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 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 drum head at desired locations, either singly or in combinations. An experimental investigation of the ringing drum head modes and the effects of the damping pads is reported. Decay rate measurements indicate that the (3,1) and (4,1) 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 squeeze-film damping mechanisms respectively.
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5 November 2018
176th Meeting of Acoustical Society of America 2018 Acoustics Week in Canada
5–9 Nov 2018
Victoria, Canada
Musical Acoustics: Paper 3aMU2
November 05 2018
Physics of musical drum head damping using externally applied products
Randy Worland
;
Randy Worland
1Department of Physics,
University of Puget Sound
, Tacoma, WA, 98416-1031, USA
; worland@pugetsound.edu
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William Miyahira
William Miyahira
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Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 35, 035004 (2018)
Article history
Received:
June 13 2019
Accepted:
June 17 2019
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Musical drumhead damping using externally applied commercial products
Citation
Randy Worland, William Miyahira; Physics of musical drum head damping using externally applied products. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 5 November 2018; 35 (1): 035004. https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001011
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