looking for this bass drum sound...can you help?

C

cpg

Junior Member
hello,

recently my vintage slingerland drum heads have torn and i have no patience to repair them. i'm assuming they were about 60 years old since the bass drum i bought was from the 50's. surprised they held up for so long!

anyways, i'm looking for a similar sound, luckily i found a song where the bass drum sounds exactly the same! here is a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt_pKEM3vjw

any ideas as to what heads to purchase to achieve this sound? i'm thinking fiberskyn 3 powerstroke FD's? FA's? maybe the non powerstroke versions? how would i achieve this sound through tuning? any help greatly appreciated!
 
cpg said:
hello,

recently my vintage slingerland drum heads have torn and i have no patience to repair them. i'm assuming they were about 60 years old since the bass drum i bought was from the 50's. surprised they held up for so long!

anyways, i'm looking for a similar sound, luckily i found a song where the bass drum sounds exactly the same! here is a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt_pKEM3vjw

any ideas as to what heads to purchase to achieve this sound? i'm thinking fiberskyn 3 powerstroke FD's? FA's? maybe the non powerstroke versions? how would i achieve this sound through tuning? any help greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

Great song, man you turned me on to some new music. Thanks.

60 year old heads? Man,now I really feel bad changing my heads out once every few months. I wonder what my drumming carbon foot print is.

To me that's a very organic loosely tuned single ply head sound combined with some majorly low budget recording techniques. I mean that in a good way. I am also tempted to say that that could have very well been recorded sans front bass drum head.

Anyway, for a batter head rather than going with a premuffled PS3 type head, I'd go with an Ambassador coated with a felt strip. If you play hard go with an Emperor for more durability.

On the reso, for looks you could put a FA on front also with a felt strip. If there's too much resonance experiment with a little extra internal muffling and with porting the front head.

I also have a set of Slingerlands although mine are about 40 years old, same 3-ply shell design though.. I use a coated Powerstoke batter and Fiberskyn Powerstroke version for the reso with no internal muffling. However, I prefer a full round tone & more resonance from the bass drum.

I find that the old Slingerland 3-ply shells go with standard Ambassador heads like bread goes with butter. A lot of the fancier new design heads work better on drums with sharp 45 degree bearing edges. Exactly the opposite of the old Slingerland edges.
 
Drums&Beer said:
Great song, man you turned me on to some new music. Thanks.

60 year old heads? Man,now I really feel bad changing my heads out once every few months. I wonder what my drumming carbon foot print is.

To me that's a very organic loosely tuned single ply head sound combined with some majorly low budget recording techniques. I mean that in a good way. I am also tempted to say that that could have very well been recorded sans front bass drum head.

Anyway, for a batter head rather than going with a premuffled PS3 type head, I'd go with an Ambassador coated with a felt strip. If you play hard go with an Emperor for more durability.

On the reso, for looks you could put a FA on front also with a felt strip. If there's too much resonance experiment with a little extra internal muffling and with porting the front head.

I also have a set of Slingerlands although mine are about 40 years old, same 3-ply shell design though.. I use a coated Powerstoke batter and Fiberskyn Powerstroke version for the reso with no internal muffling. However, I prefer a full round tone & more resonance from the bass drum.

I find that the old Slingerland 3-ply shells go with standard Ambassador heads like bread goes with butter. A lot of the fancier new design heads work better on drums with sharp 45 degree bearing edges. Exactly the opposite of the old Slingerland edges.
Click to expand...

no problem! glad you liked it!

haha! i never changed the heads because well... they still sounded awesome...even after all they've been through

the recording is indeed very low budget. it was very intriguing to me as to how they got that vintage sound, so i actually contacted the band about their recording techniques. basically it was all done with a single condenser mic.

what you suggested is pretty much exactly how the drum was set up when i purchased it, 2 single ply stock slingerland heads, except with just 1 felt strip on the reso. perhaps i will try another for the batter. i also inserted a pillow for some muffling.

so basically to achieve this sound i would need a single coated ambassador for the batter? i'm fairly set on a fiberskyn for the reso, since they look awesome. which model would you suggest to get the closest sound? thank you so much for your insight!
 
cpg said:
no problem! glad you liked it!

haha! i never changed the heads because well... they still sounded awesome...even after all they've been through

the recording is indeed very low budget. it was very intriguing to me as to how they got that vintage sound, so i actually contacted the band about their recording techniques. basically it was all done with a single condenser mic.

what you suggested is pretty much exactly how the drum was set up when i purchased it, 2 single ply stock slingerland heads, except with just 1 felt strip on the reso. perhaps i will try another for the batter. i also inserted a pillow for some muffling.

so basically to achieve this sound i would need a single coated ambassador for the batter? i'm fairly set on a fiberskyn for the reso, since they look awesome. which model would you suggest to get the closest sound? thank you so much for your insight!
Click to expand...

Right on. If it sounds good why change it.

What size drum is it?

For my Slingerland which is a 20" I'd go with a Coated Ambassador with a felt strip. You can't get more vintage sounding than that.

I would emphasize though, that for a larger drum 24-26, or if you play hard and are looking for extended durability, a Coated Emperor with a felt strip would be the best fit. For reference here's an example of how that can sound. Although recorded differently, here's link to Jeff Ocheltree discussing Bonham's kit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mrNjz_U0ZM The Ludwig 3-ply drums in this video come close to the shell design Slingerland employed, in that you had rounded bearing edges with wider surface contact combined with the thin 3-ply construction.

Either way, both heads would work.
 
Drums&Beer said:
Right on. If it sounds good why change it.

What size drum is it?

For my Slingerland which is a 20" I'd go with a Coated Ambassador with a felt strip. You can't get more vintage sounding than that.

I would emphasize though, that for a larger drum 24-26, or if you play hard and are looking for extended durability, a Coated Emperor with a felt strip would be the best fit. For reference here's an example of how that can sound. Although recorded differently, here's link to Jeff Ocheltree discussing Bonham's kit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mrNjz_U0ZM The Ludwig 3-ply drums in this video come close to the shell design Slingerland employed, in that you had rounded bearing edges with wider surface contact combined with the thin 3-ply construction.

Either way, both heads would work.
Click to expand...

it's a 22'

so coated ambassador with a felt strip for batter, low tuning, and a fiberskyn for reso (with another felt strip possibly)? which model of fiberskyn would you suggest?
 
cpg said:
it's a 22'

so coated ambassador with a felt strip for batter, low tuning, and a fiberskyn for reso (with another felt strip possibly)? which model of fiberskyn would you suggest?
Click to expand...

I would go with a Fiberskyn Powerstroke on the front. This will give you a nice full-sound without the use of a felt strip. You can always add extra muffling with in the drum if needed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top