Musical drumhead damping using externally applied commercial products

Abstract

Snare drums and tom toms used in drum sets often produce an undesirable high frequency ringing sound when struck. Drummers have historically applied DIY damping solutions to address this ringing, placing objects such as wallets and tape on the heads. A large variety of inexpensive commercial products is now available to dampen drums in a more controlled manner. The most commonly used products consist of small adhesive pads that can be placed directly on the drumhead at desired locations, either singly or in combinations. An experimental investigation of the ringing drumhead modes and the effects of the damping pads is reported. Decay rate measurements indicate that the (3,1), (4,1), and (5,1) modes often contribute the most to the ringing sound, and that these modes are strongly affected by the damping pads. Another class of commercial dampener consists of thin annular rings of Mylar that conform to the perimeter of the drum head. These free-floating rings produce a similar damping effect, but dissipate energy through a different physical mechanism. Experimental results for both types of dampeners are presented and discussed in terms of viscoelastic and air-layer damping mechanisms, respectively.

Inferring Drumhead Damping and Tuning from Sound Using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) Models

“…Drummers refer to this process as damping, as their aim is to damp specific resonant frequencies. It appears that as circular membranes do not have a harmonic spectrum, they often produce an undesirable ringing effect, caused by the fact that certain modal frequencies have a longer decay than those contributing to a desired perceivable pitch [14]. Therefore, drummers aim at damping these frequencies.…”

“…The modes having circular nodal lines (higher n) radiate more efficiently due to non-zero air volume displacement, and therefore have a higher contribution to external damping. The modes having more nodal diameters (m) have zero net-volume displacement and a stronger correlation to internal damping [14]. Internal damping may be attributed to energy losses caused by different factors, including thermal losses, but maybe more importantly to the viscoelastic nature of the material, which contributes to frequency-dependent damping, often revealed as beatings, non-exponential decays, spectral sidebands, and mode coupling [17].…”