Phat Bass Drum Pt 2

Again, thanks to everyone that helped me last time...

I retuned my drums today (just tightened the heads) and it sounds a million times better... And I started fooling around with my kick drum a bit. Seems to sound better when its tighter than I previously thought!

now, I have a couple of questions...

I took the resonant head (with 7" centre hole)right off, and the nasty plastic sound I had before was gone. I shoved my pillow HARD into the batter head and combined with tighter tuning is starting to sound as I was hoping for.

Will putting the resonant head back on and tightening it a lot more give me more phatness? or is my THUD sound going to be superior without any resonant head at all? (i'm getting twitchy at the thought of a coated "phat" kick drum head, this one is a med. thin clear 2ply Attack).

Second... thinking about either another kick drum or a new kit in the future, how will this "no resonant head" approach play out with a shorter, deeper kick drum? I'm 90% sure my current one is 22x16 and I was thinking of a 20x18 to get my toms lower. Is the extra depth unneeded when there is no resonant head?

Lastly... this is a tough one LOL

It would be rather cool to be able to tune the kick down to Bb (i'm a seven string guitar whore). Am I kidding myself with the 20x18 idea?

Thanks for reading, and for replies!

Actually, if you are after less "boom" from the drum-then you want a SHALLOWER Kick Drum. (i.e. 14"depth x 20" diameter")

You can buy a SCREEN Fronthead, so that it looks like you have a fronthead on the drum.

Personally, I would put a front head on it, but that's just me.

Tim

So if I am interested in the batter head sound (trigger sound without the trigger? ), a simple thud, I should be not worrying about the kick's depth at all really?

Prof Sound recommends a pair of two ply muffled heads for max thud, should that be better than no resonant head at all?

My main worry is that a 20x18 isn't stardard, and I could get the 20x16 used or CHEAP(er). hehehhe... I guess the only thing is to try em out!

Thanks Faf.

Originally posted by Xplora So if I am interested in the batter head sound (trigger sound without the trigger? ), a simple thud, I should be not worrying about the kick's depth at all really? Prof Sound recommends a pair of two ply muffled heads for max thud, should that be better than no resonant head at all? My main worry is that a 20x18 isn't stardard, and I could get the 20x16 used or CHEAP(er). hehehhe... I guess the only thing is to try em out! Thanks Faf.

So, you're after a "country Thud" or an AC/DC kind of Kick sound.

Here's how I get that type of sound...now, at the kick it doesn't sound exactly that way-but mic'd up, that's EXACTLY what you get.:

You have 2 options.

Tuned High

(with a lot of muffling) this will give you a more pronounced midrange thump.

Tuned Low

(You can get away using an Evans "gate Pillow" for this one)

Just tighten the metal enough so that it doesn't rattle! The head will have wrinkles all over the place, because you never take the slack out of it.

If you try this, you may want to invest in Axis's "Sonic Hammer" because it allows you to set the depth of the mallet's strokefrom front to back. What that means is that you can set the pedal up so that the pedal is just as if it's a perfect 90 degree angle, even though the mallet is actually hitting farther into th head.

A head this loose has a ton of "give" to it.

Ian Paice described playing on a 26" kick tuned likethis as "Kicking against a Sail"...and he was right on the money...on my 28" kicks, there is at least an inch of motion in the head when it's this loose. I'm not sure what it would be on a 22" drum, as I've never tried this.

Another trick you could try.

Go to a local Foam company (look in your Yellow pages for FOAM RUBBER.

Foam Rubber is generally a locally made item; when materials are shipped via Semi truck - the shipment is by truckload, not weight! So, to ship a truckfull of the prodcut to MAKE the foam, is much more economical than actually shipping the foam itself.

You want to buy a sheet of foam from them.

tell them you want it to completely line the inside of a 22" Bass drum.

You can use just about any kind of foam, but have them cut it to size for you.

If you really want to do some damage, see if you can get a layer of neoprene on the inside of it. (like a mousepad)

Then, put two heads on your kick, with a center hole on the resonant side, and tune them as loose as they will go.

Mic' the center hole, and you'll have thump fo days.

and if you want more click with the thump, just move the mic a little farther into the mic hole.

I used to use this technique with a pair of 14"x24" Kicks. We had a pair of SM57's mounted inside the drums using MAY EA adapters. This was right on the mallet spot.

Then we mic'd each drum from the outside with a D112.

Put the pair together, and added a little gate and compression (The mic inside controlled a key on the outside mic's gate....a little copmplicated to explain...I have my own mixingboard rack with gates and effects) and we're talkinmg a HUGE Butt kicking thump.

Oh, and if you want more of a country thud (my favorite is on the song "Kentucky Mine" by Diamond Rio) you can just roll off a little more low end, so that you get more of an attack sound....hard to explain, but I refer to it as "low end attack"....there's no sustain whatsoever.

Or, as a 3rd. possibility, a pair of Evans oilheads tuned very slack would be extremely dead!

Tim

I personally say just go with the 16"x22"....since you're going to mufflie it enough so that it's completely dead - that extra 2" of drum is really going to be a wasted investment.

I'd rather move up to a 16"x 24", myself.

Tim

Just to give another view on the bass drum, I just put evans hydralics on both sides of my 16" bass (yes 16") with no muffling in it. Holy crap!!! This thing is huge. Now, it does not get the body shaking of a 24" but it does match (and surpass) the sound of many bigger basses. bye