Anyone port their toms?

Flareless

Member
I tried searching on this topic and got a lot of stuff about porting kicks. I apologize if this has been covered before but I haven't been able to find anything.

Porting toms; Anyone doing it? Is there a benefit?

I took a 30 year hiatus from drumming during which the single head concert tom has all but vanished and dual heads rule.

I recently ported my kick drum and it sounds awesome. I was wondering if there would be any benefit to porting the resonant heads on my toms.
 
I was wondering if there would be any benefit to porting the resonant heads on my toms.
If you want to dramatically reduce head sustain, or you want that concert tom vibe from a double headed tom, then yes. The requirements from a bass drum are typically different to a tom, so difficult to compare. A tom reso head with a large hole in it is a good way of stopping your lugs from rattling (if you have lugs with inserts) if you want to imitate concert toms.
 
Impact had a different slant on ports/vents many years ago. They started with the "sound holes" in the toms, and when I began endorsing them in 1985, they started porting the kicks at my request.

impvents.jpg


The benefit of porting the shell is that the heads are allowed to vibrate pretty much as they normally do.

Bermuda
 
Thanks for the replies everyone!

@Topgun - Very cool. I have a similar product (pic attached) which I used to port my kick. That's what got me thinking about doing the toms. It'll make down to 2" holes and is simple to use.

@KIS - I'd like to see if I could reduce the sustain a bit but not too dramatically. I would use smaller holes.

@Bermuda - Oh man, I remember those! That was towards the end of the new shell style fad started by Staccato Drums in the 70's. So, how did they sound?

I might do a few of my tom heads when I replace the reso heads shortly. I'll try it on the old heads for a while then decide if it's worth butchering the new ones.

I'm not interested in re-creating the concert tom sound, although I sometimes miss it. I love the way my drums resonate and I'd like to find a way to control the sustain a bit without taping a lot of stuff to the batter head.

I'm also interested in micing the port on the reso rather than have mics all along the top of my kit. My toms are 8", 10", 12", 13" with 14" and 16" floor toms. It gets to be a bit of a forest when the kit is fully micd.

Thanks again for the replies so far everyone!
 

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