Mylar drum heads are drumheads made from a tough polyester film called Mylar, and if you own a drum kit, you almost certainly have them. Remo was the first company to use the material, and it's what replaced older calfskin heads because it stretches evenly, tunes more predictably, and holds up to temperature and humidity changes far better than skin ever did. If you're shopping for replacement heads or just trying to figure out what's stretched across your drums, this is that material.
Where Mylar Drum Heads Came From
Mylar itself isn't a drum invention — it's DuPont's trade name for a type of polyester film. In 1957, Remo Belli and Sam Muchnick worked out how to turn that film into a usable drumhead, and that project became the Remo drumhead company. Before Mylar, drumheads were made from animal skin, which swelled and shrank with the weather and needed constant retuning. A plastic head solved that problem, and it's the reason nearly every drumhead sold today — Remo or otherwise — is built the same basic way.
Why Mylar Stretches Evenly
The reason Mylar works so well as a drumhead material is that it stretches the same amount from the center out to the edge. That even stretch is what gives you a consistent bounce across the head instead of dead spots or an uneven feel when you move your stick around the drum. It's a small detail, but it's the reason a plastic film beat skin as a material in the first place — not just durability, but predictability.
Types of Mylar Drum Heads
Drum head sellers usually sort Mylar heads by which drum they're built for, and the head itself changes shape and thickness depending on the job:
- Tom heads — sized to your rack and floor toms, usually single or double ply
- Snare heads — thinner, often built for crack and attack rather than low tuning
- Bass drum heads — larger, sometimes with built-in muffling rings
- Timpani heads — a more specialized, orchestral use case
Some heads combine Mylar with other materials to change the sound. The Remo Max snare head, for example, laminates a high-tension aramid fiber weave on top of a Mylar bottom ply to get a crisp, articulate crack — a 35.6 cm (14 in) version runs around $81.95, which is on the higher end for a snare head. Standard single-ply Mylar heads typically cost noticeably less than that.
Marching bands use Mylar too — snare-side marching heads are commonly sold in the same 35.6 cm (14 in) size, and you'll typically find them at sale prices somewhere between about $18.95 and $29.95.
Low-Volume Mylar Heads for Apartments
If noise is your main worry, look for low-volume heads before you assume you need mesh heads or an electronic drum set. TruSound makes a patented low-volume Mylar head designed to keep the drum's real tone and feel while cutting volume by roughly 75% compared to a regular head. That's a meaningful drop without giving up the acoustic feel of a real drum, which mesh heads and some other low-volume designs can sacrifice.
Heads are only one part of an apartment noise setup, though. Pair them with an anti-vibration mat or riser under the kit to cut down on the vibration traveling through the floor, and consider ear plugs for your own hearing regardless of what heads you use — head choice reduces what leaves the room, it doesn't reduce what hits your ears.
What Mylar Heads Cost
Prices vary a lot depending on the drum, the ply count, and whether the head has an extra layer laminated on for tone shaping. A basic single-ply tom or snare head sits at the low end; a coated, laminated, or low-volume head costs more. The Remo Max example above ($81.95) is a premium hybrid head, and the marching snare-side heads ($18.95–$29.95) show the lower end of that range. When you're replacing heads on a beginner kit, a standard single-ply Mylar head is the reasonable default — you don't need a premium hybrid head to learn on.
Common Myths About Mylar Heads
"Mylar heads all sound the same." They don't — ply count, coating, and any laminated layer (like the aramid weave on the Remo Max) all change the attack and sustain. Material alone doesn't determine sound.
"A thicker head is always quieter." Thickness affects tone and durability more directly than volume. If quiet practice is the goal, look specifically for heads marketed as low-volume, like the TruSound design, rather than just buying the thickest head available.
"Skin heads sound better, so Mylar is a compromise." Mylar became the standard because it's more stable and predictable, not because it was a cheap substitute that drummers settled for. It's the material nearly every drummer, beginner or otherwise, is already playing on.
Practical Takeaway
If you're not sure what's on your kit right now, it's almost certainly Mylar — that's the default for tom, snare, and bass drum heads sold today. If you're replacing a head, match the type to the drum (snare heads and tom heads aren't interchangeable) and only pay for a laminated or hybrid head if you want the tone change it's built for. If your main problem is apartment noise, a low-volume Mylar head paired with an anti-vibration mat will get you further than assuming you have to replace the whole kit.