I'm so glad you asked these questions. so * Evans heads are SOOO much better these days. The Black Chromes are of the hook. Evans just sent me some heads for my tom tuning vids I'm about to shoot, as well as a snare setup vid on my sweet 6.5 x 14 DW edge. Please tell me when you think of Evans when the vids are up. No I don't treat them any differently except they don't need to be culled/preseated! No glue seal. * I use very little muffling myself. PS3 on the batter. Ambassador on the front, DW EQ pillow inside. Mostly though I create my own "baffle". I want a bit of muffling on the front/back heads, then just a touch of cloth between the two baffles to soak up the ring. The video I did for making a T-Shirt Pillow for my Breakbeats kick teaches you how to make one of my baffles. When you hear that 16" boom like a cannon, but still has punch you will understand WHY I muffle, and tune the way I do. If you can, pop on some headphones when you listen. The bottom end is pretty sick. I was blown away by how much bottom you can get out of that little Breakbeats kick. Imagine it on your bigger bass drum. MMMMNnnn Boom! * AHA the best question for everyone wondering about culling. Yes the "seating" will take care of that, but at what price? When you seat the glue seal out the head stretches in a super random fashion. Therefore, you end up tuning to make up for those random breaks. It's a bit like chasing your tail. For emphasis WHEN YOU BREAK THE GLUE SEAL AHEAD OF TIME YOU ARE NOW TUNING THE DRUM IN A BALANCED FASHION. HENCE ALL THE FINGER TIGHTENING YOU DO TO START WITH A BALANCED HEAD ACTUALLY PAYS OFF. Now if a lug is a little low after a round of turns, you can trust that a little turn will balance it evenly rather than wondering just HOW FAR OUT OF BALANCE the glue seal crack took ya. To support, I just did a private tuning lesson with an amazing drummer who had GREAT tuning skills. I asked him "What do you need me for?. he said "I just want to see if I can make it better". He had NEVER culled his Remo heads. He was quite surprised when I did it. The result: We reheaded his entire kit in HALF the time it normally takes him, and as crazy as it sounds the kits sounded better. Clearer tone, better attack, etc. I was so humbled because this guy really tuned well. We both just started laughing because, DANG his kits sounded good. * If the head breaks middle of the gig, I CHANGE NOTHING I DO. My stereo tuning method combined with "CULLING/PRE SEATING THE HEAD if it's Remo" makes it to where you can pretty much tune without listening. It's crazy, but just at my last show with Train, I had to change the strainer on my drummers Black Beauty an hour before downbeat. Opening band is wailing already. So I tuned the rental back up as quickly as I could to about where I'm used to. Could barely hear a thing. But between a culled head, my 2 key method, and habit, I tuned the Backup snare to EXACTLY the same pitch as his main snare. It was great. I rebuilt my drummers Black Beauty super fast because of the two key method, and used it for the backup. Shaved 30 seconds off my load out. Sweeeeeet! FOR CATS ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT TECH WORK I MEAN WHAT I SAY ABOUT PROACTIVE> I COUD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH NOT REBUILDING HIS SNARE, BUT WHAT IF THE HEAD BROKE? PROACTIVE BEHAVIOR WHEN IT'S YOUR LANE CREATES SUCCESS!! * Not on the spot: I love DW, Ludwig, Pearl's Reference series, Yamaha (especially the Oak Custom), and if you haven't heard them Sleishman Drums out of Nashville. Those drums sound better than anything I have ever heard. Even though I store my gear in a locker, I never tell people online what I own. No offense.