Bass Drum Slap Back

[James_Joyce]

Hey out there,

I play a 24" kick drum with no hole on my front head. I love the punchiness of it, but since the diameter of the drum is so large, I have a real slap-back problem and it sometimes keeps me from making solid hits, especially at high speeds. I have a DW pillow against the beater head to minimize vibration, but what would you (all) do in this situation? Add a front hole? Work on the tuning? Any suggestions?

[Belgiandrummer]

You could dampen even more, or you could tune your batter looser, and a hole in you in your resonant would be a very good idea too, that way the air will escape faster so you'll have less slap back.

[Wavelength]

Just let the beater come off the head and make the drum sing. Why do you use a big bass drum with "unholy" heads if you're looking for a punchy, staccato sound?

[Pete Stoltman]

What do you mean by "slapback"?

[jiltednut]

Just don't bury the beater, let it come back off the head.

[harryconway]

For 25 years, I played 22" kicks (Ludwig Vistalites). Then I got a 28x14" Yamaha kick. I had a similar thing going on. Made me consentrait on my kick technique for the first time in decades. With my Vistalites, I was using Pinstripe batter. Much more forgiving formula, even when I went to DW plastic beaters and a double pedal. Enter the Yamaha kick and a single ply batter head and those plastic beaters, wow. So, there's a lot of variables and things you can do. Adding a HOLZ port to the reso. is one of them. A felt beater won't bounce as much. Get the beater off the batter head as quick as you can, unless you're going for that "bury the beater" sound, and in that case, a little more energy/effort might be required to keep the beater tight against the head. My current kick is a 26x14 Ludwig 6 ply. Clear Powerstroke3 batter and ebony Ambassador with HOLZ port reso. Pedal is a Yamaha Flying Dragon Direct Drive with the stock felt beater. No bounceback problems. Welcome to Drummerworld.

[lstardrums]

What do you mean by "slapback"?

since theres no hole in the front head, the pressure waves created from the beater hitting the batter head bounce off the reso head and back into the batter head, creating a sine wave style fluxuation. the hole in the reso head is put there so the pressure waves have a place to escape the drum, thus reducing slapback greatly.

[thecraponline]

I've heard of people putting very small (1/2 inch) holes around the edge of the resonant head to reduce the "slap back" without changing the sound.

[Pete Stoltman]

since theres no hole in the front head, the pressure waves created from the beater hitting the batter head bounce off the reso head and back into the batter head, creating a sine wave style fluxuation. the hole in the reso head is put there so the pressure waves have a place to escape the drum, thus reducing slapback greatly.

Geez, where the heck have I been? I gotta tell you I've been playing drums for 39 years and never heard of a "sine wave style fluxuation". Is this something you're hearing or just the beater bouncing off the head? I'm really trying to understand what you're talking about. Am I just a "lost in the woods" old guy? I know all about holes in reso heads etc. but still not catching on to what this "slapback" is that you're referring to.