Bass resonant porthole head

Dipschmidt

Senior Member
What difference would it make switching from a regular bass resonant head to a porthole head?
 
The ported head will produce less sustain and less tone. How much less depends on the size and location of the port. A small (4") port located near the edge of the head will have the least effect; a larger hole in the center of the head will have much more. Once you get to a 7" or so port in the middle of the head the sound becomes indistinguishable from having no reso head at all.

The port will also lessen the bounce you feel from the beater on the batter head. For some guys this is an issue, for most it's not.

If you play out miked I recommend a ported head. There are sound guys who are adept enough to mike an unported reso head, but they are fairly rare. If you like the tone of the unported head, use a small port located 2-3" in from the edge at 4 or 8 o'clock.

But if you play out unmiked, I recommend you not port the head. When you're unmiked, sustain is what gets the bass drum heard--a ported (and futon-stuffed) bass drum is nearly inaudible unless the band is soft and the venue is very small. Use an unported reso and tune for boooom. You'll hear the sustain from the driver's seat, but the audience doesn't--they just hear a louder drum.

For my and my kid's kits I keep both a ported and an unported reso available. I prefer the sound of the unported reso, but if I find that the kit will be miked I substitute the ported reso and add an Evans EQ pad against the batter and a small rolled-up towel against the reso. For unmiked it's PS3s front and rear, no port and nothing in the drum.
 
sorry to resurrect this threat again but with a small porthole will the rebound of the beater be a dramatic change? i like to have a lot of rebound for my heel toe, but with my gig my band's playing we need a reso head with a porthole to mic it.
 
sorry to resurrect this threat again but with a small porthole will the rebound of the beater be a dramatic change? i like to have a lot of rebound for my heel toe, but with my gig my band's playing we need a reso head with a porthole to mic it.

I dont know how small you are talking but yes any hole big enough to mike will have noticibly less rebound. Thats been my experience anyway. Might be ways to get some back like tuning the head up some if you can.
 
I dont know how small you are talking but yes any hole big enough to mike will have noticibly less rebound. Thats been my experience anyway. Might be ways to get some back like tuning the head up some if you can.

the bass head is tuned up really tight right now, and I'm talking about a 4" porthole somewhere in the bottom right corner of the reso head
 
yeah thats true, but if i do get i'd pretty much be using it for the next couple of years, because I don't like switching out heads (especially bass drum heads) often, so it would stay on my kit for quite a while. but when it comes to rebound will a 4" make a big difference with the beater? and is there a major difference between (in the feel of the batter) between a 5" and a 4" hole? I'm thinking about either getting a EMAD resonant head or get a white head and cut a 4" hole myself
 
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yeah thats true, but if i do get i'd pretty much be using it for the next couple of years, because I don't like switching out heads (especially bass drum heads) often, so it would stay on my kit for quite a while. but when it comes to rebound will a 4" make a big difference with the beater? and is there a major difference between (in the feel of the batter) between a 5" and a 4" hole? I'm thinking about either getting a EMAD resonant head or get a white head and cut a 4" hole myself

Just heat up a coffee can and pop a hole in the one you have. Then get a new reso head without a hole for later.
I doubt you will notice a difference between 4 and 5" rebound wise but I could be wrong.
I have a 7" hole in mine. That way I can get a pillow in and out as needed. I hate pedal rebound. Good thing cause I got none!
I used a sauce pan lid to burn the big 7". It's absurdly easy to do. See link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oJK2Y-uU9M&feature=related

Some other things though. The smaller the hole the more resonance you will keep in the drum. From 7" up it will sound like there is no reso head but frankly my kick sound great and has plenty of sustain. Your mileage may vary.
 
sorry to resurrect this threat again but with a small porthole will the rebound of the beater be a dramatic change? i like to have a lot of rebound for my heel toe, but with my gig my band's playing we need a reso head with a porthole to mic it.

If your porthole is of the 4" variety, it will have some affect on your rebound, but depending on how you play your bass drum, it could be negligible.

Why do you need a porthole to mic your bass drum? I use an unported bass reso for over 99% of my recording, live and ISDN feeds. The only thing I do differently is to tune the reso head for the type of sound that I might need.

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To be perfectly blunt and in my opinion, a lot of drummers/engineers/soundmen don't know how to properly mic a bass drum reso by knowing and using the correct microphones and especially the correct placement of the bass drum microphone. If the person has limited experience, the hole is usually an indicator as to where to place the microphone but will have a slightly deteriorated bass drum sound and beater rebound.

Dennis
 
Why do you need a porthole to mic your bass drum?

To be perfectly blunt and in my opinion, a lot of drummers/engineers/soundmen don't know how to properly mic a bass drum reso by knowing and using the correct microphones and especially the correct placement of the bass drum microphone.

Dennis

That's exactly why a hole is needed, unless you are doing it yourself.

I love an un-ported head, but reality came into play, and I had to install a 4" hole (I used a HOLZ).

I wouldn't go over 4" if you want any rebound.

I won't go over 4" period, because I hate the sound of a mic inside a shell.

On most shows, I can bring my own D112, and place the mic pointing mostly toward the side of the shell so I don't get any or much click. The rest is in the hands of the soundguy.
 
That's exactly why a hole is needed, unless you are doing it yourself.

I love an un-ported head, but reality came into play, and I had to install a 4" hole (I used a HOLZ).

I wouldn't go over 4" if you want any rebound.

I won't go over 4" period, because I hate the sound of a mic inside a shell.

On most shows, I can bring my own D112, and place the mic pointing mostly toward the side of the shell so I don't get any or much click. The rest is in the hands of the soundguy.

Why do you put up with mediocrity when you know how to mic it without the use of the porthole?

Dennis
 
To play it safe I've started to use ported heads as well. I've been on gigs now where the sound people were utterly confused about the head not having a hole and ones where the mics were small dynamic ones (not sure of the model) and even a SM57 at one point. Of course my Gretsch kit has a 26" that projects just fine, but my Mapex has a 22" with a more controlled sound so miking would be more important. My favorite recorded bass sounds of all time were Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, and John Bonham all of which used big, open bass drums with no ports and sounded great. I've never cared for the sounds of say Steve Gadd's kit, known for it's Yamaha reso with the huge center hole and whatever extra muffling he uses. (I do love his playing though, I would just prefer he played someone else's drums :)
 
Why do you put up with mediocrity when you know how to mic it without the use of the porthole?

Dennis

Because choosing to use a porthole is not putting up with mediocrity, its choosing to use a different sound/feel. I prefer the feel with a small port and have no issues getting the sound I want from the drum
 
Because choosing to use a porthole is not putting up with mediocrity, its choosing to use a different sound/feel. I prefer the feel with a small port and have no issues getting the sound I want from the drum

It is when the poster that I quoted (KarlCrafton) said that he loves the unported head. If he loves the unported head but feel that porting the head is a necessity, it's putting up with mediocrity.

Convenience for that of sound quality. Just learn how to tune for the type of sound you want from your bass drum, be educated on what microphones to use and especially how to place them. As I said before, most "sound guys" that I've been acquainted with do not know exactly how to mic a bass drum if it didn't have a hole pointing to where it most likely should be placed.

Dennis
 
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Yeah, I think I'm just going to go with my original plan... vintage ludwig head!
 
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