Port on shallow Bassdrum

C

coreyflecha

Junior Member
Hello, normally my kick drums have the hole in the front head to put the microphone and all that, but now I have a Tama Neo Mod, and I wonder if having a shallow kick drum (20x10") would it be bad to open the hole? Thanks for any information and sorry for the bad English.
 
Place a mic on the drum and listen to the recording. You will need to dampen the head; a felt strip works well.
 
All depends on the sound you're going for, the heads you're using and the music you play.

If you're using a shallow kick to play jazz in small venues keep the front head whole and use a felt strip to dampen or nothing if you wanna go full Carlock.

If you're playing pop and rock put a port in by all means. You should be able to get the mic really close to the batter head and get a nice thuddy punch with a 10" deep bass drum. Chuck a pillow to deaden the drum.
 
I had a 20x11ish bass drum with no front head at all, a 16x10 with no front head at all, I currently play a 18x10 with a 4" port, and previously had a 18x7 with a 4" port and a 16x12" with a 4" port. All of the drums with resos and port had a single ply reso with floating edge ring (like Remo PS3 or Evans eq4) and either the same head or an Evans emad on the batter and no other muffling, pillows, tape, etc. With all of these drums I had a perfect balance of punch and tone, I could lay into them for a tight thump or could feather them for a soft boom, all of them had great presence and projection unmiced but also took to mic'ing very easily and always sounded great through a big system.

I don't like that dead clicky pillow metal/funk sound but I also don't like the wide open high pitched 'bonk' of the typical jazz sound, my above method has been tried and true for me with all drums regardless of size and always gives me the best of both worlds and overall most versatile drum. I'm typically using a regular felt beater but if the situation is a bit softer I'll swap it for a big fluffy beater. Lately I've been using the emad a ton and if I find myself in a very boomy/echoey room I'll swap the smaller foam ring for the larger foam ring but this is rare.
 
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I play pop rock, so I understand that there is no problem opening the hole, I was worried that being shallow it would be bad to open it, I use an emad so there is already some dampening, I like the way it sounds, but when I give concerts they usually want to put the microphone on the bass drum and that is why I was asking if it was not recommended
Thank you very much for the information
 
coreyflecha said:
I play pop rock, so I understand that there is no problem opening the hole, I was worried that being shallow it would be bad to open it, I use an emad so there is already some dampening, I like the way it sounds, but when I give concerts they usually want to put the microphone on the bass drum and that is why I was asking if it was not recommended
Thank you very much for the information
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When in doubt go with the smallest possible hole and offset it from the center as much as you can, this still allows you to have as much of the full drum sound as possible while still giving a port for mic'ing. Also, don't be afraid to tweak your tuning a bit. When I first started experimenting with ported heads years ago I found I needed to take my reso head up a half turn on each lug.

Also, if you are in a position where buying a new head won't be a financial burden then I would suggest leaving your current head in-tact and just buying a pre-ported head. All the big manufacturers make them, Remo, Evans, Aquarian.
 
roncadillac said:
When in doubt go with the smallest possible hole and offset it from the center as much as you can, this still allows you to have as much of the full drum sound as possible while still giving a port for mic'ing. Also, don't be afraid to tweak your tuning a bit. When I first started experimenting with ported heads years ago I found I needed to take my reso head up a half turn on each lug.

Also, if you are in a position where buying a new head won't be a financial burden then I would suggest leaving your current head in-tact and just buying a pre-ported head. All the big manufacturers make them, Remo, Evans, Aquarian.
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Yes, I will try with the minimum space to fit the microphone, if for whatever reason it does not convince me I can always put another head but I would prefer to save money xD

MustangMick said:
You could mic from the batter side.
Using a small table top mic stand between your snare and BD pedal
Mick
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yes, the problem is to explain to the site's sound technician that he has to do something "different" they are not always willing to do things in another way
 
coreyflecha said:
yes, the problem is to explain to the site's sound technician that he has to do something "different" they are not always willing to do things in another way
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This kinda answers your question.

Get a head with a pre-cut offset hole. Golden rule, keep the sound guy happy! If you're using an emad you wont need any dampening in the drum.
 
coreyflecha said:
Yes, I will try with the minimum space to fit the microphone, if for whatever reason it does not convince me I can always put another head but I would prefer to save money xD


yes, the problem is to explain to the site's sound technician that he has to do something "different" they are not always willing to do things in another way
Click to expand...
Did this on Saturday night (Yamaha 8000 22x16, no port, only dampening a folded pillow case between pedal and batter head)

Mic on Tabletop stand about 6" from impact point. (Placed between Snare stand and pedal)
Sound tech said it worked great, he had never tried that before.

Think of how you would mic a large Floor Tom, its the same principle.
I do have Ported Bass drums, this is just an option to try.

Mick
 
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