A Priceless Studio Tool-Moongel
As I get more and more session experience, I learn more about how to get good tones in the studio, especially snare tones. The overall tone you get out of a drum is determined many factors, such as how you tune the batter and resonant heads, what type of wood, and the quality of wood the drum is made of, the quality of the head, how you hit the drum, and about a thousand others. It takes time to develop a studio tuning technique that consistently gets you good tones, and makes micing and finding tones easier for the engineer. It also takes time to learn certain tricks you can use to deaden an annoying, or obnoxious tone that you cannot seem to get rid of with tuning alone. These tricks come especially in handy when dealing with snare drums, because their are a lot more variables to deal with, mainly the snares themselves. There is one product that I rely on very heavily to help me with this, and that I never go to a session without. The product is called Moongel, and its a priceless little tool that you can pick up for about $5. The product is pictured below, and is nothing more than a small blue gel pad that you can stick on your drums to drastically reduce ring, and sustain.
Moongel
It looks tiny, but has a greater effect than you would probably imagine. I often use these pads on the bottom of my snare drums, in order to keep the overall tone of the drum but reduce the unnecessary rattle that the snares sometimes produce. You can also use them on the batter or resonant heads of you toms to kill some of the overtone. If you don’t have any moongel handy, and you are in a situation where you need to kill tone, there are some other tricks you can use to get the job done. Duct tape is a great deadening tool, and lots of drummers will tape various things like tissue, or cardboard to their drums to achieve the same thing. Try experimenting with different types of tape, and adhesive products that will stick to your drums, and deaden ring. Have fun finding your own studio tones!
