I have a crazy drum idea, but I need advice

tylerlikesbeans

tylerlikesbeans

New member
I know that everyone has a personal preference for their drum tone. Personally, I like concert toms, but often, they feel too dead.
Surprise surprise, I have a solution, but I haven't tried it yet, and I'd say it's a tad bit radical. I want to put kickports, not on my bass drum, but in the reso head on my toms (I meant radical). I think I could honestly pull off my dream tone using this, but kick ports are expensive, so I don't want to have 3 extra for no reason, nor do I want to pointlessly drill holes in to some expensive heads.
Has anyone tried this? Would this be a good idea? Do you even think it will work??
I don't want to shell out 200 pointlessly. Please help me.
 
tylerlikesbeans said:
I know that everyone has a personal preference for their drum tone. Personally, I like concert toms, but often, they feel too dead.
Surprise surprise, I have a solution, but I haven't tried it yet, and I'd say it's a tad bit radical. I want to put kickports, not on my bass drum, but in the reso head on my toms (I meant radical). I think I could honestly pull off my dream tone using this, but kick ports are expensive, so I don't want to have 3 extra for no reason, nor do I want to pointlessly drill holes in to some expensive heads.
Has anyone tried this? Would this be a good idea? Do you even think it will work??
I don't want to shell out 200 pointlessly. Please help me.
Click to expand...
Kick Ports are not common at all - they are a problem in search of a solution - Try less Microphones as a way of getting your drum sounds - try Glynn Johns Three (or 4) Microphone setup.
 
OK, now I feel old...or stupid.....or both.

I've been playing drums for over 40 years. What the fuck is a kick-port?
 
There is usually a little hole in the body of a drum, for air to escape when you hit it. Otherwise, it woud be hard to resonate.
I cut a hole in the front head of my first bass drum.
On my second kit, I cut two holes in the front head, and attached a plastic surround to the holes.
On my third kit, I went back to one hole.
The purpose of the holes is to enable placement of damping. I've used pillows and cushions, and underlay.
Also they allow placement of mics inside the drum.
There are many who are aghast at removing the bottom drum heads.
 
tylerlikesbeans said:
Personally, I like concert toms, but often, they feel too dead.
Click to expand...
If they feel too dead, I feel like you would want to keep the resonant head? and probably not drill a hole through it? If you have enough mics, put one below each tom (though there are more useful applications for mics in most situations).
 
by kickports, I mean those ones that you can use like cupholders
feels like it would be a good experiment. if I do try this, I'll link a video of the process and rhe result. maybe this will be like a some experimental sound or something idk.
 
Slouching Raymond said:
There are many who are aghast at removing the bottom drum heads.
Click to expand...
What I find interesting is the layered effect of kick track without the resonate head and a track with a resonate head. Not many times I heard it but i do like it.
The difference between the two, the one without the resonate head actually sounds better when recording, However, live, the mic gets swamped by stage noise bleed.
What I find interesting is a kick hole half the size of the head has a nice sound too, but only records well when you use a blanket over the top and draped over the front + mic to isolate bleed.

Also, kick mics I find they favor one color over another, so I find using two different ones inside lets me have one that 'thumps' while the other 'pops' and I can dial in the kick however I want which is great when the band is playing different material. D112 and Beta52 or D112 and Re20 has been my favorite combos. But I do have to admit a sm58 and a PG52 is interesting too.

Micing a kick w/o a hole live sucks. You never get certain tones and the bleed can be pretty horrible.

I find resonate heads suck when drummers never change them and/or don't know how to tune them.
You don't need any resonate heads in the recording anyways especially when 99% of that sound from them gets cut by a gate.
 
tylerlikesbeans said:
I know that everyone has a personal preference for their drum tone. Personally, I like concert toms, but often, they feel too dead.
Surprise surprise, I have a solution, but I haven't tried it yet, and I'd say it's a tad bit radical. I want to put kickports, not on my bass drum, but in the reso head on my toms (I meant radical). I think I could honestly pull off my dream tone using this, but kick ports are expensive, so I don't want to have 3 extra for no reason, nor do I want to pointlessly drill holes in to some expensive heads.
Click to expand...
I heard of people trying that out. But what I have seen them settle on is resonate head live and without when recording. Another interesting one is a resonate head tom with a a half dozen or so cotton balls in them.
 
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