Goldsoundz
Junior Member
Is a 5.75" hole too large for a 20" kick drum front head? I bought one of those kits to cut out a hole and add a chrome ring around it for a nice finished look, but it's almost 6" in diameter, and my kick is 20".
It completely depends on the sound you're going for with your kick, and what head you're driving on the batter, and where you plan on positioning the hole, and what muffling (if any) you have in there...
A 5.75" head is a smidge under a third of the drum's diameter. If you were to put it dead center of the front head (i.e. directly in front of where your beater hits) your sound will change to almost pure attack, because the initial press of air will go straight out the exit without pausing to make any resonance (or very very little) in the shell or front head.
If you offset it (maybe 1-2 inches in from the edge at 4 o'clock) the initial press of air should still hit the front of the head, but it will still be a bit clickier and more attack than boom.
To put it in perspective, if you made the same proportion of hole on a 22", it'd be 6.325" across. On a 24", it'd be almost 7" across.
Until Bo mentioned what he does for live play, I wasn't going to mention it.... but I've played a 16x20 for about 12 years now, and never put a hole in the front, despite the sound guys' insistence at gigs (in-joke there...) With the new Kickport getting rave reviews, I've been very tempted, but I still haven't heard a kick with a hole in the front head that I like as well as I like mine without.
I tune the batter (Evans EQ3) about 2 turns tighter than JAW until I get a thump with just a smidge of sustain and tone, tune the front head about 1/2 turn past JAW so that it just resonates, and the only muffling I use is a rolled-up T-shirt touching the batter head from about 4:30 to 7:30. It sounds great live, miked or unmiked, and when I record it with an ambient dynamic mic in the room, it sounds like a very brief subwoofer pulse with an attack on the front end of the note.
alparrott is a tight tuner on his batter, as you can now see from his claim that he goes about two turns above JAW.
For further example, I only torque about 3/4 to 1 turn above JAW. I tune kind of medium/tight on my bass batter.
I play a 20" bass drum and have a 5" hole at the 3 o'clock position.
You'll forgive me, but I'm really proud of this groove - this is what it sounded like on one of my last recordings, and it's a great sound. I wasn't beating it up, I was literally dancing on the pedal and love this bass drum sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SIKDJVLUXo
The batter head is a Remo PS3 and my mic is a Shure SM58 sticking just inside the hole. There is a small folded-up wool army blanket just on the bottom of the shell barely touching both heads. When I play out live in an un-mic'd situation, I put a full front head on with no muffling.
I know this is an old thread.
Still, I'm hoping someone sees it and can help
In post #9 of this thread drummerworld member, audiotech posted some nice pics of a yamaha kit
One pic shows an Electro Voice re20 mic on a short boom mic stand at front of a Yamaha bass drum
Can anyone help identify the black mic mount holding the Electro Voice re20 kick mic in the picture
It wraps around the center on the mic
What might it be and where to get one to try?
I pm'ed audiotech but I'm sure he would see it.
Thanks.
Dan
hi dennis,
if you are able would you consider selling one of your mic mounts to me for my re20?
was also wondering which brand of the heavy based kick mic stands you use and recommend? it seems there are many brands.
maybe some or all made by same company and distributed under several different names.
thanks
dan