Kick Drum Muffling?

Can some one please describe on the kick drum the actual placement of felt strips when used??
 
Can some one please describe on the kick drum the actual placement of felt strips when used??

I visually divide the drum into thirds and place the strip along a straight line (perpendicular to the floor) along either the left or right third, making sure it's well away from the batter impact area. I used a strip that was longer than needed. I also used a thinner felt, so my strip "got skinny" on me, but ended up working well.

I make sure it stays perp. to the floor, straight up and down, as I cinch up the felt between the head and the bearing edges while I get the head back on and up to tension. You can vary how much pressure the strip applies to the head, even when then head is at tension.

Hope that makes sense.

...
 
Ever since I started using Aquarian heads about 5 years ago, I've never used any sort of muffling. The heads themselves give me plenty of muffling.
 
I have wondered also if these heads with the white plastic rings work well? I see Remo & DW sell the rings as add-ons. I have never used them but they may be the ticket for that one drum that has just a bit to much of overtones?
 
Thinking in terms of feel is also important to me. I have a stock Yamaha head reso. and an Evans EQ4 on the beater side. That itself is good for me sound-wise, but I don't like the feel of it with my twin pedal - I get too much "feedback" from the head. Therefore I fold up a towel so it's flat and square and lay it in my kick so it's touching the batter head, but not the reso. side. And voilà, I'm happy!

Skitch has a good point about adaptability, but not everyone is a studio drummer so it's maybe not necessary to go that for. What I take out of his post is the following: make sure the way you muffle and tune your kick suits the music situation!

Plastic grocery bags. I can easily control the amount of muffling I use...from just a touch to control the ringing to more to give me the "thud".

Don't the plastic bags ever make parasite noises when miked up?
 
Can some one please describe on the kick drum the actual placement of felt strips when used??

just a couple of inches in from the side. on mine they are both on the left side of the head as i'm looking at it.

and make sure that you "stretch" the strip so it is making contact laying flat on the heads.
 
I'm glad I found this thread! The last few days I've been wondering what my Unix bubinga kick would sound like if I took the BD pillow out of it. I'm currently running a coated PS3 reso and a clear PS3 batter...but I do have a clear EQ1 and a black EMAD reso sitting around that I don't use. Which would you guess would have a better sound, wide open?
 
I'm glad I found this thread! The last few days I've been wondering what my Unix bubinga kick would sound like if I took the BD pillow out of it. I'm currently running a coated PS3 reso and a clear PS3 batter...but I do have a clear EQ1 and a black EMAD reso sitting around that I don't use. Which would you guess would have a better sound, wide open?

I think you should definitely take the pillow out, zam!
You shelled out some huge amount of money for a BEASTLY drum, so why deaden it with things that really belong on your bed.... most importantly, experiment and enjoy!

You might have guessed, I am a purist when it comes to muffling, I like all my drums wide open and resonant :)
 
Unmuffled bassdrum on my school's kit has decent heads and it's Yamaha but I don't like the sound at all. I'd put some sort of pillow or summat liek dat in it. Gives it a much better sound, a mon avis

Just a question, does putting a bit of tape over the head muffle it?
 
I think you should definitely take the pillow out, zam!
You shelled out some huge amount of money for a BEASTLY drum, so why deaden it with things that really belong on your bed.... most importantly, experiment and enjoy!

You might have guessed, I am a purist when it comes to muffling, I like all my drums wide open and resonant :)

Ya know, I think I WILL! ;) I play everything else wide-open...I want those drums to sustain and ring out for as long as they possibly can. Why should the kick be any different? It sounds great as it is - super punchy and fat. But, it would probably sound like the eruption of Mount St. Helens without the pillow in there.
 
Here is what I say. What does it matter if someone has a pillow or a blanket inside? You can use a pre muffled head like most of us do or you can use an unmuffled one and add whatever you like to muffle it. Either way.. it's muffled.
 
I think you should definitely take the pillow out, zam!
You shelled out some huge amount of money for a BEASTLY drum, so why deaden it with things that really belong on your bed.... most importantly, experiment and enjoy!

You might have guessed, I am a purist when it comes to muffling, I like all my drums wide open and resonant :)

Yeah...WOW...it sounds great. Even punchier than before...but bigger and fatter. I guess I got used using the pillow...huh...oh well.
 
I use a PS3 front & back, small offset hole in the front, nothing inside but my homemade kick mic mount, and it kills, acoustically and through the PA. I don't muffle any of the other drums either. I have some moongel if I ever need it in a pinch, but I've never taken it out of the canister. Even when playing reggae, which traditionally has very dead-sounding tones, I get compliments on the drums' tone. (Not to brag, but just saying, knowing how to tune a drum so that it sounds sweet & full trumps muffling any day.)
 
I used to have a SK3 on my 22x20 kick [birch]. Oh, that was... interesting. Coated, with SuperKick muffling, and a power dot. Even with an EQ1 reso, which is pretty much a PS3 with vent holes, you couldn't hear the damn thing.

Now I've gone to a clear EMAD, and even though I use the larger of the two muffler rings, it is so much better. It shakes the room with it's boom, while retaining a very nice amount of punch. With only that little ring and nothing inside the drum, it's about as good as it gets.
 
On my 14x22 ludwig I use an EMAD2 with the larger ring on the batter head and a Fiberskyn/Powerstroke3 on the reso head with a 4" port. Lots of punch and boom without much ringing. No extra muffling necessary.
 
I use an Emad clear single ply on the batter side with an ebony resonant with a 5" hole on the front.

For a larger room, I use the larger muffle ring and no pillow.

For smaller rooms, I like to use the smaller muffle ring with the little cute pillow that comes with a PDP kit. It velcros right into the right spot and I have it barely touching.

I like the Danmar large round hard felt beaters or the DW Hardcore beaters.

I also put the little memory lock thingys on the upper part of the shaft to get more weight hitting the batter head. A heavier beater can change your sound dramatically.

In my case, I don't bury the beater as often and so I get a fuller sound without playing to hard.
 
Sirwill,

Everything has its place.
I found out, a long time ago, that there are other ways of muffling, besides a pillow.
I figure anyone should do what they feel they need to, in order to get the sound that they're looking for.


Elvis
 
Can some one please describe on the kick drum the actual placement of felt strips when used??
the more surface area of head that comes in contact with the strip, the more muffled the head becomes.
while I've never used an actual "Felt Strip", I did use strips of bed linen at one time (basically does the same thing).
Someone had once left some linens with me and I was looking for a "bigger" sound out of my BD.
At the time, I used to fill my BD with old clothes, about 1/2 full.
The sound was a bit thuddy, but awfully quiet (and I wanted to be LOUD, back then).
I figured I needed to get rid of that stuff in order to gain the volume, but I still wanted to quell the heads, so I took one of the linens, tore two strips from it, about 3" wide and about 2.5-3 feet long.
I set the drum on end, took one head off, and laid one of the strips across the middle of the opening.
I evened out the strip and taped one side to the shell, then pulled on the strip and taped that other end to the other side of the shell.
This put a pre-load on the strip and made it stiff.
I then put the head back on and tightened it, almost as tight as if I were tuning one of my toms.
I did the same thing on the other end.
The end result was a HUGE sounding BD, with almost no ring from the heads.
Its a great way to get a really big, loud sound our of your BD.
No more thump for me....I had found something better!




Elvis
 
at the moment i have a crappy performance percussion kit and trust me i need to throw loads of stuff inside it to get it to sound relatively like a bass drum should!
Nothing "crappy" about your kit.
If there are parts missing or broken, replace them. Get some decent heads and learn how to tune them.
I played "generic" kits for years and I never had one that sounded "crappy".


Elvis
 
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