General
The ATD-M by Meinl is a large, traditional African Talking Drum, which owes its name to the fact that it can approximate the tone and prosody of the human voice. This brown and black drum is carved from a solid piece of mahogany, that was grown on a special plantation, and has been beautifully decorated. The drumheads that you will find on either end of this drum are made of hand-selected goatskin that produces a unique sound, partly thanks to the unusual tuning system. You also get a wooden beater that you can use to play the drum.
Unique sound
The goatskin drumheads are traditionally tightened with HTP nylon ropes. The ropes run all the way around the drum and go up and down the shell a number of times. This leaves some room between the shell and the rope. By placing the drum under your arm and applying pressure to the rope, you can tighten the drumheads. That way you gain access to a wide variety of tones, and a unique sound.