Overtones on Nuskyn - On Remo TuffENuff congas

[rhythmisit]

How do you get rid of Ringy overtones on Remo NuSkyns, I tried tuning them down the octave 4th apart. Tumba on lower C, Conga F (above lower C) and quinto on B below middle C. Can't go any lower or the tumba lugs may just fall out. I do like the fact about NuSkyn that you can practically tune them to any note and it stays there. I also tried playing them without low stands that I normally use. Any suggestions ?

[tamboricua]

Hi Rhythmisit, hope all is well! You got the notes all messed up. Traditionally the tumba is tuned to G below middle C, and the conga to middle C. If you want to add a "tercera", a third drum, you tune it to B flat below middle C.

Hope this helps!


Saludos,

Jorge Ginorio

[rhythmisit]

I had them tuned higher before, tumba to E (below middle C) Conga to G (below middle C) and quinto to middle C, recommended by Poncho, where Quinto is in the middle and conga on your right and Tumba on the left. What you refer to as my third drum is quinto, the smallest. Don't you think that gets tuned highest pitch. May be I am wrong, I will try your suggestion. I just didn't want to risk overtightening any heads. But you may have a point here. Do you use three drums? How do you place them in your setup?

[tamboricua]

Yes Rhythmisit, Poncho Sánchez tunes his drums "a la Patato Valdes", but I don't think he places any drum to his left side. I believe he uses one conga and two tumbadoras and setup like this:
2
1 3

1=Middle C
2=G below middle C
3=E below middle C

Personally, I don't use a quinto drum on my setup. I do use two congas and one tumbadora. My setup looks like a V in this manner:
3 2
1

1=middle C
2=G below middle C
3=B flat below middle C

Hope this helps!

Saludos,

Jorge Ginorio

[JohnnyConga]

Take a piece of regular white tape and put it on the inside of the drum, it will cut down the overtone which is a 'vibration" of the skin. Or two pieces in an X configuration and see if that helps get rid of the overtone....At your Service...JC JOHNNY CONGA....

[congabebe]

Another suggestion on overtones. I have fiberglass congas and the first heads I had on them were Remo Fiberskyn. I recently tried the Nuskyns and like them alot better. The overtones are not as bad. I tried the x on the bottom of the head, but I think it backfired. My teacher said I was playing them to dead/not tight enough and tuned them up, somewhere along the line I got a busted head. It could be they were going to bust anyway, but I can't help wonder if I took all the life out of the tone and that is why he thought they sounded dead. No way to know. One of the other things I did was add a 3/4 inch strip of door insulation from the middle (straight down) of the conga to the rim on the inside of the conga. You can buy it at a hardware store. If I remember correctly, when you mute an instrument, adding something in the 'air column' can change the pitch or tone. I think it worked. I love the Nuskyn's as opposed to the Fiberskyns, still not as crisp as real skin.

My 2 cents,
Peace,
Congabebe

[Raymond]

I have NuSkyns in my bongos and I noticed that when tuned high, specially the hembra, there is a lot of overtones which is unusual for these heads. (Do not know about congas but they look sort of thin that if tuned high, overtones will be there....). The other Remo heads "fiberskyns" are supposed to be the ones with overtones no matter how you tune them. (They are thicker heads...).

NuSkyns tune very quick because of their "traditional head rim". Another thing to consider in your tuning is your hand and your "heavy" is your hand when you hit. A tuning that is good for somebody might not be good for you because your hand and "your hit" is not the same.

Evans, which I have and I do not like that much, is what I have in my congas. No overtones there...However, have to watch out, specially in the hembra, for overtones when tuning it a little high...

Good luck!

[JohnnyConga]

I'll put it to you this way "artificial" skin "artificial" sound.....At your Service....JC JOHNNY CONGA.......

[Marco Renato]

??? Hy there, somethin else concerning overtones: I#ve been checkin' around for a week now, trying to find congas at a an affordable pricelevel WITHOUT overtones. might be, that as soundengineer I'm quite sensitive for certain frequencies like those a-tonal sounds getting in the way, trying to play. anyway: I found NONE ! all of them have overtones that are the more ringy, the worse the fabrication of the corpus is. Cheap Fiberglass have the heaviest sharp metal sounding ones, like robotics or somethin. Expensive heavy fiberglass, like LP's galaxy or santana modells have well sounding "singing" but equally loud overtones. Wooden one's seemed to be less a-tonal and lower/shorter, you can check that if you put your ear either on the corpus and lightly hit the skin or the other way round.

what's your experience with that stuff ?

see ya