I'm always impressed with drummers who don't bury the beater. Can't do that for the life of me. My setup is as follows for my 22": small ported remo reso side, emad beater side, small ikea pillow just touching each. Gives a great attack and low rumble. It came stock with a closed reso, but I wasn't getting a good attack out of it at my ears. It was really hard to get the kick to cut through the rest of the band. Now it's great.
Another great video ... thanks guys. My go to bass drum mic set up is this..... Full port reso head (not just a small mic port), old feather pillow (most adjustable), lay the mic (I use the AKG D112) just to the right of center mid way between the two heads. Point the mic at a 45' angle (to start with) away from the batter head. Next, simply adjust as needed... you want more attack, point the mic back toward the batter head, want more resonance point the mic a little more toward the reso head. If you want more of a staccato attack only, bury the mic deeper into the pillow and point directly at the batter head. I find the set up gives all the flexibility I need and is easy to adjust. After 54 years of playing, I've picked up a thing or two !!!
Sometime in the deep and distant past, when I was playing in a working band where I never used a reso on the kick, I lost the hoop for the front of my bass drum. I keep saying that I'll replace the hoop (honestly, I will someday, I swear!), but I really love how my kick sounds with a clear EMAD and an EQ Pad just slightly touching the batter head. I have some cool-looking ported reso heads that I'd really love to try out, though, and it will be fun when the day finally arrives that I can replace that hoop and play around with the sound of the drum. Just for the record, I usually bury the beater. It's a carryover from my caveman drumming days. I have to make a conscious effort not to bury it when I want that effect. I know, I know... As always, thank you for making this consistently my favorite drum-related channel on YT!
I want to add that drums are the only musical instrument that sounds different depending on its placement and proximity to the player. If you sit behind your drums and hit them, then stand up and hit them again, they will sound different. We are truly different! 🥁🥁🥁
I experienced this recently! Im suuuuuper lanky, and sit crazy high - to me, my kick has absolutely no low end in it, and always worries me. I recently shrank my whole kit so my partner's nieces could all play it - when I sat at their height, ALL the drums seemingly had WAY more low end projecting from them. I was amazed at the difference it made just sitting at a different height!
It’s very pronounced for the drums but this effect happens on any instrument with low frequencies. When you are close to the horn of a bari sax it sounds quite different than 6 meters away. Our ears (and any directional microphone) perceive a lot of bass when we’re close to the source that no one else will hear without close micing and amplification.
Great video! Super usable information. My bass drum is slightly tilted up to project the wave away from the floor and I find a reso head on the front also helps to support the bass drum shell especially if the bass drum is supporting the weight of a couple of tom toms.
I was always taught to keep the bass drum tilted up so that none of the shell is touching the floor so has more resonance. Never thought about projection of the sound wave but that's a good point!
There’s no eq or other processing according to the video, but you clearly show a D12vr kick mic with phantom power switched on and thus the on board eq filter is active in 1 of the three settings. No eq would mean running the mic in passive mode i.m.o. Love to hear your comments on that. Other than that nit picking,great show! Big fan here. Learned a lot over the years.
My almost perfect drum sound came out of my 18" bass drum. Beater head is tuned a little on the higher side to improve rebound and articulation, a piece of folded cloth at the center to muffle the attack of the pedals, a pillow touching only the beater side and reso head only finger tight.
Have you ever explored different varieties of bass batter heads? I may have missed it but I’ve always found coated kick batters to be so much more of a desirable sound
Probably not the take you intended from this video, but I never noticed the way your carpet is oriented. I've been struggling for years to fit my kit in a rectangle. Clearly I just need to turn it.
Ha! It’s funny, that’s something I’ve always done when setting up for filming based on why needs to be on the rug and how best to fit the it into the space. Cheers! -Ben
I like short and funky sounds with some sustain and tone and I eventually ended up with a 20”, a reasonably fluffy and light hoodie inside jammed toward the stock batter, which also has a really wide dollar store felt “bolt” rather than a proper muffle strip. The reso is medium high (stock, pinstripey) with no port and I mic both sides. I use an Evans warming EQ patch and I have a beater that can be switched between felt and wood (if I want more attack and to play more driving rock styles). If I need to further shorten or get some other kind of sound from it I’d apply more muffling probably at the batter and use that wood beater for attack. It’s a great video if you haven’t done one in a while, the drastic difference the beater makes. Not just material but surface contact area (that goes for all drums in my opinion)
Here's my set up. Nothing inside the bass drum. A Remo Muffl on the inside of the batter head. A typical Tama resonate head. Beater pad for my double bass pedal. That's it. I'd put my sound up against anyone. I've had tons of compliments and even been asked if my bass drum was mic'd. Nope!
I’ve always wondered why without a front head you position the mic off axis. I’ve wondered the same with bass drums with a resonant head with no mic hole. My thought would be best position of mic would be dead centre.
What do you guys think about the LP magnetic snare wire that fits on any size tom hoop (unless it's diecast), they sound pretty good for making toms into "snoms"
Excellent vid .Something you should add is how to make a bass drum feel and sound good with a double pedal .Its a totally different tuning needed to get it to feel like 2 bass drums ..You dont really cover anything for DB...
The shell is important. Maple is not great shell material for bass drums or toms. A combo of birch and mahogany ply brings out the optimal tone while damping undesirable overtones when correctly tuned. Get it right and you will not need a pillow or any other internal or external muffling. I had a 1960s Ludwig maple shell kit that I could never get tuned well, while my Yamaha Stage Customs sound great in any context.
Except that a whole host of products were developed to attempt to control the undesirable overtones of those drums. Black Dot drumheads. Emperor multilayered heads. Evans oil filled heads. Deadringers. Pillows and blankets in bass drums. Stick on mufflers. The list is almost endless. It always cracked me up to watch drummers buy “industry standard” drums because of their ‘sustain’, to buy mounting systems that let the shells resonate freely…. and then a week later they’re back in the store seeking a solution to the overringing of their drums.
@@Gk2003m but as mentioned in the video above, if you don't have the resonance to start you can't add it in later. All those muffling solutions and different heads are to achieve different sounds, not all trying to get to the same sound. They add versatility. I personally love wide open drums and sounds, similar to Simon Phillips sound. Birch drums to me are too dry and sheer owning them, I won't again.
Golden nuggets all around this channel....I'm still rocking that 15lbs of sandbag from a previous season. Hasn't let me down.
I'm always impressed with drummers who don't bury the beater. Can't do that for the life of me.
My setup is as follows for my 22": small ported remo reso side, emad beater side, small ikea pillow just touching each. Gives a great attack and low rumble. It came stock with a closed reso, but I wasn't getting a good attack out of it at my ears. It was really hard to get the kick to cut through the rest of the band. Now it's great.
Another great video ... thanks guys. My go to bass drum mic set up is this..... Full port reso head (not just a small mic port), old feather pillow (most adjustable), lay the mic (I use the AKG D112) just to the right of center mid way between the two heads. Point the mic at a 45' angle (to start with) away from the batter head. Next, simply adjust as needed... you want more attack, point the mic back toward the batter head, want more resonance point the mic a little more toward the reso head. If you want more of a staccato attack only, bury the mic deeper into the pillow and point directly at the batter head. I find the set up gives all the flexibility I need and is easy to adjust. After 54 years of playing, I've picked up a thing or two !!!
I like using only an Evans EQ Pad inside the kick drum
Sometime in the deep and distant past, when I was playing in a working band where I never used a reso on the kick, I lost the hoop for the front of my bass drum. I keep saying that I'll replace the hoop (honestly, I will someday, I swear!), but I really love how my kick sounds with a clear EMAD and an EQ Pad just slightly touching the batter head. I have some cool-looking ported reso heads that I'd really love to try out, though, and it will be fun when the day finally arrives that I can replace that hoop and play around with the sound of the drum. Just for the record, I usually bury the beater. It's a carryover from my caveman drumming days. I have to make a conscious effort not to bury it when I want that effect. I know, I know...
As always, thank you for making this consistently my favorite drum-related channel on YT!
I want to add that drums are the only musical instrument that sounds different depending on its placement and proximity to the player. If you sit behind your drums and hit them, then stand up and hit them again, they will sound different. We are truly different! 🥁🥁🥁
I experienced this recently! Im suuuuuper lanky, and sit crazy high - to me, my kick has absolutely no low end in it, and always worries me. I recently shrank my whole kit so my partner's nieces could all play it - when I sat at their height, ALL the drums seemingly had WAY more low end projecting from them. I was amazed at the difference it made just sitting at a different height!
It’s very pronounced for the drums but this effect happens on any instrument with low frequencies. When you are close to the horn of a bari sax it sounds quite different than 6 meters away. Our ears (and any directional microphone) perceive a lot of bass when we’re close to the source that no one else will hear without close micing and amplification.
Great video! Super usable information. My bass drum is slightly tilted up to project the wave away from the floor and I find a reso head on the front also helps to support the bass drum shell especially if the bass drum is supporting the weight of a couple of tom toms.
I was always taught to keep the bass drum tilted up so that none of the shell is touching the floor so has more resonance. Never thought about projection of the sound wave but that's a good point!
@@bentweedy8663 Thanks Ben!
Fantastic! Thank you for this! 10 out of 10! Keep up the great work!
There’s no eq or other processing according to the video, but you clearly show a D12vr kick mic with phantom power switched on and thus the on board eq filter is active in 1 of the three settings. No eq would mean running the mic in passive mode i.m.o. Love to hear your comments on that. Other than that nit picking,great show! Big fan here. Learned a lot over the years.
My almost perfect drum sound came out of my 18" bass drum. Beater head is tuned a little on the higher side to improve rebound and articulation, a piece of folded cloth at the center to muffle the attack of the pedals, a pillow touching only the beater side and reso head only finger tight.
Love this Channel.
Not some ridiculous hyped up CLA drum sound.
We actually hear what real drums sound like on this channel.
Keep it up guys.
Thanks! Hopefully you caught last week's episode with the ridiculous, hyped-up CLA drum sound 😅
Have you ever explored different varieties of bass batter heads? I may have missed it but I’ve always found coated kick batters to be so much more of a desirable sound
Probably not the take you intended from this video, but I never noticed the way your carpet is oriented. I've been struggling for years to fit my kit in a rectangle. Clearly I just need to turn it.
Ha! It’s funny, that’s something I’ve always done when setting up for filming based on why needs to be on the rug and how best to fit the it into the space. Cheers! -Ben
I like short and funky sounds with some sustain and tone and I eventually ended up with a 20”, a reasonably fluffy and light hoodie inside jammed toward the stock batter, which also has a really wide dollar store felt “bolt” rather than a proper muffle strip.
The reso is medium high (stock, pinstripey) with no port and I mic both sides. I use an Evans warming EQ patch and I have a beater that can be switched between felt and wood (if I want more attack and to play more driving rock styles).
If I need to further shorten or get some other kind of sound from it I’d apply more muffling probably at the batter and use that wood beater for attack.
It’s a great video if you haven’t done one in a while, the drastic difference the beater makes. Not just material but surface contact area (that goes for all drums in my opinion)
Here's my set up. Nothing inside the bass drum. A Remo Muffl on the inside of the batter head. A typical Tama resonate head. Beater pad for my double bass pedal. That's it. I'd put my sound up against anyone. I've had tons of compliments and even been asked if my bass drum was mic'd. Nope!
I’ve always wondered why without a front head you position the mic off axis. I’ve wondered the same with bass drums with a resonant head with no mic hole. My thought would be best position of mic would be dead centre.
He positions it the same whether the head is there or not, so there are fewer variables changing
What do you guys think about the LP magnetic snare wire that fits on any size tom hoop (unless it's diecast), they sound pretty good for making toms into "snoms"
We haven't spent any time with this product.
I try a mesh resonant head on my bass Drum, it works Very well !
Excellent vid .Something you should add is how to make a bass drum feel and sound good with a double pedal .Its a totally different tuning needed to get it to feel like 2 bass drums ..You dont really cover anything for DB...
The shell is important. Maple is not great shell material for bass drums or toms. A combo of birch and mahogany ply brings out the optimal tone while damping undesirable overtones when correctly tuned. Get it right and you will not need a pillow or any other internal or external muffling. I had a 1960s Ludwig maple shell kit that I could never get tuned well, while my Yamaha Stage Customs sound great in any context.
Maple is the industry standard for great sounding drums.
Except that a whole host of products were developed to attempt to control the undesirable overtones of those drums. Black Dot drumheads. Emperor multilayered heads. Evans oil filled heads. Deadringers. Pillows and blankets in bass drums. Stick on mufflers. The list is almost endless. It always cracked me up to watch drummers buy “industry standard” drums because of their ‘sustain’, to buy mounting systems that let the shells resonate freely…. and then a week later they’re back in the store seeking a solution to the overringing of their drums.
@@Gk2003m but as mentioned in the video above, if you don't have the resonance to start you can't add it in later. All those muffling solutions and different heads are to achieve different sounds, not all trying to get to the same sound. They add versatility. I personally love wide open drums and sounds, similar to Simon Phillips sound. Birch drums to me are too dry and sheer owning them, I won't again.
can I have the bass drum
It's not for sale.