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Keep in mind that the room you're playing in will affect your sound too. Drums can sound like crap in a small bedroom and sound great onstage without changing anything
Words of wisdom by Mr. Smith...
Steve Smith: MD April 2002 p130
Uses coated heads (softer, warmer sound)and tunes relatively high for jazz
Uses 5A hickory sticks, a lighter stick
Ringy Room: tweak top heads tighter. This dries the drum sound and adds attack.
Dry Room: The opposite happens when the top heads are looser. The toms sound wetter w/ more overtones.
Tuning both heads the same creates a the fundamental tone more dominant creating a longer sustain and ring.
Check out: http://www.drumweb.com/profsound.shtml
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Pocketplayer, that's a great litle bit of advice from Steve Smith! It does work too...
Steve's right, bottom heads are usually kept on drums far longer than they should be. It's worth mentioning that a head under constant pressure/tension still moves with every strike of the drum (even if it's not being 'played') it will still lose its tonality after about 4 or 5 months of playing, maybe even shorter if you play a lot...
