About Tandem Drums Drops
Tandem Drums developed the Drops to address a limitation of conventional drum dampening solutions — the lack of precision. Gel pads, tape and leather dampeners all work by physically contacting the drum head and absorbing energy from the vibrating surface, but the amount of dampening they produce is difficult to control precisely and varies depending on placement, pressure and the specific head being dampened.
The Drops take a different approach, using the physics of mass loading to control resonance. When a weight is placed on a vibrating surface, it adds inertia to the system — the surface requires more energy to vibrate at the same amplitude, which suppresses the higher-frequency overtones that cause unwanted ring while allowing the fundamental tone of the drum to remain present. The amount of suppression is directly related to the mass of the weight, which means that different Drops weights produce predictable, consistent amounts of dampening that can be precisely matched to the needs of each drum.
This approach has several practical advantages over conventional dampeners. The Drops leave no residue on the drum head, can be repositioned instantly, and produce a more musical dampening effect that preserves the fundamental tone of the drum rather than simply deadening it. The set of four weights allows drummers to experiment with different amounts of dampening on each drum in the kit, finding the optimal balance between tone and control for their specific setup and musical context.
At Into Music Store, we stock the full Tandem Drums Drops range. Visit our drum store in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, or shop online with free UK shipping on orders over £175.