there's no absolute.. No black or white! (As it is the case for most stuff ;) ) Cheers!

[@TheTurtleneck64]

I've found that wood type matters more for guitars, only because the quality of wood (or particle board) can be MUCH lower on a guitar. Only extremes make any noticeable difference. It's mostly about density

[@brandonbarnes99]

I disagree that they sound the same. They don’t, there is a very subtle difference, but there IS a difference. With that said, the head with only parts of the coating removed is a bigger difference than all clear to all costed. I think the mass of the coating affects the head… especially when it’s only on part of the head, so again I disagree with your assessment. Very subtle. But the difference is there. Love these experiments though. The differences are so small that other things are going to affect the sound more than clear vs. coated on a snare. How you hit it, how it’s tuned… muffling etc.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

To clarify, it seems that we came to virtually the same conclusion you reached in your final sentences; we found the human element (as well as other factors) to be more substantial than the presence of coating (especially in blind tests). But the key here is, as you noted, the value of engaging in the experiment and questioning the pre-conceived notions and groupthink that are all too common.

[@rocketsauce5067]

It's minimal to my ears but it seems a little softer sounding,Less metallic.

[@DavidEpstein]

I got the blind test wrong...

[@FrancisFleuronas]

The drum head really makes a difference to me when I'm mixing. Eq and compression brings out the difference, and drumhead material really changes my mixing choices. I've got a clear head on my snare drum right now cause I like the way it barks

[@scottmcfadyen293]

I listened to Neil Peart using clear heads and knew it sounded a little thin. when he switched to coated heads , it had more body , depth and richness. Why a coated head works for snare drums is it is usually a thinner shell and usually not as deep as a tom - it is a different animal on the drumset. a sharp , ringy tone is what will naturally come out of a average snare drum (5x14-6x14) , so a coated head will bring the richer tones and warmth out of a thin drum - it makes no sense to use a clear head on this individual drum of the kit. The tones that come out of the drum will be determined by the heads used and the tuning - know what your ears tell you , a snare drum needs a coated head to get the bigger sound for the(usually) small size of the drum.