NOTE TO ALL:

One thing to be careful about here is that we can have different  definitions of what "ringing" is, be it overtones (especially those of a badly tuned head), or just the natural sustain of the drum.

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spot on! some people like their drums 'fat and wet' sounding like a cardboard box being hit by a shovel while others would call that dead.

i think several things work against us when we tune our drums. firstly alot of us try and reproduce the sound we hear on cd's thinking thats how drums should and can sound live and end up thinking that when we fail we cant tune. spend any time recording drums and you realise how much post recording production goes on and how much the drum sound is influenced by room dynamics,mics,mic placement,'gateing' etc.

 second, the sound we hear our side of the kit is almost all 'batter' so lots of 'attack' and 'ring' and little of the resonance. the audience hears mainly(though not only) the sound produced by the resonant head. alot of us worry about overtones and try and dampen them all out but overtones blend into the whole sound the audience hears and are essential in allowing the drum sound to carry through the other instruments.

Hmmmmm....

Duct tape and paraphernalia. What's that remind everyone of ?????

rednecks? oh, no, thats farm animals and duct tape