Slappy Bass Drum

A

aboylikedave

Senior Member
Hi

My bass drum sounds slappy/clicky, not thuddy, far too much top, but its not just frequency its a real slap sound. Its a PS3 on a Yammy Stage Custom. Changing head tension doesn't particulaly seem to help. Muffling inside improves thuddiness but I can still hear that slap/click over the sound.

Any ideas what it might be? Is it just the type of head?

p.s. Stock reso with small port hole.
 
aboylikedave said:
Hi
Any ideas what it might be? Is it just the type of head?
Click to expand...

If it's the first time you've used this kind of head you just may not have become accustomed to its characteristics yet. If not, check for a broken or loose beater, cracked hoop, hardware contacting the drum... the usual suspects....
 
Is it tuned low enough? Is it tuned too low? Is the reso high or low? I like the bass drum reso medium tension and the batter low low low, a step or 2 above wrinkled, with a few t shirts inside. Bottom line is that drum can sound almost any way you want it to. You just don't have it tuned/tweaked to your liking, so I'd suggest working with it apart from the kit so it's easy to flip over and such
 
Actually, with PS3s I have found the opposite to be true. They do not sound their best at the "just above wrinkle" stage, at least on my drums.

Try this: bring the reso up from finger-tight very gradually, no more than 1/4 turn at a time. At first it will sound flappy. Eventually it will get its first real tone with some bottom and sustain. Stop there. This is higher than "just above wrinkle," but not by much.

Tune the batter the same way, except try it a smidge higher. This gives maximum bottom end. If you keep raising the batter you'll get more attack and less boom. Dial it in to where you like it.
 
I'm thinking the problem might be the stock reso. For some reason I had assumed that the reso wasn't as important on a kick drum as on toms in terms of affecting the sound.

Is there any truth in this?
 
Resos are important on all drums.

Some stock bass drum resos are real (name brand, regular model) heads, others are crap. Dunno what you have.

But a "slappy/clicky" sound is not usually caused by the reso.
 
What kind of a bass drum beater are you using? I've found that a regular round felt beater is darker and more boomy than a plastic beater, even if you're using the felt side of a Pearl or DW style plastic beater.

If your stock reso doesn't have any sort of dampening built in, you might need a pillow or something touching it (although I'm not sure exactly how much effect that will have on the slappy sound).

Also, where are you playing? If you're just sitting in a bedroom, you might be hearing the room more than your kit. Just lots of fun stuff to consider in your search.
 
"Slappy" bass drum = batter head tensioned wrong. Crank it some. Tune the drum man. It works, every time.
And Sarah Palin is an idiot.
 
drumtechdad said:
Actually, with PS3s I have found the opposite to be true. They do not sound their best at the "just above wrinkle" stage, at least on my drums.

Try this: bring the reso up from finger-tight very gradually, no more than 1/4 turn at a time. At first it will sound flappy. Eventually it will get its first real tone with some bottom and sustain. Stop there. This is higher than "just above wrinkle," but not by much.

Tune the batter the same way, except try it a smidge higher. This gives maximum bottom end. If you keep raising the batter you'll get more attack and less boom. Dial it in to where you like it.
Click to expand...


Hhhhhhhmmmmmm......interesting observation!

Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com

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