Metal Bass Drum Sound

[votard]

Ok, so my bandmates have been asking me to get that clicky double bass sound similar to the "city of evil" album by avenged sevenfold. I was wondering what are all the different ways of getting this clicky sound? So far, I've got a coated emperor remo head with a falam(sp?) patch and I also duct taped the hard part from this gibraltar 'click pad' that I had used on a previous head. I've also got light plastic beaters. Are there any tuning/muffling tricks to better achieve this sound? I've heard that taping quarters(like lars ulrich) wears down the head faster, but I don't know how significant this would be for me.

this is for playing live acousticly, i dont have drum mics.

[razorx]

U could get a click pad.......they sound like garbage imo

[DrewTheShoe]

Try a different beater. I think a wood beater would suit you more...? Not too knowledgeable on individual beaters, might have to take that one up with harryconway. He's got at least 12 or so in a drawer somewhere...

[Lachrymologist]

Try tuning the resonant head significantly higher than the batter head and placing a rolled up towel or pillow against the batter head.

[votard]

haha, I thought i was crazy buying all these different beaters. I bought a second felt to go with the one when i did single bass. I bought a plastic/felt combo, and I filed down the ones that came with my $100 db pedal. I'm using those right now, and they have the right sounding attack, unfortunately, I'm not gooding at tuning my bass drum and I practice in a small room, so it tends to get that john bonham booming reverb sound.

[Aleksandr]

Chances are the bass drum on that Avenged Sevenfold album have been pro-tooled in some way shape or form to achieve a more punchy sound.

I used to go for that kind of sound, you will find quickly while experimenting that you will go through heads fast. What I used to do was actually tape a thin piece of metal to my bass drum head, this usually did the trick.

You grow out of it though, I wouldn't really worry about the "metallic" sound too much. Coming from a hardcore punk drummer, just let them drums speak. Don't nasty the bass drum up by taping metal to it.

Currently I am using a wood beater, it gives a good punch to your sound. I recommend trying one out before altering your drums head.

[Joe P]

You're playing an unmiked gig with people who want you to have a metal bass drum sound; they play loud I presume? If you muffle the bass drum, you'll lose a lot of volume. Muffling is only really good when you're closely miking the bass drum for live sound or recording.

[razorx]

I would also try the wood beaters by damnar. alos the drums are VERY processed so you aren't going to get that real sound that you hear on the album

[metal overlord]

Tune your batter head pretty much as low as it can go, like just above finger tightened. Then, tune your batterhigh and quite tight. Put some muffling/a pillow against the batter (I only use a ring around the batter).

You won't get that sound exactly, more of a wetish click (though mine sounds very woody).

Wood beaters and falam slams also help. If you want to save money, get the Tama Iron Cobra wood beaters, if not just get the Yamaha or Damnar.

[trkdrmr]

Does Scott Prian (seen here on Gretsch renown maple drums)

Have a metal enough sound?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySSO9lbHgIA&feature=related

[stabmasterarson]

I have pretty metal sounding kick drums. I use iron cobra wood beaters on falam patches, emad3 batters with the big damping ring, tuned medium/low, with the reso tuned higher. I went to the store and bought 2 little pillows for 5$ each and put one in each kick drum, they just touch the batter heads and don't quite touch the reso head. They aren't very thick, they are cheap throw pillows. My kicks don't quite sound like a triggered click, but with lots of attack and little resonance, punchy.

[Scott Prian]

Hey whats goin on, I see that people are talking about me on here, so i signed up, Im new to forums..

Im not sure whos heard my drums, i know trkdrmr mentioned my kick in one of my videos. I just finished my studio so I have some new stuff coming out (solo) since the beginning of this month (July 09) if anyone wants to hear some random drumming, throw me your email.

Anyway my kick is real, all I use is a little eq, no drum machines or triggering... not my thing, I just uploaded a drum take on my recordings page, www.myspace.com/scottprianrecording.

Thanks

Scott Prian

[Trey Williams]

it could be because they use triggers 0.0

[eddiehimself]

The best way i've found to do it is to just tune the batter and reso really down low like really low and not have loads of muffling, just like 1 pillow. That way you still get a bit of boom, so it doesn't sound "flat". Then if you're worried about how long the head will last, i'm just using the foam beaters because really to get the "click" it's not about what surfaces connect, like plastic on metal for example but it comes from the head, you'll hear it on any head if it's tuned right down low. And then i just have an aquarian kickpad to (hopefully) stop the beaters going straight through the head any time too soon lol. The most important thing to do to get the best sound is you have to hit hard. That's how you really get it to "click".

I do a bit of recording on the kick. I can actually get a really clicking sound but without using any triggers or anything, just a mic inside the drum then give it a bit of "persuasive" EQ to bring out the high tones of it like 4-10k that sort of thing.

[JT1]

Ok, so my bandmates have been asking me to get that clicky double bass sound similar to the "city of evil" album by avenged sevenfold. I was wondering what are all the different ways of getting this clicky sound? So far, I've got a coated emperor remo head with a falam(sp?) patch and I also duct taped the hard part from this gibraltar 'click pad' that I had used on a previous head. I've also got light plastic beaters. Are there any tuning/muffling tricks to better achieve this sound? I've heard that taping quarters(like lars ulrich) wears down the head faster, but I don't know how significant this would be for me.

this is for playing live acousticly, i dont have drum mics.

Well now two solutions. First: buy a danmar click pad for your bass drum and use hard rubber or wooden beaters or stick two 2 coins to the bass drum and use the same beaters, you'll be surprised how good that works and it is the original method of achieving a click sound. However the danmar click pads fall off after a while as they constantly get battered and could possibly spoil your bass drum head.

I would go with lots of duct tape and two coins on the bass drum, hope that helps!

[HOUSTON 94]

Most metal bands that play constant bass have drum triggers, sorry to tell you

[Crazy+Hands]

The danmar power disk pad (not the metal kick) will make any bass drum sound more metal. Foam works as a better muffler than pillows, it kills the unwanted overtones but doesn't reduce volume as much as pillows can. Tune the reso side as low as possible and also the batter should be only tuned up maybe a half to a full step above its lowest possible pitch.

In the end, if your playing metal with lots of double bass there really isn't much of a choice--you have to use triggers. Its just how its done. Contrary to what a lot of ill-informed people think, its much more difficult to play with triggers because every mistake stands out. Its all about consistency, and triggers force you to play with more precision.

[schaibaa]

Ok, so my bandmates have been asking me to get that clicky double bass sound similar to the "city of evil" album by avenged sevenfold. I was wondering what are all the different ways of getting this clicky sound? So far, I've got a coated emperor remo head with a falam(sp?) patch and I also duct taped the hard part from this gibraltar 'click pad' that I had used on a previous head. I've also got light plastic beaters. Are there any tuning/muffling tricks to better achieve this sound? I've heard that taping quarters(like lars ulrich) wears down the head faster, but I don't know how significant this would be for me.

this is for playing live acousticly, i dont have drum mics.

This is all eq. No drum will sound like that dry. No big deal, boost 60-80Hz, cut 300-500, and boost 4k. Then you will have a rockin kick.

[Buddy9832]

I'm not going to even say that I'm an authority on this subject. But from personal experience and from what I've heard from the grapevine that "metalic" sound that you hear is mostly achieved from eq and mic position.

Also another thing I learned is that you can't force sounds out of your drum set. I have a Yamaha Stage Custom with an 8, 12 and 14" toms. When I was younger and I was getting into metal I would try to tune my drums so that they would sound like drummers from various metal bands. I would try to significantly tune down my 8" tom to get a deeper sound out of it. And sometimes its just not possible.

So that may be the issue to, maybe your drums can't physically produce the sound your looking for.

[schaibaa]

For lower tones, most people get pin stripes or the equiv latest and gratest metalicious heads or something. Wrong answer.

If you want low toms, get some simple coated single ply heads. Put them on the drum finger tight, and if you're under 200lbs, just stand on the head a bit with a sock on. Do this for both bottom and top heads. You'll hear them crack as the glue loosens up.

Then tune them up, bottom head a bit higher than the top head. This will allow you to get more range in your tuning, and allow you to go low with enough attack and sustain, without the plastic wrap sound.

Metal toms = attack. Boost 4k on all of the toms, and boost the frequency you want them to resonate at.

It's all about killing the muddiness and boosting the resonance/attack.

Nothing you can do about it in a strictly acoustic setting. As others have said, unfortunately, a lot of thrash metal drummers trigger and setup their triggers to where all hits are of equal volume regardless of how hard you hit the drum.

[Crazy+Hands]

Yeah that's true about single plys being capable of lower pitches than two plys but they'll wear out quickly especially if you do the pressing on the heads thing. Its really not necessary anymore but you will get a better sound out of the box from doing that.

The advantage of Two plys is that they can be tuned up slightly higher than a single ply for better feel and response without sounding too ringy.

[Scott Prian]

Hey everyone, I just finished up making my studio functional.

I must say, in my new recordings, my kick sounds Exactly how i like it. I play alot of metal, but my secret is NOT in triggering. In my opinion thats the easy cheating way out. if you cant get that heavy attack that suits metal nicely (dont hate me for saying this) but its simply because you are not playing hard enough.

anyway i mic my kick with two different mics, one on the inside and one right inside the port. the mic inside the port i put but a low pass, and boost a narrow q at the desired frequency, while the other mic i put a high pass on, while boosting wherever sounds the best.

to me this is near perfection for a home studio, i can do faster double bass while all the attack i need to sound good is very present. no triggers in this studio ;)

check out my latest recordings going on my solo album here:

http://www.myspace.com/scottprianrecording

Scott Prian