What does dampening your drums do, and why would you want to do it? The simple answer to those questions is to shorten or take away completely the sustain of the drum, so it sits in the mix of the music you are playing live or of the music you are recording.

Before I get into some of the ways to dampen drums, let me first say that drums are a musical instrument just like guitars, keyboards, etc. The woods and metals used are put together on purpose to give the drum a sound and character, so even though you may be going for that dead sound by piling up a bunch of duct tape on the drumhead, realize that correct tuning and different head combinations can make a huge difference in the amount of sustain your drums have.

1. Duct Tape
Yes, the ol’ standby. It almost always works, and it’s cheap to buy and can be purchased almost anywhere. Start off with just a little tape; one strip toward the edge of the head can be enough to tone down the sustain. If you need more, try another strip next to the first one and so on. Too much tape can take away the attack of the stick hitting the head.

2. Paper Towel and Tape
Tear a small piece of paper towel and fold it into a square. Now rip a piece of duct tape that is a little bit bigger than the paper towel and tape it down onto the drum close to the edge of the head. Just one of these is usually enough to really dampen the head.

3. Moongel
Moongel is a great product to keep in your stickbag. It is a non-toxic self-adhesive gel that sticks to drum heads, cymbals, and most percussion equipment. Moongel can be a good option instead of using duct tape. Moongel does not leave any sticky residue on the drum like duct tape does, so you can move it somewhere else on the drum or remove it completely. Moongel also lasts forever and can be re-used.

4. Muffling Rings
Remo’s Tone Control Rings and Evans’ E-Rings are pre-cut muffling rings in various sizes that you can purchase. These work great, especially if you need a lot of dampening because they are made to run the whole circumference of the drum, so they are very powerful and can muffle the drum a lot.

5. Cotton Balls
This is one of my favorite tricks. I saw one of my favorite drummers use this, and it really works well. Take a couple of cotton balls and pull them apart just a little, so they become a bit bigger and wider. Now take off the batter-side head (that’s the side you hit) and lay the cotton inside the drum. It doesn’t have to sit right in the middle, because it will flop around in the drum after each hit, which is what you want it to do.

Since bigger drums ring more, this trick works best on floor toms. The cotton balls take away some of the sustain without losing any of the stick attack, which can happen if you put too much tape on the batter head. With the two heads vibrating back and forth after the drum has been hit, the bottom head of a drum is where the sustain happens. After you hit the drum, the cotton comes off the bottom head for just a second, falls back in place, and mellows out the vibration of the head, making for less sustain. The more cotton you put in, the less sustain you’ll have.

6. Pillows and Blankets
This option is for kick drums. Unless you play traditional Jazz music, you most likely have a hole in the front of your kick drum. In Jazz music it is cool to have a small kick drum, say 18″ or 20″ deep, with no hole in the front head and no dampening. Normally the drum gets tuned high and the ring or sustain of the drum is desirable.

In most rock and pop music a bigger kick drum, such as a 22″ or 24″, is used and there is a hole in the front head and some kind of dampening, such as a pillow. The goal is to get big low end with a nice attack. You could grab your old pillow or blanket off of your bed and put it in the kick drum, and those do work, but in my expeience it is usually too much and takes the life out of the drum. These days there are great options specially made for kick drums. Remo worked with world-famous drummer, Dave Weckl, to develop the HK-MUFF. The HK-MUFF is a system of two muffle-strip pillows that dampens your batter and resonant heads without dampening the shell vibration. Evans’ EQ Pad features a hinged damping pad, which bounces off of your bass drum head upon impact — allowing some resonance before it returns to fully damp the head. Those are two great options that give you control over how much dampening you want in your kick drum.

7. Head combination
Different head combinations can make a big difference in the sound and sustain of your drum. Thicker multi-ply heads are what you want for sustain control. I personally find that Remo Pinstripe heads are a good option.

6. Tuning
This is the most important part of the whole equation: try to tune the top and the bottom heads of the drum to the same pitch — get them as close as you can. Once you get the pitch close, you only need to turn each lug a little bit to make a difference.

Take the time to really learn how your drums work by trying out different things or different combinations of things. Not only will you learn what your particular drum can do, you will find out what you like or dislike and how to change that in order to get what you need.

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