It’s springtime! It’s getting warmer, the leaves are coming back, flowers are blooming, it’s time for baseball (I’m a big baseball fan — the start of a new season is one of my favorite times of the year), and it’s time for spring cleaning your gear! Lots of simple things can be done to refresh your sound and get you inspired for fun, sun, and music.
New Heads
By far the easiest way to refresh your drum sound is to put on a fresh set of heads. If you want to really start anew, then change both the bottom (resonant) and top (batter) heads; but, at the very least, new batter heads all around will get you going. You can go for the old, tried-and-true heads you’ve always used, or this might be a good time to try something a little different.
For example, Remo Ambassadors, in clear or coated versions, work all the time on any drum kit. They’re probably the most widely used drumheads in the world. But, if you want a sound with more thud instead of the typical open attack, then you have to dampen the head. A double-ply head, such as the Remo Emperor(which comes in nine different colors), Pinstripe, or Powerstroke P4, can get you there.
This could also be a good time to try another brand. Aquarian and Evans make fantastic drumheads in all kinds of styles and flavors. Some of my favorites include Evans EC2and Calftone and Aquarian Response 2 and Super-2. The differences in each brand’s manufacturing result in a different feel and sound — how they glue the head into the collar (the ring around the head), the kind of Mylar they use, and different coatings can radically change the sound.
Percussion
Adding percussion to your kit can really expand its sound palette. Add a Latin Percussion Tambo-Ring to your snare drum, and you’ll instantly have a trashy, electronic-sounding snare. You can do the same sort of thing to your cymbals by adding a Big Fat Snare Drum Neck Tie cymbal topper. If you have an extra kick-drum pedal, you can get a cowbell mounting bracket, attach a cowbell, and play it with your feet. Or how about mounting a hand drum, such as a djembe or a set of bongos, next to your hi-hat? All of a sudden, you have all kinds of sounds around you to inspire creativity.
Electronics
You can do everything I mentioned above and simultaneously go next-level by adding electronics to your kit — then the sound options are truly endless. A great way to start is to get a multipad, such as the Alesis Strike MultiPad or Yamaha DTX-MULTI 12. There are simpler options, such as a Roland SPD-One pad, or try your hand at triggering with Roland’s TM-1 or TM-2modules.
These are just a few options that we drummers can use to refresh our sound. You can go as simple or as elaborate as you want. You can even create something from things you have sitting around your house — metal trash-can lids and plastic paint buckets make great sounds. Don’t let the guitar and keyboard players have all the sonic fun. Go for it!
