The DW pedals with the stackable/reconfigurable heel plates were made for folks like you.  Although if you like your pedal and are happy in shoes it really doesnt matter.  Just thinking out loud.

That was a  good and interesting link, Mr. A.  
I notice that many rock drummers bury the beater into the head.  It is a technique that I use from time to time, but 95% of the time I allow the beater to rebound.  It is a more natural motion that is consistent with the entire family of percussion techniques.  Point is, if you're playing fast and you're burying the beater, then you are fighting physics.  I genreally use either a 18/18 or 20/20 kick drum with loose fyberskin heads and no muffling.  I notice that when I allow the beater to rebound, their are some low end frequencies present that are eliminated by burying the beater and stopping the vibrations of the head.

A good argument against this would be when else do you employ this burying technique in percussion?  In any other precussion  avenue, this would be considered bad technique except for the occassional situation.

However, I do understand the sound that you are going for.  Burying the beater will produce a more attack sound, i.e. punch.  From a pure technical standpoint, this just seems like a lot of additional work, i.e. resisting the natural tendancy to rebound which therefore must require a degree of muscle tension in your leg to accomplish.  Under these conditions, conistency would seem much more difficult to achieve then using the much more mtaural motion of allowing the beater to reboud where it will be moving the same speed both on the attack and the rebound.  Burying the beater will force the drummer to calibrate into their playing the different speeds of rebound and attack.  It just seems like all around more work where a very similar sound could be achieved by addressing the tuning and perhaps at the soundboard (iff applicable).

Expermient by doing the following:  Play eightnotes at a very comfortable and moderate tempo on your kick.  Allow the beater to rebound and concentrate on getting a  conistent motion where the beater is moving at a speed consistent with the tempo.  This is the same idea of playing "eight on a hand" or similar exercises in a drumline situation.  Now add a burying noteon the and of 4.

. = stacatto or in this case burying the beater

                 .                      .
XX XX XX XX I XX XX XX XX


Notice the physicological changes that take place in your requirement to bury the beater.  Also notice that you must quickly calibrate you speed to get the beater back to a starting postion for the next attack.



I realize that this argument is purely technical and that there are real world examples where burying the beater is practical.  If you're on tour as a back-up musician and you're asked to do this, you best comply and be able to do it on demand.  It is a tool, but I don't agree that it should be standard that it has become because it is
A. and unnatural motion inconistsnt with other conventional percussion techniques.

B. That you loose frequencies inherent to a drum the size of a kick  drum.  If you don't want those low frequencies, then don't use such a big drum.  Why else would you use a 20, 22 24, or 36 for that matter if you didn't desire somekind of frequency that only drums of those sizes can produce?

I'm not slamming anyone, so please don't take this offensively.  I am simply very interested to read reactions.

I agree with Mr. A ... again. Seems like I always agree with him.  

To add ... for what it's worth ... I think I could name more professional drummers, studio and live, who bury the beater into the Kick drumhead ... than I can name drummers who allow the beater to rebound. All that to say that this "burying" technique is not new, and many successful drummers use the technique regularly. To me this says that it's valid technique, and not some gimmick, because so many players use it with great success.

If I may state a few points I have upon reading your response, Poser:


This is quite the coup for those of us not aligned with the One-Hertz-Sub-Club —or to be accurate, those who generally like a bass drum with higher frequencies.

I don't know—saying you won't ever bury the beater, to me, is akin to someone renouncing press rolls in favor of "clean double stroke rolls".  Clean double-stroke rolls are indeed very nice, but a press roll is hardly inferior; it's merely a different sound.

I feel it is advantageous, as much as this has been stated before, to be able to do as many things as possible.  I, as early as a few months ago, was an efficiency junkie; I'd obsess over the rebound of the stick, I'd carefully examine the stress of playing 16's on the hi-hat with one hand versus using both hands, etc.  However, these methods all deliver a different sound or flow, with each sound or flow being potentially valuable.  I've since recognized this in favor of obsessing over the Almightly Lack Of Speed or Undue Stress On The Kneecaps, etc., etc.  Of course, I don't play loud anyway, so that's something to consider in my general approach.

Oh—and being open to a variety of sounds and the ways of playing such helps greatly in the all-too-common scenario when "your sound" is worth scheit.

I know that may seem to be the case ... but it's not.  Your ears are fooling you because you don't hear the resonance.

Putting pillows, etc., in the Kick drum, which also dampens the drumhead from vibrating, makes the drum sound deeper ... simply because the muffling is rolling off the high-end frequencies ... leaving only the low-end. The muffling material doesn't make the drum's physical dimensions any different; the length or diameter of the shell hasn't changed. Likewise, leaving the beater on the head doesn't alter the physical dimensions.

Playing a bass tone on a Djembe or Conga is the same way. Whether I leave or remove my hand after playing the tone ... the low-end is the same ... all though the resonance and decay is very different ... in addition to the rolling off of high-end frequencies due to the dampening with the hand. The realized fullness of the sound may be different, but if we measure the frequency produced by the drum, the low-end isn't affected. An exception might be if you press your hand, beater or stick into any drumhead ... to the extent that you stretch the skin tighter ... which would change the pitch.

I too have studied mallet techniques (Stevens, etc.) so I do understand your argument and thinking. Read my article on Kick Drum Technique; I talk about efficiency ... and you'll agree with 99.99% of what I share.

I play as efficient as possible in all that I do. But ... we are talking about a sound ... so sometimes we have to do things that aren't as efficient as we might like in order to achieve the sound we want.

So ... I don't think anyone is arguing about the efficiency of strokes. Leaving the beater on the Kick drumhead isn't as efficient as allowing to rebound so that you are ready for another stroke. As Stevens would say, you have to have a preparation stroke to play a second note ... if you are leaving the beater on the drumhead.  Playing dead strokes on a mallet instrument is a valid technique ... right? Why not the technique of leaving the beater on the drumhead? Latin percussionists often place their index fingers on TOP of the drumstick when playing Timbales (ie. cowbells). Not all that physically efficient, but valid technique to obtaining the feel that they desire.

The validity of a technique has nothing to do with it's physical efficiency ... to me at least. I try to get the sound I need using the most efficient means possible. If anyone knows another (more efficient) way to get the compressed sound that you get when you leave the beater on the Kick drum ... please let us know!!!