Keep in mind that the drum you hear in a recording is the combination of a lot of factors; tuning, head selection, stick selection, player'style/technique, mic selection, mic placement, type of console, engineer and producer's preferences, outboard gear and the amp and transducers (speakers or headphones) you are using to listen. If you walked into the studio where a particular song was recorded, the acoustic drum sound would be quite a bit different than what is being heard in the engineering room. The drums would sound a lot more "live" than you might have expected.

When playing live in a mic'd or more specifically an un-mic'd scenario, it is the overtones that help carry the sound of the drum to the audience. If you deaden a drum to the point where it sounds like Don Henley's snare drum to your ears, by the time it transmits over guitar bass keyboards, horns, strings, the cazoo ensemble and vocals it will sound like a dull "pop."

Over the years, internal mufflers fell out of favor as we all started realizing that they physically work in opposition to the way drum mechanics work. A head is struck and it is depressed downward only to be resisted by a device that pushes upward from underneath in one corner of the head. They work better on snares than other drums as a snare generally does not have much sustain to begin with.

I would suggest adding a bit of external muffling, specifically towards the edge of the drum. You will be surprised how a little goes a long way. If you want to remove almost all if the overtones, something like Zero Rings might be good.

http://www.noblecooley.com/zerorings.html

If you place a Zero Ring on and the drum is too dead, you can always cut and use a percentage of it. A more expensive option would be to try a few different heads and see if that gives you what you want. There are plently of head options out there with muffling built in. The only problem there is it is not adjustable.

What heads are you using currently?

I'm using a Remo vintage coated ambassador for batter, nad a Ludwig medium snare side head on the reso.

A moongel or similar placed on the outer edge works wonders for me.

Tune reso head definitely higher! Detune both heads and tune snare heads in ratio 1(batter) to 3 (resonant)I have almost the same combo and it sounds brilliant! Check if snare wires are exactly in the middle of the drum.

+1

Squint said a mouthful too! Excellent information.

John

Ok, but did Ian Paice, Carl Palmer, Buddy Rich,... etc use any kind of muffling or did they use only the "tuning method"? Did they use the tone control as muffling or didn't they use any muffing?

Because in the 60's - 70's they only had EQ, Compression, Reverb and Delay.

Noise Gates didn't exist back then.

jeebee - You need to go back and reread Squint's response to your question. The man gave you all the information you'll ever need to tweak the sound of your drum. The key is; you are trying to get a sound you heard that was recorded, live on the drum in front of you. I don't think it's going to happen.

That snare drum you have sounds way different out front especially mixed in with the other instruments, than what you hear sitting right over it. You have that recorded sound stuck in your ears and it sounds like it's driving you nuts trying to pull that sound out of your 'live' drum. It's mission impossible bro. Guys in the 70's were pulling the reso heads off their drums trying to duplicate the recorded thud they heard on records. It worked, but the drums sounded like crap live for the most part. See how the drum sounds recorded. If you must, experiment with different kinds of muffling until you find a sound you can live with. Trying to match/duplicate live the sound of a drum on records... it can be done but it won't be easy. Even if you do succeed, the drum won't sound the same to the people out front as it does to you behind the kit. Catch 22

John

Put simply it's down to tuning. Maybe a touch of tone control but only ever a touch. Tune your drum till you get a nice even "ding" sound of off a rimshot. There you have it. If it rings too much for you add tone control. Done! I guess those guys you refer too had fairly high tuning so copy that and see where you get.

Buy some cheap builders ear muffs from a hardware store. Put them on and Play your drum, it will help you no end because you'll hear more of the complexities of the tone of your drum.

One simple thing to try is moving to a two ply coated head such as a Remo Emperor or Evans G2. Most rocks guys by the late 60's and certainly the early 70's were playing two ply heads as they were much more durable and players were abandoning their jazz sensibilities in favor of hard hitting back beats so durability was an issue. The second ply on the head will certainly have an impact on your harmonic overtones.

The comment about headphones is intriguing as, to some extent, that will give you an idea of what is actually transmitting through everything else in the sonic landscape. It won't be an exact replica of course, but it will demonstrate what those harmonics and a touch of sustain will do compared to what the drum sounds like if you were to throw a towel over it and then listen through headphones. Plus headphones will protect your ears.