PS3 batter and ported PS3 reso. Muffling needed for live mic'ing purposes?

cdrums21

Gold Member
I'm about ready to change my kick drum heads. I've been playing a clear PS3 batter with the stock DW black ambassador reso head with a 4" hole and a DW pillow. It's been fine, really good sound, but a couple of things slightly bug me. One, I get a slight resonant ring from the reso head that at times requires me to adjust the pillow so more of the reso head is muffled. Also, I'm not entirely happy with how the DW pillow conforms to the shell. It's kind of stiff and doesn't lay against the bottom of the shell and the heads the way I would like. I'm thinking of going with a PS3 reso with a 4" port hole (ease of mic'ing) and no pillow. Anyone with experience with this combo, please chime in. Do you think I'll need some additional muffling for mic'ing purposes? I think the pillow may be too much with that combo and I'd kinda like to get rid of the pillow all together anyway and use something else if needed. What d'ya think?
 
On my Oak kit I use PS3 front and back. I have a Evans EQ pad laying in the shell that just touches the reso and the Weckl Remo pad laying against the batter. This provides just enough muffling to control the boom. I use an Audix D6 mic. Not sure what the sound guy does as far as EQing but I'm always happy with this combo.
 
I'm about ready to change my kick drum heads. I've been playing a clear PS3 batter with the stock DW black ambassador reso head with a 4" hole and a DW pillow. It's been fine, really good sound, but a couple of things slightly bug me. One, I get a slight resonant ring from the reso head that at times requires me to adjust the pillow so more of the reso head is muffled. Also, I'm not entirely happy with how the DW pillow conforms to the shell. It's kind of stiff and doesn't lay against the bottom of the shell and the heads the way I would like. I'm thinking of going with a PS3 reso with a 4" port hole (ease of mic'ing) and no pillow. Anyone with experience with this combo, please chime in. Do you think I'll need some additional muffling for mic'ing purposes? I think the pillow may be too much with that combo and I'd kinda like to get rid of the pillow all together anyway and use something else if needed. What d'ya think?

When I mic the bass drum for gigs, I like to put a towel or bass drum pad, such as the Evans model, into the drum but not touching the heads. It cancels out some of the high frequencies bouncing around inside. Peace and goodwill.
 
Yes, I've read about the pad in the drum to reduce high frequencies, but I wonder if that's really true. I always have had some form of blanket or pillow in the 22" kick drum, so I never had an issue with it, but I do have a 26x14 Ludwig kick with just felt strips, no muffling and no hole and it doesn't sound boingy or have any high frequencies coming through that I can hear, so I don't know if the softer buffer like a pillow or pad in a kick drum really matters that much? Maybe with mic'ing it does? I use an Audix D6 mic as well. I like an open sound on all my drums, don't muffle anything, and I like a "controlled" boom on my kick. The PS3/ambassador combo worked well...I guess maybe I'll experiment with a different type of pad to see if that helps at all before I go buy a $35 head. I see the PS3/PS3 combo used alot in pro circles, as well as the Evans equivalent...guess it's time to experiment again.
 
Well, I used a felt strip on the reso side and took out the DW pillow to simulate a PS3/PS3 combo and there was definitely too much ringiness from the batter head without it being muffled a little more. That would cause problems when the drum was mic'ed up. I did like the effect of the felt strip though, it muffled the reso head in a different way which seemed to make the drum sound more punchy. It got rid of that slight ring but didn't take away the nice controlled boom. So, I muffled the batter head with the pillow but left the reso head untouched by the pillow and just muffled the reso head with a felt strip. That seemed to work best and the already great sounding drum sounded a little better. In conclusion, I think when I change heads I will go with an ambassador reso head again and muffle it with a felt strip. I may try to come up with something else to place against the batter head as I still don't like the way the DW pillow lays against the head. Something like a small quilt that's more dense I think would be perfect. Thanks for the input guys!
 
Another combo that served me well was Evans EQ1 batter / EQ3 reso with the same muffling I described above. This produced (to my ears) the same punch as the PS3 with slightly lower pitch.
 
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