The subject of porting

I've never wanted to drill my top hat, but I would like to play the Eric Harland style hats.. he uses a K EFX cymbal with all the cut outs in it. That would be cool.

The scalloped, wavey edges are for venting. The purpose of venting in hi hats is to get a shorter note, and a more pronounced chick sound from your hi hat.. its not really for air lock. As other people have alluded to, air lock is when the two cymbals actually are suctioned together. If you've ever marched cymbals in drumline, you know what I'm talking about.

The quiet, strange feeling note you are referring to Larry is just when the two cymbals land perfect flat on top of one another. That's why the tilt helps you. It'll offset that angle and flam the two hats together, so you don't get that feeling. Its the same concept as crashing orchestral crash cymbals.. You always flam the two sides: CR-ASH. You never want to smack them together flat, because they won't make a sound, and they will get stuck together.

I personally think vented hats sound choked, thin, and wimpy. It like a piccolo snare versus a 402. Non-vented hi hats have body and resonance that completely goes away with venting. I like the idea of sizzle hats, and I'm in the process of fixing me some of those, but just plain venting isn't for me.
 
Last edited:
For the bass drum thing, maybe get a second bass drum with a remote pedal (lefty double pedal)?
 
You guys are coming up with some great ideas - LOL. I think I might try one of them.

Not good enough I guess, I called Kick Port today and pitched them my idea just for the hell of it. They thought it would be too heavy plus it would be too small of a sales market to bother, oh well, maybe next time...lol
 
the port on the bass is for a mic.you can get a wide open sound with a ported head or a punchy sound.try folding up a small towel, and putting it on the batter head next to your pedal you can muffle the drum down some.
there was an old school muffle that would clip to the bass drum and muffle it. kind of like the muffle on the inside of a practice snare, but bigger and on the outside.
the hi hat thing sounds like a problem in the stand probably the spring. or the post bent or not aligned and catching on the inside of the tube.
also like said before, try adjusting that screw under the hh. it will smooth out the sound of the hh too.
the vents are for pressure release so the heads don't choke them selves and the shells can ring.
 
Tard, that could be a blessing in disguise when you bring the product to market and one up them. On the other hand, they could just run with the idea now that they have it. I don't buy their logic. That valve and actuator assembly could be made so light as to be negligible. The kickport is the heavy part. They're probably in a development meeting as we speak lol. Intellectual theft.

wsabol, I never noticed any sound change whatsoever when I drilled my bottom hat. I'll have to try plugging them up and comparing. And the thing is, I've always used the tilter, and occasionally it still happens. At home and on the gig, 2 different stands. I mean it's not a huge problem, but I don't like it when it happens. I just fiddle with the tilter and it goes away, but my tilter is nowhere near flat ever.
 
I have had a couple guys comment on the great stick rebound on the toms and im thinking that might be part of the reason but its hard to believe that a hole that small would actually make that much of a difference in rebound, now a 4" port on a bass drum head, sure.

Oh it does. Take an average whack at a tom and keep your hand a couple inches over the hole. It has a lot to do with air movement just as a good speaker cabinet. If that air had nowhere to escape, all of that air gets forced down to the resonant head with relatively little air disruption. As the resonant head bows out, it absorbs some of the momentum of the air, but a lot less that if the drum was ported. Now that air rebounds and comes back to the batter head not being slowed nearly as much. Also, as the resonant head bows, it creates a semi vacuum buy the batter head because of the air occupying the bowed out portion of the resonant head and the velocity and energy of that air. This further exacerbates this effect. No, it doesn't look like much, but when you deal with the actually physics of it, you're dealing with a sealed, smooth cylinder full of air. When you tie in the velocity of the stick along with mass, the amount flex in both drum heads and so on, there is a ton of potential energy there. Here is a perfect example that only a high speed camera can truly paint the real picture of what's going on. Remember that this is a typical ported snare. Throw in all the other stuff, and you have what you are talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Gxut0odyc Enjoy this. If you haven't seen it before, prepare to be shocked and awed.
 
Tard, that could be a blessing in disguise when you bring the product to market and one up them. On the other hand, they could just run with the idea now that they have it. I don't buy their logic. That valve and actuator assembly could be made so light as to be negligible. The kickport is the heavy part. They're probably in a development meeting as we speak lol. Intellectual theft.

wsabol, I never noticed any sound change whatsoever when I drilled my bottom hat. I'll have to try plugging them up and comparing. And the thing is, I've always used the tilter, and occasionally it still happens. At home and on the gig, 2 different stands. I mean it's not a huge problem, but I don't like it when it happens. I just fiddle with the tilter and it goes away, but my tilter is nowhere near flat ever.

I see jazz guys take their left hand a spin the bottom hat or spin both hats in opposite directions with there thumb and first finger while they are playing to fix this problem. You don't have to mess with the tilter everytime. You just spin and realign and your fine. That's what I do.. Unless we aren't talking about the same thing, then idk.

I had some vintage quick beats that I thought were the bees knees until I started getting high end unported hats like my Bosphorus NO hats, and some 60s As. Comparing side by side, I could hear a definite difference, especially from a distance. You can really hear it on sound files too. Its the chick and the closed stick sound that are really affected. Its like the wildly ported snares, not is a lack of shell tone and body.
 
Tard, that could be a blessing in disguise when you bring the product to market and one up them. On the other hand, they could just run with the idea now that they have it. I don't buy their logic. That valve and actuator assembly could be made so light as to be negligible. The kickport is the heavy part. They're probably in a development meeting as we speak lol. Intellectual theft.

wsabol, I never noticed any sound change whatsoever when I drilled my bottom hat. I'll have to try plugging them up and comparing. And the thing is, I've always used the tilter, and occasionally it still happens. At home and on the gig, 2 different stands. I mean it's not a huge problem, but I don't like it when it happens. I just fiddle with the tilter and it goes away, but my tilter is nowhere near flat ever.
\

I keep my tilter at just below it's max

and I have my hats about 4 to 5 inches apart when at their max....which they rarely are.....but I need them to be as loud and obnoxious as possible when I want them to be
 
4 to 5 is a lot. But you have more options with that much space. I use about half that. I like my top cymbal to clear the bottom but not by too much. Barks are great with a lot of space in between. Nail that top cymbal wide open and snap it shut. Ah, the pleasures of the hi hat....
 
Glad I could do that for you Larry! I think I had enough accumulated over time and had some "extras" lying around, I'd like to do some experimenting. I really like a couple cymbals that have the rivets. I think it would be cool to try on a set of hats. It will be some time before I can give that a shot, but I will definitely post results if I do.
 
Back
Top