When naming drum sounds, include the quality of the actual sound the drum makes. This is a tremendous help when picking out drums for a track or for drum layering.
Here's a good post lifted from here:
http://www.pearldrummersforum.com/showthread.php?123875-Adjectives-to-Describe-Sound&s=e49697dd0af5ed7d651547363548f575&p=1850938440&viewfull=1#post1850938440KickassDrummer wrote:This is taken directly from the Drum Tuning Bible:
Audio Terms Explained
As generally used at the professional audio/studio level:
"wet" a term used to describe a reverberant sound, something with decay.
"dry" a term used to describe a sound which has no decay or reverberant quality.
"fat" a term used to explain something which takes up space in the mix. As an example, a loose snare drum, which has a longer sound burst in the mix. Hence the waveform curve is "fatter"
"tight" a term used to describe a sound which has a short duration within the mix.
"open" a term used to describe something which has a natural hollow tone with lingering overtones such as that of and very resonant drum that also exhibits high pitched overtones.
"muffled" a term used to describe a sound which has the higher frequencies attenuated or lessened by another device or structure.
“focused” a term which combines the elements of muffled and tight, has a very defined tone to it with less overtones.
"warm" a term to define the quality of the sound as being "round" with “sibilant” qualities to it or specifically with less of a sharp edge or "presence" to the sound.
“cold” a total opposite of “warm” meaning it has an edge to it and is very midrange present, without body.
“dark” a term which is used often to describe a tone that is somewhat distant and has a tonal qualities in between that of “warm” and “cold”, not quit as much resonance or body to the tone as one that is warm, but also more than a colder tone, still having an edge to the sound without being sibilant.
"presence" a term which is typically used to describe a sound which can have a more nasal quality to it. More specifically, a boost in the upper midrange frequencies.
“punch” a term used to describe that of a drum, which has both a “presence” and a “dry” quality to it.
“round” a term used to describe a quality of tone that has a longer bump to the lower frequencies and is usually upper bass heavy.
“Sibilants” These are high frequency sounds such as that of a hissing effect. The letters S, Z, C and H in combination are typical examples (such as SH, ZH and CH) and often describe the bright end of the cymbal and Hi-hat sound. In a distorted form they are unwanted, but in a clear form on drums they are required for accurate reproduction of the snare and cymbal sounds and enable an airy structure or quality to the music.
