Kick drum heads - hole or no hole?1

It also helps in close micing the bass drum so you can get the mic pointed right at the beater and inside the drum. I like the drier sound my 22" kick has with a 5" port on the reso head and I left the logo reso on my Gretsch 18" bass drum and I like it's slightly boomy and resonant quality.
 
also, with a hole you can reach in there and move around whatever you put in there to muffle the drum, or remove it.

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.
 
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.

Me too. Once I went in to move my pillow and I found some chewing gum. WTF? That's a whole lot of "I don't give a shit" to do that to somebody's instrument. It was probably somebody in the band. Singers.
 
i used a ported head for years but when i got my Pro M kit i went with a non-ported head and just a felt strip on both batter and reso heads. after being away from that sound for so long i forgot how GREAT it sounds!!

tuned right you get that great "boom" with the reined in overtones by using the felts. LOVE IT!

first gig i did with that kit one of the sound guys was freaking out because "there's no hole in the kick drum!!!!!" after that gig he never bothered to mention the "no hole" sound again.
 
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.
 
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 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.
 
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.
 
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.

Worth a try, it's free!

I hear young guys playing unmiked with ported and muffled bass drums--set up that way because they sound great at home--all the time, and their bass drums are nearly inaudible with a loudish band.

It's always good to try and go out in the audience area and listen to your kit with someone else playing it--it often sounds amazingly different than from the driver's seat. I learned a ton about heads, tuning, and muffling that way. And that most of what I "knew" was wrong.
 
Holes in Your Head or Not
Here are the basic concepts:

·Any hole larger than 7” is like having no head at all on the drum.

·A 7” hole creates the feel of a one-headed kick drum, feeds more beater attack direct to an audience and provides some of the tone of the resonant head. Further, it’s easy to position a mic and change internal muffling devices, if used.

·A 4-1/2” or 5” hole, or even 2 such holes, offset, allows some relief for rebound control of the kick beater, contains more of the drums resonance so that the resonant head is more pronounced in the tuning of the drum. A 4-1/2” hole is difficult to get large mic’s positioned within (but can be done) and/or internal muffling altered.

·No hole, very resonant, creates more bounce or rebound from the kick beater. It can become difficult to get the “slap” of the beater and resonance of the drum both when miced with one microphone. The muffling remains inside. The resonant head is very predominant in the overall sound.

There are usually four reasons why drummers want a hole (or multiple holes) in the bass drum:

·It looks cool.
·They do not like the feel of the beater on the batter head surface, it bounces as a result of not enough air relief.
·They need to mic the drum from or capture the sound from the inside.
They want more projection without using a mic (less bass impact, more beater attack presence).


*All information from the Drum Tuning Bible

http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/index.html
 
Holy thread resurrections Batman!

Stumbled across this and thought I'd chime in - don't care how late I am to the game :)

I have always had holes in my reso kick heads - about 4" in diameter. Last night I received a new Remo Fiberskyn head and put it on my 22x14" Yamaha RC birch kick (no muffling at all). I installed the reso head without cutting a hole. The batter head is a Remo Powerstroke 3.

The tone and feel of the drum is very different and imo better. It sounds fuller - more baddass. More Bonham-esque. More of everything. So much tone and plenty of punch. I like the beater head rebound feel also.

So I may not cut a hole ever again but I like holes for micing purposes. So I may build me an internal suspension mount. That would the ultimate.

Okay then. That is all.
 
I think it's worth taking into consideration the size of your bass drum when deciding whether or not to port it. For example, I play an 18" bass. I wouldn't dream of ever porting the front head. I need all the sustain and tone that I can get. However, playing a big 26" bass might be a different story.
 
I'm seriously considering cutting a hole in one of my bass drum heads (I have 3). I'm experimenting with internal drum muffling and it's a real PITA to put something in there, tune it up, try it out, take the head off, make an adjustment, tune it up, try it out...... and so on... and so on... Plus, I have some mics coming my way and I would like to experiment with different mic positions, so a hole may be a good idea to have. I have heard 5" holes are the way to go if you plan on doing any mic'ing of the drum.
 
I vote yes---my 22x14 will thump your chest from across the room---Powerstroke 3 batter, center ported reso, and the felt side of the beaters gives me just the sound I want, and puts the mic directly in front of the beater.
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No ports for me. Did it for years. Got a new kit, left the kick reso head "as issued," found I liked it, a lot. I got talking into porting that kick, hated it, went back to unported. My 20" won't get a port. I have a ported head for it, but don't like the sound or the response I get from the drum, so it stays in the gig bag in case of extreme emergencies.

I get some grief from sound guys, but ignore it. It's my job to get a good sound from my drums. It's their job to mic the instrument with which they've been presented. I mean, seriously: Do they ask other instrumentalists to put holes in their shit? Do they drill holes in saxophones? Do they go up to Wayne Shorter and say, "Yeah, I know you make a great sound, but I can't capture it without you putting a hole in your sax."?

Nope. So what makes them think they make that demand of me?

Let me be perfectly clear: I'm no prima donna. I know damn well I'm not the best thing since sliced bread. I'm certainly not to drums what Wayne Shorter is to sax. But that's not the point. The point is an engineer needs to know how to mic instruments. If s/he doesn't, s/he needs to woodshed until s/he has that knowledge. I hate to be a prick about my kick drum to sound guys, but the only answer I have is "What? You don't know how to cope with a complete drum? Here, let me show you."

Cutting holes in my stuff because they can't be arsed to learn how to mic the instrument?

Nope. Nope nope nope.
 

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