Bass drum muffling

I'm somewhat curious as to how everyone likes their live bass drum sound to be regarding muffling.

I use a Remo Pinstripe batter with an Evans EQ3 in it, with a stock black Remo Ambassador (ported) on the reso. It makes it nice and big with some punch because of the padding -- still has tone.

Live, however, I have a logo head that is an Aquarian and has a muffling ring in the center of the head. Due to this, when I played this past weekend, I left the drum completely open. Holy John Bonham, Batman! That thing sounded like a cannon!

But I should probably keep using the EQ3. It was a little too big for this band.

My bass drum is 24" wide by 20" deep. I use an EMAD 1 and the stock Gretsch head on the front with a hole cut into it. No padding necessary. Sounds perfect.

Well you know me, Fitch, with the goofy bar napkins and bed sheets (CAL ME CRAZY BUT THEY WORK!!!).

My kick live had an emporer on the beater side. I pulled the head, draped a sheet completely across the opening, put the head and the rim back on, tightened the T lugs hand tight, pull the sheet taught and trimmed off the excess, and then tuned it abouta turn or a turn and a quarter past flappy. Left the drum wide open or flattened a small moving blanket just touching slightly the bottom of the batter head.

Front head was cut wide open except for maybe 2 and a half inches all the way around to keep the rim, collar and drum in round. AKG D12E was about 2 inches from the beater spot inside. It thumped pretty good!

And by the way, I sued decal the sheet with an Iron On to have decorations inside my drum. My last one was Bill the Cat from Bloom County...

Live unmiked: PS3 batter and reso, no hole and nothing in the drum.

Live miked: PS3 batter and reso, a 4" port, and nothing in the drum.

Reso tuned just to the point where you begin to get a tone; batter tuned slightly above that. When miked will tune the reso up a bit if the sound guy complains nicely.

Oh yeah, and a Falam patch.

My revelation since teching for my son (and finally hearing a kit I set up from the audience): if you're unmiked, leave the muffling off. A bass drum that booms will carry and cut through the band. A bass drum set up for miking (ports and stuffing) is simply not heard.

Aguarian SKII and Aguarian reso. Both have felt on. 4" port and nothing inside the drum. Sounds great! Enen on an export kick.

DITTO!! I have this setup on my 22"x18" 8-ply Gretsch Birch and it too, sounds like a cannon. NO extra muffling needed, and the good thing about that is that yuou have a lot more sound to work with. Too boomy, just lay off the pedal or adjust the reso. Too punchy, again just make some minor adjustments. Sounds increadible unmiked and I've had some sound guys do a double take when they've heard it.

Easy to mic too...

I've heard some good things about the Coated SK1 also.

Yamaha Stage Custom 22x17 bassdrums. Remo Powerstroke Pinstripe batter on one, factory Powerstroke Ambassador on the other, factory Yamaha logo resos. No muffling.

They sound like cannons. Perfect as-is. Only reason I'm even using the PSPinstripe is because it's more durable without sacrificing tone-wise on a bass drum.

Remo Powerstroke 3 on the beater stock Ludwig logo batter on the reso. No port no muffling.

at 26"x16" it sounds like a cannon.

elephant {censored}?

Oh most certainly!

here ya go:

1974 Rogers 22X18 oak. Aquarian super kick II batter and Evans EQ1 resonant. No port, muffling. Sounds terrific.

I use EMAD2 on the batter and reso, with the bigger ring inserted on the batter and a small strip of felt to dampen the reso. I like the sound a lot but I reckon I would pull the felt if I was playing somewhere un mic'd.

18x22 kick with Aquarian SKII on batter and Tama stock ( was on batterside) on the reso with 4" port. No internal muff needed!. I do have too use a patch on the beater side or the SKII dies prematurely.

Pearl Export 22x18 kicks here

Remo Powerstroke 3 heads with stock Pearl reso head with 6" center holes

I have a piece of batting the size of a full sized bed neatly folded up and sitting on the bottom of each drum.

You must have to kick the hell out of 'em to get any volume.

I was about to post a photo of elephant {censored} and decided it was maybe in poor taste.

I found some good contenders here.

I triple dog dare ya!

EQ4 batter with stock DW Reso and pillow.

As far as muffling I just use the small pillow that came with my kit. I dont think its touching either head. I just didn't want to loose it or put it in storage. Right now I have an eq3 on my 22x20. I think it could take a bullet. It sounds ok but I think it takes out some of the drums fullness. I took out the ring that it came with and threw it away. I think I like a single ply 10 mil better for overall whooompage.

18x22 maple kick

ATTACK "no overtone" batter head.

a logo'd Drum Art Aquarian head (that's what they supply for their logo heads) as a reso.

NO ports. one felt strip on both front and back. best kick drum sound i've ever had!! :thu:

Not really, it's pretty thin stuff. In any case, I trigger.

That's one hell of a woman. She's a kinky girl, the girl is alright. Oh yeah, bass drums heads and tuning. PS3 and Ambassador wide open. Boom.