Bass drum muffling devices

drummingman

drummingman

Gold Member
I know that there is the remo dave weckl bass drum muffer, and the evans eq pad (which im using right now) and the dw pillow. Are there any other good bass drum muffling devices? If so could you provide a link to a pic?

What do you use to muffle your bass drum, any of the above or something else, and why do you use what you use? What are your thoughts about what you use to muffle your bass drum? Do you like it what you use, or does what you use leave something to be desired?
 
I use any old pillow around the house. When I bought my set the bass drum sounded horrific. I muffled it and it sounds much better now. I guess the drum brand pillows might be better for the drums but I don't think it matters
 
Drums101 said:
I use any old pillow around the house. When I bought my set the bass drum sounded horrific. I muffled it and it sounds much better now. I guess the drum brand pillows might be better for the drums but I don't think it matters
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I have thought about using a bed pillow as well. But because it moves around when the bass drum is packed up in its moving case one would have to re-adjust it all the time that way it is touching the batter head or the front head or not touching either head. And here is a question, would the pillow moving around in the drum all the time wear on the wood on the inside of the drum?
 
I use an old down pillow my grandmother made. It works great becuse it's heavy and it dosn't move. I have it only touch the batter head a little. It sound great.
 
You may think I'm nuts but here's what I did.

I found out a long time ago that (to my ear) the bass drum sounds best (muffled) when the muffling is held against the inside of the batter head with a good amount of pressure. So I went about devising a homemade muffling system that would do that. Basically, what I did was create an internal muffler for my bass drum that is just like the mufflers found on vintage snare drums, only bigger.

Yup, I took a perfectly fine DW bass drum and drilled 4 holes in the bottom and mounted a 3" round, female threaded, flange base to the bottom, with a homemade leather gasket between the metal flange base and the wood shell. Then I screwed a 3/4" x 6" pipe nipple into the flange base nice and tight, clamped a dogbone on the pipe, put a cymbal boom arm in the dogbone, and somehow attached a 8" x 5" piece of t-shirt and duct tape wrapped plywood onto the threads of the boom arm. The cotton wrapped plywood does the muffling and the boom arm provides the pressure. I vary the pressure from nothing to maximum by how far the boom is extended through the porthole in the reso head.
I love the sound, and I'm betting that not many drummers have pressure muffling in their bass drum.

I also clamped a 2nd dogbone on the pipe inside the bd to hold a mic clip, which holds my audix d6 mic all the time, I never take it out. One less mic stand, one less mic to set up and put away. I just plug in my bass drum mic through the reso hole. I'm just glad I don't play clear acrylics because the mod aint too pretty ha ha.

I did this originally to my home set, Pearls, and was so pleased with the sound, I did it to my DW's.
 
The best way to control bass drum ring is with thicker heads. I don't stuff pillows, mattresses or refrigerators in any of my drums to kill their sound. People put the thinnest, ringiest heads on their drums and then have to stuff bedding in the drum to choke it up.

Thin heads produce thin sound. Thick heads produce thick sound. Use the right heads and you won't have to convert your drum to a dead cardboard box with bedding.
 
Im not big on muffling my drumsAll my drums ring,.But my Bass drum does get a small towel rolled up, and i use a little blue tape to the touch the beater side at the bottom.
 
Deathmetalconga said:
The best way to control bass drum ring is with thicker heads. I don't stuff pillows, mattresses or refrigerators in any of my drums to kill their sound. People put the thinnest, ringiest heads on their drums and then have to stuff bedding in the drum to choke it up.

Thin heads produce thin sound. Thick heads produce thick sound. Use the right heads and you won't have to convert your drum to a dead cardboard box with bedding.
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Yep or so something simple like take a small strip of felt an put it between the head and the drum when you put the head on. More strips more muffling. Cheap easy way to control overtones if that's the problem, you can also do the same on the reso side. Got that tip from a Steve Smith DVD.

Personally I'm not a big fan of muffling, prefer to get the right head combo and let them do the work.
 
Deathmetalconga said:
The best way to control bass drum ring is with thicker heads. I don't stuff pillows, mattresses or refrigerators in any of my drums to kill their sound. People put the thinnest, ringiest heads on their drums and then have to stuff bedding in the drum to choke it up.

Thin heads produce thin sound. Thick heads produce thick sound. Use the right heads and you won't have to convert your drum to a dead cardboard box with bedding.
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+infinity.

I went from the stock bass drum head (single ply) which was so ringy it was untuneable almost to a Superkick II, which is probably a good inch thick and the ringing went away instantly. I don't even tune them that tight either, half a turn above slack on my batter and 3/4 of a turn on my reso.
 
sabian92 said:
+infinity.

I went from the stock bass drum head (single ply) which was so ringy it was untuneable almost to a Superkick II, which is probably a good inch thick and the ringing went away instantly. I don't even tune them that tight either, half a turn above slack on my batter and 3/4 of a turn on my reso.
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So basically the argument is to go with a pre muffled then you can claim your drum is "wide open"? Its not wide open its just muffled differently.
 
AudioWonderland said:
So basically the argument is to go with a pre muffled then you can claim your drum is "wide open"? Its not wide open its just muffled differently.
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Not sure where you came up with the "wide open" comment as I don't really see where anyone here is referring to that, rather different ways to achieve a desired sound and that in many cases involves pre-muffled heads.
 
konaboy said:
Not sure where you came up with the "wide open" comment as I don't really see where anyone here is referring to that, rather different ways to achieve a desired sound and that in many cases involves pre-muffled heads.
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See posts by Death Metal Conga on using heavier heads
 
AudioWonderland said:
See posts by Death Metal Conga on using heavier heads
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he never said running a drum wide open. His point is very valid though proper head choice premuffled or not will increase the tone and projection of drum without having all that stuff in there.
 
I prefer a 16" deep bass drum. I buy DW-style pillows that are 14" in length from a cat on eBay called "Wicked Pissa". Great quality, cheap, and work/sound great.

I put the pillow up against the batter head...so it obviously doesn't touch the resonant head. Not only does it feel great under the foot, but it's the perfect balance of boom and punch. It sounds and records really well.

Using this method it doesn't matter what head I use, the basketball-smacking overtones are killed and the head feels great to play.

It's also very simple. :)
 
AudioWonderland said:
So basically the argument is to go with a pre muffled then you can claim your drum is "wide open"? Its not wide open its just muffled differently.
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Pre muffled is better than just shoving pillows and whatever else you can find in there to dampen it down. What's the point in buying heads that promote ringing and over the top resonance if you're going to cover them in tape and stuff pillows inside your drums?
 
First there was no wide open comment, then there was "reference" to a wide open comment. OK, I'll say it.​
Hi, my names harryconway, and I like to play my kick drum wide open.​
Buddy of mine just brought over a lovely little Ludwig Jazzette kick today, to my house. 18x12. Had a Powerstroke3 batter and a Ambassador with a richie ring reso (essentially a homemade P3). Wonderful, tight sound. Same head combo I ran on a Yamaha 20x14 I had.​
With all the modern head types to choose from, why not use the technology of the pre-muffled head to do the job. No, no need to have anything inside the kick, except air.​
 
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