neo-newbie needs help in the THUD department.

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thedude400

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I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to drums, I'm more of a guitar player , but my buddy just backed ihis car into my car and decided to give me his Yamaha drum set for the damage. Now this set is pretty bad ass I think. The snare sounds full and and tight. The toms sound just as good as my buddies Sonar set I think and I'm playing some Sabian's that get the job done for the most part. But the bass drum just isn't doing it for me. I'm looking for a nice tight low bassy thud but I'm not getting it at all.

Alot of people think they know how to tune a bass drum (or drum set for that matter) but it seems a very few actually really know how to get the best results out of what they're working with.

It's 16 inches wide, and 23 inches in diameter. There's an aquarian head on the kick pedal side (which almost looks like it should be on the opposite end because there's no kick target on it). And on the other side there's just a factory yamaha head I think with a 13 or 14 inch hole in it for air circulation right in the middle (which could maybe be part of the problem because I've never seen one of those before).

I've tried following tuning tuorials for bass drums with both of the heads but I'm not getting much different of a sound. Sometimes it sounds better, then the next time I play it it sounds like crap.

My main questions are; with a bass drum with dimensions like this this, am I doomed to never be able to get a thick booming sound out of it? I don't want to have to tweak the @#$% out of the equalizers on my recording program to get the thudding boom I want (which still won't compare to the natural boom I hear so often from other drum sets and my favorite bands)

Should I look into new heads or have it professionally tuned? Should I tighten my kick pedal spring so it starts to give more and pull itself away quicker so as not to muffle the natural resonation of the front head?

Is there any way I can be more pleased without going out and buying a 20X30 or something ungodly like that?
 
You don't need a bigger bass drum. And I doubt it's 23". it has to be 22 or 24. My guess is 22". Nothing wrong with that. Without hearing a sample, it's hard to help you. I will say this though. A lot of people make the mistake of tuning a bass drum down to get a THUD, where you'd be surprised how good it can sound when you tune it up a bit more than you'd expect. A skin can't resonate if it's too loose.
 
Stick a folded up wool type of blanket in it.

You probably don't have enough material in it for a good old "AC/DC thump".


Tim
 
I've got one word for you: Pillow.

Go from there. Play with what works best for you. I've got a few things shoved in my kick drum.
 
don't stuff too much crap into your bass drum or you might as well be hitting a cardboard box. you want some tone and some resonance. any muffling you put in you bass drum only needs to touch the bottom few inches of the head. tuning is a matter of experimentation and takes a lot of patience, but the effort pays off when you find a sound you like.
 
I have the head tuned somewhat loose (not completely flabby though)
I also recently switched from those felt beaters to wooden mallet beaters.

A huge difference.
So much more punch. Not necessarily the "click" but very fat.

And the pillow comment does the trick too. Muffling is key.
 
is "click" desirable? when i think of a bass drum, "click" is not the sound that comes to mind.
 
In a lot of todays heavier music, click is very desireable. In fact I just had a metal drummer in that must have said "more click" about a hundred times before I actually got to eqing the kick. I also personally love that sound, couldn't put my finger on why, but its very pleasing to my ears.
 
What systemofadown is reffering to is the attack of the bass drum. If you're bass drum beater is made of felt, it won't have as much attack as a wooden beater.
It sounds to me like the drum you have is fine. Tuning can be an issue as well as mic placement. We just recorded drums for our new cd. I had alot of trouble getting a warm fat sound with a hint of click, which is the sound the songs called for. Here's what we did: Tuned the drum down SLIGHTLY, by the way our drummer has a DW kit and has a 8" hole offset on bass drum. Next we me started with a Beta 52, and had ot 5" fom batter side head "looking" at the beater. This gave a defined beater attack, but lacked the thud. We kept moving the mic back till it was almost outside the bassdrum. The sound was thicker but we lost the definition of the beater. Took a trip to drum shop and bought stickers with metal dics in them. I'm not sure what these things are called but they stick to your bass drum on the batter side where head meets beater. Threw the faders up...........too clicky! (thesesticker things our great if you're going for a metal/heavy rock sound, we weren't.) Took the metal disc out of the sticker pouch, and BAM there it was, a beatiful deep sounding thuddy kick! Or drummer uses wooden beaters by the way.
I think if you can afford it, pick up a wooden beater and give ti try. I don't think they're too expensive.

Anyway, the best advice that I can give you, is listen to Tim Brown and Rami. That's where I get most of my tips from :D
 
maby try mic'ing outside the kick? (a little)
or just getting away from the beater a little more.
 
I'm not gonna lie. I didn't think changing the muffle setup inside the kick drum would do anything but it did. I put an egg carton liner in there and this plush green pillow then tightened the kick side a bit and it's so much tighter. Now that its tighter its easier to realize that there is some low end thud! Next time I record I'm gonna mic the kick side and the hole too. Thanks for the advice evryone, this has made overall playing smoother.
 
thedude400 said:
I'm not gonna lie. I didn't think changing the muffle setup inside the kick drum would do anything but it did. I put an egg carton liner in there and this plush green pillow then tightened the kick side a bit and it's so much tighter. Now that its tighter its easier to realize that there is some low end thud! Next time I record I'm gonna mic the kick side and the hole too. Thanks for the advice evryone, this has made overall playing smoother.
Click to expand...


To be honest, if you want a really good thump - tighten that batter head down - because when you tune the drum really loose - you're fundamental pitch is actually lower than the "punchy/thud" range.

Man, back in the 80's, I use to have my kick drums half full of crap. I even had a foam company make me a set of "plugs" that fit inside the drums that were made out of 8" thick foam, and the were shaped to fit inside the entire kick drum. kind of like a 24" diameter foam tube that fit inside the kicks.

Tighten it up, and scoop out the low mids...you can actually roll off a little of the low end for a more "country" type of thud (You need a felt mallet for that slap mallet attack, rather than the click of a hard mallet.) And if you're triggering, you definitely want felt mallets, because it helps control the rebound- since the mallet will flatten out a little on the batter head rather than "bounce".

I've used hard mallets for years, but in all honesty, the sound I prefer is a felt mallet. I like more of a "slap" than an actual click.

My favorite kick sound is on a Diamond Rio song called "Kentucky Mine".(Go figure - a metalhead who likes a country drumsound :eek: ) They got this awesome drumsound on that song.

If you like a clicky sounding kick - check out "To Hell with The Devil" by Stryper - that was one of the first metal albums to use the clicky kick drum sound, and he had the kicks tuned super tight. I know, laugh all you want - it's Stryper - but Robert Sweet is an incredible drummer.



Tim
 
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