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krazykrista
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« on: April 13, 2004, 07:33 PM » |
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okay, so, i wanted to put some muffling into my bass drum to make it sound more compact...less echoing. so i took off the head, and stuck a pillow in there, hit the drum a bit without the head on, loved the sound, and now i put the head back on, and it sounds terrible. i recongnize the fact that with the head back on, the air bounces off the head creating the sound i dont like, and with the head off, the air just shoots right out ... but i've played on drumsets with a pillow in the bass drum and it sounds like the sound i had with my bass head off...lol, i'm a bit confuzzled. my bass head doesnt have a hole in it, maybe that's part of the problem. but the head also seems looser or something...i'm not really sure what's wrong.
help?
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ARCHxANGEL
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« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2004, 09:49 PM » |
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First off...if you don't have a hole in your front head,cut one.I would say a 6" hole.This will also work well for recording and playing live for miking situations.And with the pillow fold it in half.To get a tad of ring perhaps.I also like to use a towel thats been folded and taped up,and tape it on the shell against the beater head.This gives a good muffle with a tint of ring.
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vertijoe
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« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2004, 10:48 AM » |
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Here's something else you can try. Get rid of the pillow, and don't cut the hole in the head. Now, order 2 strips of kick drum felt (one for each head). Don't stretch it across the center, but offset it to one side (top or bottom works too). Tune the head a little higher than you would think. Most of the time, I find that when I'm tuning my kick drum, my ear wants the drum a little lower than what sounds good when I actually start hitting the thing hard.
Somethings to remember about drum ring. If your not miking drums, the more ring the better. Remember drums always sound different 10 feet out. When your playing live, alot of that ring gets left on the stage, the audience will never hear it. I played a double bill with a band outside last summer. The other drummer's kit was all muffled, and sounded good sitting behind the kit. Out front you couldn't hear him. He was completely burried in the mix. Granted, if he had been mic-ed, he would have been fine.
Just my opinion. I'm sure that 100 people could post on this issue, and you'll get 100 different suggestions.
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JeepnDrummer
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Ding, fries are done!
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« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2004, 11:33 AM » |
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Another option: get rid of the pillow and buy the Aquarian Superkick I or II pack, which includes the batter and reso heads. Properly tune, start playing, and smile at the awesome sound.  |
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mfran
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« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2004, 11:40 AM » |
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yeah, good points. I had a similar complaint with my Yamaha 20" bass drum... even with an Aquarian Superkick II with the foam ring inside, and a 6" hole in the front head, it still rang... then I used a blanket, still rang...
It was sort of driving me nuts.... I finally put a felt strip on the resonant head, ringing stopped. Ahhh... relief!
another help, was to dampen the reso heads of the two rack toms too... they rang everytime I'd hit my bass drum. You can dampen them with moongel, couple of cotton balls in each tom, or a small 2" square of the leftover bassdrum felt. Made a nice difference to me when recording. Would it be too dead out at a gig? Will know soon!
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Louderdb
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« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2004, 01:26 PM » |
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The Aquarian reso head used with the SK should eliminate the need for any muffling and certainly the need for laundry in your kick. They are made and ment for each other and I swear by them. |
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krazykrista
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« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2004, 05:26 PM » |
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how do i tune it?
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mattyjo
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« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2004, 05:56 PM » |
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tuning is really a personal preference and depends on how you play- whether you leave the beater buried in the head or allow it to come off. it also depends on the music- some tuning is more appropriate for jazz, some for rock, etc etc.
i don't use muffling or a hole in the reso head. i like the aquarian EMAD heads and the evans with the control rings. i like to tune the batter head just enough to get rid of the flab. i tune the reso head a little bit firmer- it helps with the rebound of the pedal beater. i then go back and tune the batter head till i get the sound i like.
as many of the posts above noted, it will sound totally different behind the kit than out front, and whether you are playing with a group or solo. you should have someone play the drum while you check the sound out front. and the ambience of a group will cover up a lot of ringing and such you may find annoying.
honestly, you may think your kit has gone crazy with all the overtones and the ringing, but when you get in a group setting you will find these are not a problem. any dampening i did while tuning the drum solo, i have always ended up taking off once i got the kit to the group. i think muffling should only be used to kill of unwanted sounds when close micing a drum. i think the livelier the sound the better!
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krazykrista
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« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2004, 08:06 PM » |
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I let my beater come off, i dont bury it in the head, and I play all kinds of rock music. I'm still a highschool student and I'm not even in a band yet, so I figure that my set doesnt have to be the best. (I play for my church on my set and I play for jazz band at school on the school's set) But it'd be cool to actually know how to tune a drum.  For now, I figure I'll just leave the pillow in there and try to tune the head. So can anyone give me advice on how to tune? I have no idea where to start. Thanks. |
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krazykrista
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« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2004, 08:50 PM » |
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Drummz
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« Reply #11 on: April 14, 2004, 09:00 PM » |
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As long as your bass drum bearing edges (where the heads rest on) are in good shape and your heads aren't stretched out or beat to death, you should be able to get a decent sound out of it.
If you have limited funds try the felt strip method described above to muffle the drum or use the rolled towel method. I am not a big fan of the pillow inside but did use it when I first started playing. You can even cut up a bunch of newspaper into approx. 2" x 2" squares and put them in inside your bass drum. Just keep adding newspaper until you get the desired amount of muffling you are after. If you cut an offset hole approximately 4 to 6 inches in diameter in the resonant (non-batter) head it will allow you to get your hand in there to manipulate whatever you have put inside also. So if you use the newspaper method you can always add and subtract whatever you need.
I tune the batter head to a somewhat mid tension - not flapping loose, just tight enough so all the wrinkles are gone and still have a low pleasant pitch. Then I tune the resonant (front) head to the same note as the batter. You will notice when you do this the heads may be a different tightness than each other depending on what each head is made out of (single or double ply or a thicker/thinner setup). Just shoot for the same note when you hit the middle with a stick lightly from each side. The key is lightly, so you aren't hearing it bounce off the other head. You only want to hear the head you are hitting. All the bad overtones should go away when you get the heads to sing the same pitch. I would do this prior to adding the muffling if possible. It is easier to hear the pitch that way I think.
This is by no means the only way to tune a kick drum. Just the method I use and I get compliments on my bass sound all the time. I use the Evans EQ4 Batter and EQ3 resonant heads on my 16" x 24" and love them.
If you have the money I do recommend the Evans EQ4 batter and EQ3 resonant combination or the Aquarian Super Kick 1 combo. They both do an excellent job without having to put anything in there!
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PEARLSRXDRUMMER
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« Reply #12 on: April 14, 2004, 09:28 PM » |
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I used the Evans EMAD bass drum head and Black resonant on my Mapex and wrapped foam about halfway around the inside of the drum. The sound that came from that drum was better than any kick drum I have EVER heard. I got a HUGE boom, but at the same time, a great thud. kind of like a thoomp. It was really awesome. I tuned the batter side fairly tight, and the resonant side about 3/4 as tight , it really came out nice.
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