Wood is an orthotropic material. It has three mutually perpendicular axes: longitudinal, radial and tangential. This makes wood (depending on the cellular structure of the various kinds) incredibly strong and resilient. Wood is awesome.
When it comes to acoustic performance the quality of sound is dependent on three things:
1) Density
2) Young's Modulus
3) Loss Coefficient
These three determine:
1) The speed of the sound within the material (drummers call the audible experience of this phenomenon sustain and decay).
2) Eigenfrequencies (drummers call this the note of the drum; as when the shell of a drum is struck).
3) Intensity of radiated sound (drummers call this projection).
Each type of wood used in drum construction presents differences in these qualities: Maple, birch, oak, bubinga, etc. Hickory, oak and maple are common woods used for stick design.
For example, birch tends to be more dense than maple, and has a faster speed within the material, this gives birch drums a fast, warm attack, with a quick decay. Studio engineers love birch drums because the sound is what they call controllable: no need for gating on toms and kicks because the drums do not ring out as much as a maple kit might. Look at some studio picks, see all that duct tape and / or towels on the drum kit? Maple.
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