Hot spot on the tom?? Please help

[Billy_j]

Guys
ok, I give up on this one. I've tried to fix this problem for months now. Really need your professional help

Pls listen to this small demo:

http://www.4shared.com/file/77346534/e26c6b61/tom1.html

This is me hitting one of my PD125s with CONSTANT SPEED, from one border of the pad to the other. Notice the louder, "plastic" sound as I get to the middle of the pad.

The real problem is when you're doing a fill, and you hit the middle of the tom.... and.... BAM... you hear this loud, nasty, weird thing. It is very "unrealistic". This really did not happen in my A's.

The demo was played using a VEX kit (the "Moving Pictures" one), on a TD-20, expanded. A few more details:
1) Tom is the 12" Birch T1
2) same problem happens if I play on a PD8 (no cones here!)
3) I tried changing head tension, effects (including compression), mic positioning, sensitivity, threshold, curve, bank, or changing the tom sounds themselves. Nothing worked;
4) I also have a TD6, and the problem seems to be smaller... but still there.

Grog, I know you had the "once and for all" tread for snare hot spots... tried a bunch of the suggestions... but still not much success.... is there a difference between snare hot spots and tom hot spots?

Any thoughts anyone? Is the real solution avoiding hitting the middle of the pad at all cost?

Thanks -
William

[grog]

The fact that you get this on a PD-8 is truely puzzling. So is the fact that if you change tom sounds, you still get the hot spot.

Two suggestions (I'm grasping):

Try a different kit entirely. Use the same input and the same two pads (try it with mesh, then try it with rubber) and see if the hot spot remains.

Use the same kit but try duplicating the problem using another type of sound., a snare. For that matter, try it with another input (now I'm really grasping) and see if it's still there.

Again, I'm scratching my head on this one mainly cuz you're getting it with a rubber pad.

www.myspace.com/rubberuniverse

[Billy_j]

Last week I was at the Guitar Center in Albany, and had the opportunity to test a TD-12.

Guess what???? The TD-12 has EXACTLY the same issue.

I am surprised to see that I seem to be the only one really complaining about this issue which, to me, it's pretty "in-your-face", obvious and painful

Basically put, if I hit the tom in the very center, I get this unatural sound. Is the only way out of this not to hit the center of the tom?

Am I doing anything dramatically wrong?

Interested in your thoughts.

William

[lysis]

what is your threshold set to? what kind of curve are you using?

this is a problem i've not seen on my TD-8, or on the TD-12 i've mooched off of sam ash and played . . .

[Hellfire]

Guys
ok, I give up on this one. I've tried to fix this problem for months now. Really need your professional help

Pls listen to this small demo:

http://www.4shared.com/file/77346534/e26c6b61/tom1.html

This is me hitting one of my PD125s with CONSTANT SPEED, from one border of the pad to the other. Notice the louder, "plastic" sound as I get to the middle of the pad.

The real problem is when you're doing a fill, and you hit the middle of the tom.... and.... BAM... you hear this loud, nasty, weird thing. It is very "unrealistic". This really did not happen in my A's.

The demo was played using a VEX kit (the "Moving Pictures" one), on a TD-20, expanded. A few more details:
1) Tom is the 12" Birch T1
2) same problem happens if I play on a PD8 (no cones here!)
3) I tried changing head tension, effects (including compression), mic positioning, sensitivity, threshold, curve, bank, or changing the tom sounds themselves. Nothing worked;
4) I also have a TD6, and the problem seems to be smaller... but still there.

Grog, I know you had the "once and for all" tread for snare hot spots... tried a bunch of the suggestions... but still not much success.... is there a difference between snare hot spots and tom hot spots?

Any thoughts anyone? Is the real solution avoiding hitting the middle of the pad at all cost?

Thanks -
William

All edrums have some kind of hot spotting. Sometimes it is just more pronounced on some edrums than others. That is just the nature of the beast. Sometimes we can lessen it. You state that you are using a PD125. Is your TD20 set on that input for a PD125? I know on my TD-8 you have to select which pad you are using on a given input. If you don't have the right one selected it can cause bad hot spotting.

BTW, I did listen to your audio sample, and your hot spot is a little hot, but you can not get rid of it completely. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[sciomako]

I listened to your sample, it isn't too bad. The transition sounds pretty smooth. Have you mistaken position sensing, which isn't available on toms on TD-6V, as hotspot?

The kind of hotspot I got on snare with PD-125 & TD-10exp is that the volume changes dramatically when you move the stick off-centre by merely 1cm.

[BarT]

Have you mistaken position sensing, which isn't available on toms on TD-6V, as hotspot?

Positional sensing isn't available on TD-20/12 toms either (except rims).

Bruce

[sciomako]

Positional sensing isn't available on TD-20/12 toms either (except rims).

Bruce

I stand corrected.

That's interesting. Is position sensing on rim deemed to be more important than on the head? TD-10exp has it on the head but not the rim.

[Billy_j]

Here are my tom settings:
Sensitivity 4
Threshold 2
Curve Log1
Trigger banks set to PD105, PD125, etc

These were not the original settings, of course... I changed mainly sensitivity and curve to "aliviate" the hot spot probelm. Lower sensitivity seemed to reduce the issue.

Interestingly enough, as I said, the same problem happens on the PD85, properly set to the trigger bank PD85. So it does not look like this is specific to the pad, but to COSM or something else.

Hmm...

[Hellfire]

Here are my tom settings:
Sensitivity 4
Threshold 2
Curve Log1
Trigger banks set to PD105, PD125, etc

These were not the original settings, of course... I changed mainly sensitivity and curve to "aliviate" the hot spot probelm. Lower sensitivity seemed to reduce the issue.

Interestingly enough, as I said, the same problem happens on the PD85, properly set to the trigger bank PD85. So it does not look like this is specific to the pad, but to COSM or something else.

Hmm...

This may be a dumb question but, do all of your drums do this? Your hot spot is a little hot, like I said before, but it really isn't all the bad. I would say it is definitely in the normal range. Did you use to have different results with this kit or another kit?

[Billy_j]

This may be a dumb question but, do all of your drums do this?

There is no such thing as a dumb question

I see the problem in all kits... perhaps some of them show less "hot spotting", but it's still there.........

The search for a solution continues... or I just need to live with it