Advice on drum sound

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vagodeoz
  • Start date Start date
Vagodeoz

Vagodeoz

One-Man-Band
Here is a video I recorded with my drum kit.
My main concern is the kick drum. I like it very low but I can't tune it as low as I want. I bought it used and the heads are used too, so could that be the problem? or it's usually about the dimensions of the drum?
Also, I was thinking about removing the outter head, since this is usually pitched even higher than the beater.
For this video I used a little cheat to generate a very low frequency signal every time the kick is played, but I want to get that deep bass sound naturally. What's your suggestions and what do you think about the sound overall?

Video
 
Pretty much any bass drum can go pretty deep with heads and tuning. You need to find the right tuning combination and muffling. Beater material plays a role in the overall sound too. I had a shallow 22x16 that went pretty deep with Aquarian super-kick heads and no muffling. I tuned the reso head to its lowest pitch that wouldn't rattle, and fine tuned it with the beater head. Get your drum key out and get to work.

P.S. - I can't get the video to play. Please post a sound clip.
 
I don't have only the sound uploaded, but here's the video in youtube
I guess "rattle" is the word I was looking for. Since the heads are old, I'm afraid they might have stretched too much and their "rattle point" is higher pitched than it should be.
 
Depth is not so much important as width when it comes to pitch. Bonham got a huge deep bass sound, he had a 24x14, which is both shallow and wide by today's standards. Muffling also makes a bass drum more mid range and less bass, so use as little as possible.
 
I have it pretty muffed... hummm... 2 pillows, one for each head.
Do you think I should remove the outter head?
 
Vagodeoz said:
I have it pretty muffed... hummm... 2 pillows, one for each head.
Do you think I should remove the outter head?
Click to expand...

No. The resonant head is what gives you the tone you want. Take a pillow out. 2 is ridiculous. I've had success with no pillow at all, but one should be plenty. Play with its placement to find the sound you want. With my current kick, I'm liking the pillow just barely touching each head at the very bottom. Some just like it touching one of the heads. You have to trial-and-error it for yourself.
 
Greg_L said:
No. The resonant head is what gives you the tone you want. Take a pillow out. 2 is ridiculous. I've had success with no pillow at all, but one should be plenty. Play with its placement to find the sound you want. With my current kick, I'm liking the pillow just barely touching each head at the very bottom. Some just like it touching one of the heads. You have to trial-and-error it for yourself.
Click to expand...

They are not really pillows, they are more like small cushions, and I have two becouse they are small and one can't toch both heads (since they are small) so I have two, one for each head.
 
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