Who still puts a pillow/blanket in the bass drum?

I like a lot of boom out of my 18x24, so I put an 18" piece of studio foam in my kick with a PS3 batter and the stock ddrum reso, and I haven't looked back since.
 
I occasionally stuff my bass drum with a dead hooker.
I find it really cuts down on all those extraneous noises like police sirens and such

Do you have to remove the head and limbs or can you just fold them into there like a lawn chair?
 
I occasionally stuff my bass drum with a dead hooker.
I find it really cuts down on all those extraneous noises like police sirens and such

Excellent, I'm going to try this myself. I'm running out of mattresses to put them in.
 
You mean to tell me that there are people out there who still put things inside of their bass drums!
That's crazy! There are special heads to prevent the need for that silliness now-a-days.
I haven't stuffed in many years. At least not my bass drum!

Totally agree. Even before there were pre-muffled bass drum heads, I never put anything inside. I only used felt strips. Now they're just built into the heads. Perfect.
 
I use PS3 front & back, ported reso on the 22 [mic mounted in a Kelly Shu], solid reso on the 18. No additional muffling.
 
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In the DIY/crafts section of Walmart I found some 16"x16"x1" seat cushion style urethane foam inserts. Lay them down flat on the inside of the shell (mine are 16"x22"), stick a few pieces of double sided tape to keep them from moving and *magic* (for my preference) perfect muffling. Lots of tone while just enough contact between the foam and the heads to control ringing and overtones.

Also, since I'm using 2 bass, pretty easy to replicate between each drum. Very consistent sound.
 
For a brief period of time I did drum maintenance on kit in a recording studio, a really nice set of Pearl birch drums, can't remember what kind.

One day I put new heads on all the drums, tuned them very well and they sounded great. The bass drum had both heads on, no port in the resonant head. It sounded deep and full and way punchy.

About a month after that I went in to find that one of the engineers had removed the front head and stuffed the bass drum full of anything he could lay his hands on. All the lug screws were missing and the entire kit looked like it had been dragged behind a truck. That was the end of that.

Whenever I go in there now I make it a point to avoid looking at those drums. Now I'm not knocking people who feel the need to muffle their bass drums, but why take an expensive, well-made bass drum and make it sound like a suitcase stuffed with dirty laundry?

Thats ridiculous... I just bought a Pearl Masters Birch, I won't even put double ply heads on it let alone stuff a bunch crap inside of them. I think people need to reserve these muffling techniques for lower end drums.
 
I have two Throw pillows and a thin blanket in mine, For some reason it's the only way i like it. I have tried without and i can't get it to sound how i like it! With the pillows and blanket it sounds super deep with some punch, i love it!
 
Totally agree. Even before there were pre-muffled bass drum heads, I never put anything inside. I only used felt strips. Now they're just built into the heads. Perfect.

Why spend £30-£50 on a head like the EMAD or Superkick II when it's much quicker and easier to put in a pillow or blanket and adjust it exactly how you want?

Simple answer IMO.
xoxo
 
22x20 Kick, EMAD II clear on batter, fiberskyn on reso, no extra muffling! Mess with the tuning enough, and you can find that sweet spot.
 
That is hardly wide open. Ya know, nobody likes the remo muffle things really ANYwhere as far as I can tell, but I got one along with each of my kick drums. Didnt buy them, they just came along. And I like them! They give both my kicks and nice loud THUMP and they sound great miked. And how is that any different then an emad anyway? Except they don't break! I will say they are ugly as heck but too bad. I'm using them going forward. I was going to buy an emad today but screw that. I already own these.

The wide open comment is meant to describe the inside of my drum..as in nothing stuffed inside...regarding your other comments...I haven't had an EMAD break on me yet...got two of them (20" 5+ yrs. old, 22" 2+ yrs. old)...the remo rings are different than emad..in that they go on the inside (under head) and cover the bearing edge and also mute the drum considerably more...
 
One of the wildest things I've seen was Bryant Mills with his Pearl MCM about a third full of shredded newspaper....


I understand this newspaper idea. I like a controlled BOOM from my bass. Pillows and blankets produced too much "thud" for my liking. I read that Rikki Rockitt used Styrofoam packaging peanuts to help produce the BOOM while eliminating the overtones. The idea is to have light pressure on both heads.

I tried it and it worked fine for a while, until the Styrofoam started to disintegrate. After a while, my bass drum had mostly dust and only a few peanuts! A real mess to clean up!

After trying a couple of different materials, I settled on plastic grocery bags. I tossed a handful in the bass drum and rocked the drum back and forth until the bags settle against both heads. PERFECT! I love the sound and the feel, plus no mess.

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The wide open comment is meant to describe the inside of my drum..as in nothing stuffed inside...regarding your other comments...I haven't had an EMAD break on me yet...got two of them (20" 5+ yrs. old, 22" 2+ yrs. old)...the remo rings are different than emad..in that they go on the inside (under head) and cover the bearing edge and also mute the drum considerably more...

Roger that on "nothing stuffed inside".
I played friday night miced live with the remo muffle thing and I have to say the kick sounded REALLY good! In fact our "followers" said we sounded best ever. What I like is I can tune the heads tighter and still get a low boom. The batter head has a better feel tighter to my foot anyway. I rekon the emad has the same advantage?
 
I understand this newspaper idea. I like a controlled BOOM from my bass. Pillows and blankets produced too much "thud" for my liking. I read that Rikki Rockitt used Styrofoam packaging peanuts to help produce the BOOM while eliminating the overtones. The idea is to have light pressure on both heads.

I tried it and it worked fine for a while, until the Styrofoam started to disintegrate. After a while, my bass drum had mostly dust and only a few peanuts! A real mess to clean up!

After trying a couple of different materials, I settled on plastic grocery bags. I tossed a handful in the bass drum and rocked the drum back and forth until the bags settle against both heads. PERFECT! I love the sound and the feel, plus no mess.

DSC00802.jpg
DSC00805.jpg


We have those 'Thank You' bags at the store i work at hahahah

Looks crazy but each to their own!
 
I had a pillow in there for awhile, then I got a clear GMAD batter and later a PS3 ebony, messed with the tuning a little, and I love the way it sounds with nothing inside.

Plus, I don't have to worry about whatever I have inside shifting around when I take it to shows.
 
At a school I used to go to, they had pearl export drum kits with 22" x 18" bass drums. To reduce the volume, they used those Polystyrene 'S' shapes tat you find in packaging and filled it up to about 1/4 of the bass drum. Have to say, it did very little to the volume but it really gave the bass drum a nice thump sound.
 
So nobody just leaves it as it is?

My main kick , a 1996 Dw 20x18 kick, I don't use any pillow but just a small piece of cloth in case a sound man uses a Sm91. A super kick head and the stock Dw front head with a mic hole and it sounds wonderful.
 
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