A ringing floor tom can be distracting for you, the band, and the listener. Thankfully it’s typically an easy fix, let’s cover what to do if your floor tom rings too much including in the mix via EQ.
Floor Tom Rings Too Much Fixes
Let’s start with a couple options you can do prerecording.
Tune Both Sides Down
When a floor tom rings too much, 90% of the time it can be attributed to the drum being tuned too tightly and high.
Lowering the tuning on a floor drum reduces sustain and relieves the pressure which gives you a less resonant, more controlled sound overall.
Take your tuning key and lower the tunings at each point in a star pattern. Clipping a tuner on to the corner of the drum can help ensure you’re getting a consistent tuning across the surface regardless of where you hit the drum.
Repeat the process on the underside of the floor tom, as well, and you should notice an immediate improvement with less ringing and more control.
Just as a reminder if the tone feels like it’s dying off too quickly for the sake of controlling that ringing sound, you can always add a little sustain back in on the backend in the mix by way of compression. Refer to my complete tom compression cheat sheet for the exact settings to apply to the compressor on your floor tom.
Muffle Sound
The tiny hole or holes you see on the side of a floor tom act as vents. Virtually all modern floor tom drums feature these to control air flow and humidity so the wood doesn’t warp or crack. This also helps to open up the sound of the floor tom versus vintage drums which don’t feature it which some liken to a drier sound.
If you’re still hearing a bit of ringing that tuning can’t seem to solve, try squeezing 3-4 cotton balls through the vent to help muffle the resonance a touch.
You can also apply a couple small strips of moongel or more generic tapes like a painters tape, electrical tape, or even duct tape to the surface to dampen the sound a bit and control the ringing.
Apply an EQ Cut at 400Hz
When in doubt if your floor tom rings too much, you can simply fix it in post. This can work equally whether you’ve dampened it a bit with the above tips or are already stuck with a ringing tom in the mix.
The ringing on a floor tom generally resonates around 400Hz:
A small 1-2dB cut can help to attenuate and otherwise make less noticeable the ringing.
You don’t want to cut more than that as this can change the composition of the tone of the floor tom. If the ringing is especially egregious, look to control it as best you can to the point that it’s still there, but it’s not distracting to the listener.
I put together an entire guide for how to EQ tom drums, so refer to that guide to ensure your toms are full of body, punch, and the undesirable tones of the toms are mitigated as much as possible to get them sounding and sitting just right in the mix.
