nothing wrong with a pillow dude, just depends on the sound you're going for. I use a premuffled batter, ported reso, AND a big pillow.
I just have drummer-friends that completely abuse them. You can get that dead/clicky bass drum sound without a pillow. And when you get it, it's a much fuller/punchier sound than you could ever get with a pillow. Other drummers compliment and comment on my bass drum sound at EVERY show I play because I think the biggest difference is most noticeable when you mic it up via porthole. Just give it a shot before you judge completely. And give it a shot with microphones too. Not hating on you for using pillows or anything if that's what you like, but I've had much more success achieving the 'perfect' tone to my standards without internal muffling.
Okay so yeah, Dislol... use a pillow since replacing those heads for the kick with the ones xmasdog just recommended could easily cost over $100. One pillow should be enough. the best kind of pillow imo is one that isn't fluffy (don't know how to describe the opposite of that. I guess dense?) One that will kinda conform to the inside of the drum. Typically you want the resonator head to be loose, but not wrinkle loose. The lugs on my kick resonator are only slightly more than hand tightened. And you want the batter head to be tighter. The science behind how a drum works is air bouncing off the insides of those heads. When you hit that drum head it forces the air inside the drum to move away from it. It reflects of the resonator head and causes it to vibrate. Of course the sound of your stick hitting the batter head is something too, but the boom of the toms is all in the resonator. So, the tighter the resonator head, typically, the higher the pitch of that boom. So leaving it sorta loose will give it a low and deep boom sound, which i like. If you don't want to spend money to replace all your heads, I would at least go out and invest in a set of those floater rings. You get them in the sizes of your toms and simply rest them on the batter head. They don't need to be taped down or anything. I see people do that... you might as well just put tape on your head. It's supposed to float on the head. They work great at reducing a lot of extra reverberation in the drum. A set probably costs like $20. I use them even with the heads I buy on the reg to help control the sound. They are a great investment.
I put 2 pillows and a thin blankie in there but it turned out to be too thuddy. Experimented with just one smaller pillow and the thin blanket and now it sounds pretty good. As far as the snare goes, I tuned it to the best of my ability and got some sticky gel tabs which got rid of the St Anger-like trash can sound. What do you recommend putting on the snare head to make it a little quieter for the neighbors (and more like Nick Mason circa 1975)?
I've seen people put a thin cloth over a snare head... typically in recording. I don't do that. Fuck the neighbors.
Yeah I tried it and found it to be ineffectual at making me play like Nick Mason. I guess I need a heavier wallet.
All the information you need to know about getting good at drums is in those two old steve gadd videos. Up Close and In Session.
While Vic is right, you need to be real careful not to play out of time when you slow the metronome down. If you slow down a metronome and you are out of time, then you should put it up the subdivision until you groove on that. Every time you practice out of time, you are teaching yourself to play out of time.
Ringo and I both disagree with you, as do any of James Brown's drummers. It sounds great, so long as that's the sound you're looking for.
