Most descriptions about coatings
and material type are as described in the section “Tom, Drumheads - Batter side”. There are some similarities here to that used for a tom, but there are also some real differences
in heads used, such as the Evan’s EQ and Aquarian Regulator series.
· Single Ply – No muffling: Any head on par with the likes of REMO Ambassador,
Ebony series, FiberSkyn 3 FA, Aquarian Classic, Aquarian Signature Series Jack DeJohnette, Evans EQ1, EQ4, etc.
· Muffled head, 1-ply: Any head on par with the likes of REMO Ambassador, Ebony
series, FiberSkyn 3 FA, Aquarian Classic, Aquarian Signature Series Carmine or Vinny Appice, Studio X, Impact I, SuperKick
I, Evans EQ1, EQ4, etc.
· Muffled head, 2-ply: Any head on par with the likes of REMO Pinstripe, Evan’s
EQ2, EQ3 or hydraulic, Aquarian SuperKick II
· Single Ply – No muffling: Any head on par with the likes of REMO Ambassador,
Ebony series, FiberSkyn 3 FA, Aquarian Classic, Ported Bass Drum Head, Evans EQ1, UNO 58 1000, etc.
· Single Ply – With muffling: Any head on par with the likes of REMO PowerStroke
3, Aquarian Regulator, Evans EQ2, EQ3, etc. Note that most of these come with a choice of a 4-1/2”, 5”, 7”
or no hole.
Here are the basic concepts:
· Any hole larger than 7” is like having no head at all on the drum.
· A 7” hole creates the feel of a one-headed kick drum, feeds more beater
attack direct to an audience and provides some of the tone of the resonant head. Further, it’s easy to position a mic
and change internal muffling devices, if used.
· A 4-1/2” or 5” hole, or even 2 such holes, offset, allows some relief
for rebound control of the kick beater, contains more of the drums resonance so that the resonant head is more pronounced
in the tuning of the drum. A 4-1/2” hole is difficult to get large mic’s positioned within (but can be done) and/or
internal muffling altered.
· No hole, very resonant, creates more bounce or rebound from the kick beater. It can become difficult to get the “slap” of the beater and resonance
of the drum both when miced with one microphone. The muffling remains inside.
The resonant head is very predominant in the overall sound.
There are usually four reasons
why drummers want a hole (or multiple holes) in the bass drum:
· It looks cool.
· They do not like the feel of the beater on the batter head surface, it bounces
as a result of not enough air relief.
· They need to mic the drum from or capture the sound from the inside.
· They want more projection without using a mic (less bass impact, more beater attack
presence).
For those who want it because
it looks cool, there is an acoustic impact on the sound by placing a hole or holes in the resonant side. By acoustic impact
I mean that the removal of head material does affect the bass portion of the note coming from the drum.
Allot of the “bass”
portion of what you hear is based upon the surface area in the center of the drum. That
surface area is a diaphragm working much like a speaker radiator might work, in that it will aid in moving air. Remember that
pitch is dictated by the tension and the surface area in movement. So if you remove a large center portion, you lose a large
portion of the bass reinforcement that gets emitted by the heads movement and tension usually has to increase to compensate
for the removal of the center area. Adding holes does not increase bass content
as might be the case on a tuned vented speaker cabinet would.
Thicker heads tend to stay
in motion longer. With loose tension they will vibrate at a lesser rate, which all translates into lower pitch and a longer
resonance. This assumes no internal muffling,
or other devices to make the head stop its vibrating motion sooner.
Some want the different feel
created by having air relief but still want maximum bass affect. As you remove
more head area you trade off deep bass for a different feel. A solution is using
smaller holes placed around the perimeter of the head. If you want the mic to
capture sound from inside, you either have to resort to say the May mic system or revert to a larger hole to get the mic into
the drum as you require. What you ultimately do will be based upon the balcance of all the factors that are important to you.
It is the area of the hole
that counts. Where it is located matters little for the affect on sound (as long as it isn't on the batter side). If you want maximum tone out of the head, then the size of each hole needs to be in the 1-2” size,
and they need be placed closer to the perimeter, but not placed so the edge of the hole is closer than about 1” to the
break for the bearing edge. In other words, for the best tone, you need to keep
as much of the center of the resonant head intact as possible. And again, it’s not the number, it’s the area displaced
that can make a big difference and where that area is removed. You can make any
number you want, in the following example to illustrate the concept we'll make two holes to represent the maximum area displaced
by a common 7 inch hole.
The
math is simple. We first need to calculate the area of a 7” hole. To do this we use the formula Pi(R²). So first find
half of the diameter of the 7" hole (the radius), which is 3.5”. Now multiply that times itself. So 3.5 x 3.5 = 12.25. Then take this result of 12.25 and multiply
it times Pi, which is 3.142. So we now have 12.25 x 3.142 = 38.5. So the area
of the 7 inch hole we started with is 38.5 square inches. This 38.5 sq. in. is
important. We will simply round it up to 40 square inches, cause close is enough.
Now
we can use any number of holes as long as is does not cumulatively exceed 40 square inches of total area. Yet at the same
time does equal 40 square inches. This will be the same air relief as having one 7” hole and the end result will be
more center surface are and a stronger bass affect.
Now
take the 40 sq. in. and divide by 2, 3, or 4, what ever. Let’s say you
want 3 holes. 40 ÷ 3 = 13.33. So
13.33 is the maximum area for each of the 3 holes. So we now take the 13.33 ÷ Pi (which is 3.142) = 4.24. Now extract the square root (from a math table or calculator) of 4.24 and you get 2.06. So 2 x 2.06 = 4.12. This means 3 holes of 4.12 diameter will
give the same acoustic result as a single 7” hole.
Let’s
say you have1 hole of a diameter of 4.5”, a common bass drum hole. Let’s
compute the area displaced by that single 4.5” hole. (Math: 4.5 ÷ 2 = 2.25, THEN 2.25 x 2.25 = 5.0625, THEN 5.0625 x
3.142 = 15.9). A 4.5” hole has an area of 15.9 sq. in.
In
the above example we show that if we were to use 2 holes of 4.5”, the cumulative affect will have less area (31.8 sq.
in. total) than that of a single 7” hole, whichj we learned was about 40 sq. in. The 2 – 4.5” holes will
therefore be a little more bass heavy than will a head with a 7” hole because they do not remove as much of the heads
surface, although you probably will not hear it.
As the bass drum is equipped
with a solid resonant head, it will always sound warmer or more bass heavy. The
smaller holes are designed to allow relief yet still allow the resonant head to resonate.
As you cut away more of the head there is less to resonate.
More large holes will make
the drum a little louder and more present out front. Smaller holes around the perimeter gives better feel but the drum retains
warmth.
So if you want more acoustic
impact from the resonant head itself, create less “hole” area.
1. One pad or pillow, or
anything that covers a calculated 15-20% coverage against Batter head only: Beater attack is accentuated, tone and sustain
linger.
2. One pad or pillow, 15-20%
coverage against resonant head only: Beater attack will be lessened, tone and sustain develop as a short burst of energy followed
by some bright overtones.
3. One pad or pillow, 15-20%
coverage against Batter head and Resonant: Beater attack accentuated, overall volume diminished a bit, tone and sustain become
focused, overtones diminished.
4. One pad or pillow, 25-30%
coverage against Batter head and 15-20% coverage of Resonant: Beater attack becomes much sharper and accentuated, overall
volume does not diminished much more than the above, tone and sustain become even more focused, overtones all but gone. When used with a single ply muffled batter head, easy to get very sharp sound. Good choice for mic use.
5. One pad or pillow, 25-30%
coverage against Batter and Resonant: A very focused sound, which becomes ideal for close micing of a kick drum. Beater attack
becomes as sharp as it gets, overall volume does not diminished much more than the above, tone and sustain become short bursts
of energy that when listened to without a mic, seem lifeless. A distinct “punch”
sound.
Note all tone and muffling
characteristics from the following heads can be altered by the use of pillows/pads described in the section “Pads
and/or Pillows” or the use of a hole in the drum head described under the section “Holes in Your Head or
Not”. Coatings and material type are as described in the section “Tom, Drumheads - Batter side”.
There are some similarities here to that which is used for a tom. But there are
also some real differences such as the Evan’s EQ and Aquarian Regulator series.
1. Single ply unmuffled Batter
and Resonant: Open tone, bouncy feeling, highly resonant, ringy,
2. Single ply muffled Batter,
Single ply unmuffled Resonant: Attack of the beater pops out, open tone, highly resonant, overtones diminished a bit on the
initial attack but linger on the sustain
3. Single ply muffled Batter
and Resonant: Attack of the beater is heard more, a dense but not quite a focused sound, overtones controlled but still there.
Typical combination is the REMO PowerStroke3 batter and resonant, or for a bit more low end try Evans EQ4 Batter paired with
REMO PowerStroke3, Evans EQ2 or Aquarian Regulator Resonant.
4. Single ply muffled Batter
and 2-ply muffled Resonant: Attack of the beater pops out, wide focused sound, overtones controlled. Typical combination is
the REMO PowerStroke3 batter with Pinstripe, Evans EQ3 or Aquarian SuperKickII Resonant.
5. 2- ply muffled Batter
and 2-ply muffled Resonant: Very focused and punchy attack, narrow focused sound, overtones very controlled (may need no pillows/pads).
Typical combination on both the batter and resonant would be REMO Pinstripe, or Evans EQ3 or Aquarian SuperKickII/Regulator.
1. The same tuning procedure works on the kick drum as well. Simply
follow the procedure listed above under ”Tuning and Seating the Heads, All Drums” and take into account
the following points as well.
2. A Typical tuning method is to have the batter head control the
attack portion of the sound and the resonant head to control the “sustain” portion of the sound.
3. For more punch
(as in a more defined sound) tune the batter side up in pitch 1-2 notes (even as much as 4-5 notes on some drums) from
the resonant side. The resonant side will need to be very close to the wrinkle stage to also have a deep note to the otherwise
higher pitched batter head. It’s easier to hear a good low resonant tone from the resonant side without a pillow touching
that head. Avoid the temptation to keep the batter side real low and loose in pitch. All this does is give more of a plastic
"slap" type sound when tuned this way. The batter side really needs to be up higher in pitch than most think to make the drum
pop out of the mix.
4. For a “plastic” sound, use single ply batter heads
tuned just to a point of the lowest note and detune ½ turn on each lug. A hard felt beater without a patch works well. If you go to wood or plastic beaters, use the patch.
5. A fat kick drum is achieved the same way a “fat” tom
sound is achieved. Taking the resonant head and tuning to the lowest note, and then detuning a slight amount (1/16 to 1/8
of a turn) creates a “fat, loose or dark” drum sound. The batter head is then used to alter the pitch. Note that the pitch for a “fat” tuning can be somewhat limited.
6. For a short “open” burst of resonant tone, followed
by a muted overtone, try using one of the EQ pads placed loosely against either head so that when the beater strikes the head,
the upper portion of the pad (the “hinged” section) floats away from the head yet returns quickly. You can effect the duration of the sound by the positioning of the pad.
This also works when using 2 pads where one remains firm against the head while the other on top or against the other
head provided the “hinged” sound.
7. Don’t have a pillow or pad?
Try using strips of felt or cotton sheet material of varying inches in width placed near the center of the drumhead,
these get held on by the head, stretch them tight. As a guide try 4.5”
on a 20”; 5” on a 22”; 5.5” on a 24”. Used on 1
head, this is the equivalent of 25-30% coverage or like two EQ pads per head. Also,
a towel rolled up and taped to the inside bottom of one or both heads works. An
old feather pillow or folded blanket works equally well. Be creative! Anything that “lightly” touches the head
will work, if done in the same percentage of cover given above in “Pads and/or Pillows”. For that “hinged” sound, try a towel or cloth taped to the head on just the upper edge so that
it floats on and off the head with the beater strike.
8. Get the drum up off the floor as much as your pedal and spurs will
allow for more resonance.
