Galen Frost
Junior Member
What are the differences between having or not having a hole in your kick drum head?
i've found all kinds of things that have ended up in my drum via the hole, put there by sound techs, or people throwing stuff.
If you play out in both miked and unmiked situations I recommend you have one of each.
When you play out unmiked you need "boooom" (sustain) for the bass drum to be heard. For that you need an unported reso and minimal, if any, muffling. (Note that the audience doesn't hear the sustain you hear at the kit; they just hear a loud bass drum.)
And while there are some sound guys out there who can handle an unported reso, there are many who can't. When you have the latter, being adamant about using an unported head is not wise--you're arguing with the guy who is going to control how good you sound.
I prefer the sound of unported, even miked. But if I don't know the sound guy I bring along the ported head and some muffling in case it's wanted. Making the sound guy happy is never a bad move.
Oh, and: no one's mentioned, you get more rebound off the batter head with an unported reso, significantly less with a ported one. This is a big deal for some guys but not for most of us.
I just put a Coated Powerstroke 3 with a ported Powerstroke Reso on my 20" Force 3007 kit, while I do like the punch and the "moving air" sound I get with the port and I kinda like the feel of a ported reso better, I miss the really low end bassy boom I got with even tuning up the stock heads on it right. I've never heard a bass drum sound that good in person before, and the fact that it was with stock heads was amazing.
I'd kinda like the feel of the unported (maybe slightly more rebound, but I might just adjust my pedals for that) but to retain as much of that BOOM as possible next time I put new heads on it. Any ideas? I've gone with no muffling in my bass drums for a couple of years now.
I personally like the sound of PS3s front and rear, no port and nothing in the drum. This is also the combination my kid uses, playing in a rock band almost always unmiked.
PS3s do not sound their best at a JAW tuning. I usually tune the reso up above JAW, just to the point where it begins to have some bottom-end and sustain. Then I tune the batter a smidge higher. This tuning with these heads gives the bass drum some power and the ability to be heard through the band.
Note that this tuning will be considered by most sound guys as giving way too much boom for miking. That's why I bring along a ported reso, some muffling, and will retune for a sound guy who prefers it that way.
So even an unported PS3 reso gives that boom?
Maybe I should just go unported next time... The only time I've been playing out mic'd was on someone else's kit anyways. Any other "gigs" are with my school's jazz band and the school's kit.
Now I'm wondering if I should just put on my old reso just to see how it sounds with the PS3 on the front of it and save the ported for such a situation.... There was nothing wrong with it at all. I just kinda miss that boom I got used to lol.