Great thread! I too love your drum room - and the drums therein as wellParty

I have that 'dead center' thing going on with a couple of my old Gretsch toms. As you said above...I also don't hit them in the center unless of course I want that flat sound. It's got to be how the sound waves are reflected in the shell = the tuning and the head itself I guess. I think it's common. My drums seem to get past that dead spot at a certain tuning though. In my case, if the head is cranked up to a certain tension, where the dead spot is, and then backed off...that dead spot almost disappears but it is still there - not as much though. My drums don't have re-rings.

thanks Kona, nice to know Im not trippin'

Shawn,

Strike any perfectly tuned timpani in the center of the head and it will produce the same dead thud your floor tom does, even though strikes at the edge produce a nice, live, "ringy" tone. A perfectly tuned head, one which has perfect, identical tension at each tension rod, will node out the center, producing this dead spot. It sounds like you have managed to perfectly tune each tension rod. Try backing off a little on one (or every other one) and you may get that live, resonant tone again.

This dead node in the center of a head is the reason we teach young orchestral and concert band percussionists to strike a concert bass drum just slightly off center. Ironically, it was the desire for this dead flat sound that inspired a lot of us to put "Black Dot" heads on concert toms back in the 70's.

Oh, very classy drum room by the way.

Mike C

mchair.. has the correct answer. The center of a drum head is a nodal point & therefore "deader" than off center points. Many self taught drummers think the head is like a target, to be struck in the middle. (the center ,dead nodal point is also true for some gongs & other struck instruments).

well I'll be dipped :D

thanks guys!

Now to achieve the same in my rack tom :)

Use it as another sound in your music. We have rim shots,stick beats, buzz rolls and other sounds around the drums. Now you have a flat sound that you can use with Quads & single bass and toms. Be creative, I,am thinking I might look for a flat sound on my FT now.

Tom

Its odd, I've become so used to the "flat" that the richness off center now is disconcerting..LoLoLoLo

Yeah typically the center is the dead spot. The sweet spot is usually off-center a bit.

I guess this is the first time I've nailed the tensions on a head before :)