From: bfhalls@vela.acs.oakland.edu (HALLS BRADLEY F)
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps
Subject: Re: Snare Technology
Date: 8 Nov 92 04:25:51 GMT
Organization: Oakland University, Rochester MI.

In article <1992Nov7.132938.1@d0msu5.fnal.gov> jerger@d0msu5.fnal.gov writes:

>>The down side of all this is that snare drums now have a completely different
>>sound, and not nearly as good a sound (IMHO). The top heads are so hard now
>>that the air in the drum is barely deflected enough to snap the bottom head
>>at all. This results in a very high pitched, short, shallow sound that 
>>sounds great from 10 feet away, but doesn't project well at all. So in a
>>nutshell, the drums are easier and cheaper to maintain, but you pay a price
>>in performance. I know many might argue with this as most lines that never
>>knew how to tune before all of a sudden sound great now. But for those lines
>>who could afford to go through hundreds of silver dots a season, nothing will
>>sound that good again.

>	IMHO, some lines that were poorly tuned are still poorly tuned. 
>Falams have their own tuning problems.

Agreed.

>	As far as sound goes, I agree with you, Brad - there is nothing like
>a Silver Dot once it's cranked down & stretched out a bit, with a nice
>meaty yet crisp snare sound. Also, that was a head that felt good when you 
>played it; the mylar/kevlar heads are like playing on concrete when they're 
>cranked. When we used them in '88, when Falams were kind of new, Dilullo 
>was always worried about us getting tendonitis and tried to make sure we
>didn't play for too long a stretch without a break. Don't know if any 
>connection ever developed - anyone have comments on the healthiness of
>Falams over a longer period of time?

I have been teaching lines using these heads since they first came out
and haven't experienced any problems yet, but there's always a first
time. I am actually alot more concerned about damage to young people's
hearing created by exposure to high volume levels for such a long time.

>	The other thing that the Kevlar heads introduced, IMHO, was a
>distinction between the men and the boys, so to speak. Because the Falams
>give a generally shorter sound, the sound resolution improves. What
>I found was that if a line plays well together, then they can tighten up
>their sound because of the cleanliness of the drum response. On the other 
>hand, if they aren't experienced enough players with control enough to
>play clean in the first place, then what happens is the chow gets even more
>obvious - all the ticks stand out more. Where this really is a factor, 
>I think, is with, say, a H.S. line using Falams that shouldn't be. A lot
>of such lines I've seen get them because they're cool, and they want to
>be top notch (and perhaps the band director like the idea of not having to
>buy heads all the time; wait until he has to buy new drums because the kevlar
>heads have caved the shells of his old Slingerland TDR's :-) ); but the
>players just aren't ready for them, and instead of making them play better, 
>they sound worse and are mashing their wrists on concrete to boot.

Again I agree, but it's kind of a chicken-or-the-egg thing. How can you
get a line clean if they don't have a good sense of time or good adjusting
skills, but on the other hand how do you teach them to listen if they
don't have a good short sound to key in on? It's a tough choice. The difference
between a roll being in or out is about a tenth of a second... but the
bottom line is, if you can't tune, you can't tune. It won't matter what
kind of heads you've got.

--Brad.


-- 
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Brad Halls                                "Still looking for witty quote."
Oakland University                         -me    
Rochester, Michigan
bfhalls@vela.acs.oakland.edu

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