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importance of a resonant bass head


pconn171

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how important is the resonant bass drum head in terms of sound quality - i have stated before that my bass drum sounds a bit "papery" and i think that it's mostly coming from the resonant head - i was wondering if i replaced this with an evans or something if it would change the sound at all or if the poor sound is coming from the batter side

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I think the resonant head has less to do with it generally. I have touched on the emad system being overpriced foam tape before... but if you wanna shell out the dough then do whatever. If you cut a hole in the resonant head, the role of it is going to diminish. You can have the coolest EMAD dampening hydro shock head out there, but with a 4 inch hole in it, its not gonna creat a substantial amount of tone in it of itself. If you cram a blanket in there, or a pillow.... even less. That being said.. you dont want a crap resonant head. Generally though, I feel that any 1ply head of your choice will work great.

 

what kind of pedal/beater do you have?

what kind of bassdrum is it?

muffling inside?

air hole in head?

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my poor resonant head... I have my drums in my room because there's no where else to put them, my room is pretty small, so I'm forced to have the front of my set facing the wall (drywall) if I turn them around, they will be jammed against my bed so I can actually sit on my throne to play them. In other words, I've tried so many set ups and the only one that works at ALL, is having the front of the set against the wall. So my resonant head is about say 4 inches from the wall. There is NO low end really at all, If I take the kick away from the wall by itself, it sounds better. So I would say the resonant head IS important to the sound quality, but in my situation, the resonant head doesn't do {censored}. I don't know about that EMAD neither... it's kind of expensive, I've heard the Powerstroke 3 beats ALL, dont know for sure though, I just have a pinstripe batter head, it's ok, I guess.

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what kind of pedal/beater do you have?

what kind of bassdrum is it?

muffling inside?

air hole in head?

 

 

it's a pacific bass drum - 18 x 22

the pedal right now is a ludwig speed king - i switch between that and the pacific one that came with the set

the beater i switch from plastic to the felt one whenever i feel the need to

i have a pillow that barely touches the batter side head and doesn't touch the resonant head at all - i have about a 6 x 12 piece of foam attached to the batter side by one piec of tape and it just hangs - barely touches

there's a 4 or 5 inch air hole in the resonant head - i have tuned and tuned - if i make the papery sound go away - the drums tuned up to high for what i like

right now i have a very bohnam-like sound - i like it - but it's too outdated - it sounds great playing with led zepplin - but if i throw in some linkin park - it just sounds horrible - i am looking for a "creed" bass drum sounds - i like that solid thud but not muffled to hell

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Well I would replace both heads. Batter = Evans EQ 3 or 4. Resonant = Evans EQ 1. Add in something like the Dave Weckl/Remo bass drum muffler system (I find that a treatment that lies on the shell sucks up alot of tone, this system only touches the heads.) and tune to your taste following the instructions on the drum head package. Rotsa ruck Raggy!:D:cool:

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Be careful not to judge the sound of your "live" acoustic kick against a miked, eq'd and processed kick off an album. You'll never get that sound acoustically.

 

A papery sound generally comes from the head being too loose. You shouldn't have to tighten up a head that much. I'm not familiar with Pacific drums so I can't comment. If you've got name brand heads it's got to be the drum itself.

 

Try any brand of Remo bass drum head or one of the other well known heads if you can afford it. You should have a decent kick sound with no muffling whatsoever, from the heads being quite loose to very tight. The muffling just kills some annoying overrings (if you have them) and lessens the sustain which is usually desirable in a kick sound.

 

To get that thud you can experiment with a tight batter head and loose front head or vice versa, see if one of those works for you.

 

Generally speaking again, medium tension on both heads should produce a well defined thud and you should be able to adjust accordingly from there.

 

I have Yamaha recording customs with Remo pinstripes on the batter side and Remo single ply ebony on the front. I have a powerstroke foam pad which puts about 3 inches of foam on the batter head and 2 inches on the front. I've never had a problem getting a good kick sound. I also use Danmark impact pads on the batter head for more punch.

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it's all in the tuning,, mostlly.... mess around with what you have,, as others have mentioned,,,

 

maybe your reso head IS too loose?

 

I use a REMO CLear PowerStroke3,,with a patch,, and wood beater,,,, the front head is a regular Remo FiberSkyn,,,, I tune both of them pretty low, no hole, no padding, it's an old Slingerland 22" bass drum,, it sounds HUGE,,, like an orchestral bass drum,,, just the way I like it.....

 

now,, if I can just get that 28" RadioKing bass drum back together !!!:eek:

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do you use any extra muffling like a pillow or anything. My bass drum sound is just killing me, I mean it's not THAT bad, but I KNOW there HAS to be better. I use a 22" kick with a pinstripe batter head and stock resonant. Got any suggestions? I hear Superkick II's and Powerstroke 3's are the best

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Originally posted by Scheming Demon

Be careful not to judge the sound of your "live" acoustic kick against a miked, eq'd and processed kick off an album. You'll never get that sound acoustically.

 

 

 

BINGO !!!!

 

that like when i talk to guys and they say they want there snare to sound EXACLY like *insert name hear* ... well what you haft to do then is by the same drums as him ... buy the same heads as him, mic it with a whole range of mic's, eq the {censored} out of it, get a top enginere to tune the sound right in, double it a few times ... and BOOM ! you might get preety close to the same as a cd sound

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