GB2161973A - Drum apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Drum apparatus comprises a drum and damping means, the damping means being in the form of a ring 20 of an acoustically dead, flexible, high hysteresis, dense and rubber like polymeric composition which lies on the playing surface 16. The ring 20 may be of simple annular form having an outer diameter which is about two to five millimeters less than the internal diameter of a rim 17 and about two to five millimeters greater than the internal diameter of a tone edge 15 so that an outer peripheral portion 21 of the ring 20 overlies the tone edge and the peripheral portion of the playing surface 16 which abuts the tone edge, to attenuate the volume without materially impairing the tone of the drum. The radial width or mean radial width of the ring 20 is less than one eighth of the nominal diameter of the drum. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements relating to drum apparatus This invention concerns drum apparatus.

It is known to deaden or attenuate the resonance of musical drums to alter the tone thereof. For example, it is known to provide a drum with a tone control mechanjsm which is mechanically actuable to raise a vibration damping member upwards within the drum to contact the underside of the drumskin when damping is required and to lower the member from the drumskin when damping is not required. However, such mechanisms have disadvantages of initial cost, complexity, weight, maintanence, and the production of a "dead" zone of the drumskin which is relatively large and must be avoided by the drummer.To avoid the initial costs and the complexities of tone control mechanisms, it is known to use dampened drumskins comprising two membranes with a viscous material therebetween, and drumskins having damping material bonded to portions of the underside of the drumskins. However, when an undampened sound is required, it is necessary to replace such dampened skins with normal skins, so that the use of such dampened skins can involve the disadvantages of much inconvenience and increased longterm costs.

What is needed is apparatus for damping drums which is relatively inexpensive and is convenient to use.

According to the present invention there is provided drum apparatus comprising a drum and damping means, the drum comprising a skin stretched over a circular tone edge of a drumshell by means of a counter hoop providing a rim upstanding around the playing surface, characterised in that the damping means comprises a ring of elastomeric or flexible plastics material lying on the playing surface so that the periphary of the ring touches or is close to the rim, the radial width or mean radial width of the ring being less than one eigth of the nominal diameter of the drum so as to cover only a peripheral marginal portion of the playing surface.

The overall diameter or maximum dimension of the ring is preferably greater than the diameter of the playing surface, and is preferably less than the internal diameter of the rim.

The outer peripheral and inner peripheral edges of the ring are preferably circular.

The radial width or mean radial width of the ring is preferably about one twelth to one sixteenth of the diameter of the playing surface between limits of one centimeter, for a small, e.g. 1 5cm, drum, to 5cm, for a large, e.g. 40cm, drum. The ring preferably has a flat undersurface which rests on the marginal portion of the playing surface so that the periphery of the playing surface is sandwiched between the ring and the tone edge.

The ring preferably between two and five millimeters thick.

The invention will be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, wherein Figure 1 shows drum apparatus of the invention in vertical transverse cross section; and Figure 2 shows an enlarged detail of Fig. 1.

The drum apparatus comprises a drum, and dampening means. The material of the ring preferably has high hysteresis and is preferably solid and dense.

The drum is generally of known form and is shown as schematically comprising a drumshell 10, a counterhoop 11. tensioning means 12, and a drumskin 1 3. The latter has a flesh hoop 14, engaged by the counterhoop 11, for tensioning the skin 13, over a tone edge 1 5 (Fig. 2) of the drumshell 10, to provide a planar playing surface 1 6. The counterhoop 11 provides a rim 1 7 (Fig. 2) upstanding around the periphery of the playing surface 16.

The damping means comprises a ring 20 of an accoustically dead, flexible, high hyseresis, dense and rubber like polymeric composition.

In this embodiment the ring 20 is of simple annular form having an overall diameter or width which is about two to five millimeters less than the internal diameter of the rim 1 7 about two to five millimeter greater than the internal diameter of the tone edge 1 5 so that an outer peripheral portion 21 of the ring 20 overlies the tone edge and the peripheral portion of the playing surface 1 6 which abuts the tone edge.It is appreciated that, in use, the playing surface 1 6 may be inclined, so that the ring 20 is slighly eccentric to the playing surface and rests, at its lowermost part, against the rim 17, but the ring is dimensioned so that its uppermost part still overlies, or is within a few millimeters of, the tone edge and said periphal portion of the surface so that at the most only a small arc, e.g. of less than 90 , of said peripheral portion is exposed beyond the ring.The radial width of the ring 20 is such that it extends inwards from the outer peripheral portion 21 to overlie and rest on a peripheral marginal portion 18 of the playing surface, which portion 1 8 is contiguous with said peripheral portion of the playing surface; and the radial width is more than one twentieth and is less than one eighth of the diameter of the playing surface and is preferably within the range of one tenth to one fifteenth of said diameter for most drums in the range of 1 scum to 40cm sizes. The ring 20 in this embodiment has planar top and bottom surfaces, is about three millimeters thick, is about 2.5cm wide for a nominal 35cm (14 inch) drum.

The damping means avoids the aforementioned disadvantages and has many advantages including, low cost, simple lift-off re moval, self alignment with the rim when placed on the playing surface, obviation of concealed "dead" zones of the playing surface, obviation of maintainence and need for replacement when the skin is replaced, protection instead of stressing of the skin, and durability.

Of even greater importance is the improved and surprisingly good musical effect afforded by the damping means. In particular, the damped tone is very clear and solid, has controlled resonance and is produced substantially at the natural pitch of the drum, thereby substantially obviating any need to retune the drum when the damping means is removed or replaced. Furthermore, the sound produced by a rimstrike is altered to be more in character with the damped tone when the dampingmeans is employed.

The damping means is particularly easy to manufacture and for many sets of drums, or for most of the drums in such sets, the rings can be cut or pressed from a single sheet of material as concentric rings, thereby reducing wastage.

The rings may be coloured, painted and/or decoratively shaped or embossed. For example, the top surface may be curved, and the inner edge may be scalloped so that the radial width varies. However, if the outer edge is non-circular the shaping of the outer periphery of the ring should be such that at least 20% of the tone edge is overlaid by the ring.

The invention includes the damping means, especially as a set of such rings, for a drum or set of drums.

A particularly suitable material for the rings is black commercial rubber, 70 Shore hardness about 2mm-3mm thick.

Claims (8)

1. Drum apparatus comprising a drum and damping means, the drum comprising a skin stretched over a circular tone edge of a drumshell by means of a counter hoop providing a rim upstanding around the playing surface, characterised in that the damping means comprises a ring of elastomeric or flexible plastics material lying on the playing surface so that the periphery of the ring touches or is close to the rim, the radial width or mean radial width of the ring being less than one eighth of the nominal diameter of the drum so as to cover only a peripheral marginal portion of the playing surface.

2. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the diameter or maximum dimension of the ring is greater than the diameter of the playing surface, and is less than the internal diameter of the rim.

3. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 or 2 wherein the outer peripheral and inner peripheral edges of the ring are circular.

4. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the radial width or mean radial width of the ring is about one twelfth to one sixteenth of the diameter of the playing surface between limits of one and five centimetres.

5. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein the ring has a flat undersurface which rests on the marginal portion of the playing surface so that the periphery of the playing surface is sandwiched between the ring and the tone edge.

6. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the ring is between 2 and 5 cm thick.

7. A set of rings, each of which rings is constructed to serve as the damping means in drum apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim.

8. Drum apparatus or clamping means substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.