Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

What are most using when gigging? Resonant head, no resonant head or a head with a hole?

resonant heads with holes are only used i think coz drum kits look like crap without one, they sound better with one, but are harder to mic to most have holes in purely for that reason, which makes them almost completely useless, other than making the kit look nice i always used a resonant head with a massive hole in, standard pearl one with a gaping great 10" hole...

I have been using a resonant head for many years. My stage kit (Ludwigs with a 16" x 24" Bass Drum) has a Shure Beta 52A permanently installed on a Kelly Shu Mount suspended in my bass drum so a port hole isn't always necessary to mike the bass drum. I have a chassis-mounted XLR connector installed in the outside shell of my bass drum for easy wiring at a gig. I just plug in the mike cable to this connector and hand the other end of the cable to our sound guy! The resonant head adds a little extra punch with this set up. As most experienced drummers will tell you, you must experiment to find out what sounds good to you. It may cost you an extra head or two but keep experimenting until you find the exact sound you are looking for. Most of all, have lots of fun playing!

Drumbo - LOVE yer nic!

Our drummer uses the holey head.

In fact, I think that nearly every drummer I've worked with used it.

Drumbo is on the money. If you've got a mic mounted inside, you use a full front head on the kick. The Shure Beta 52 is a killer too. A drummer friend of mine in the UK and I spec'ed his custom-made DW kit with a Beta 52 inside, so there's an XLR on the side of the kick drum to plug the mic cable into, and an adjuster to position the mic a bit inside the drum from the batter head if need be.

Otherwise, Remo and Evans both agree that holes more than 5" in a 22" head lets too much air escape from the drum and starts to sacrifice resonance/volume/tone of the kick. If you have no internal mic, you want a small-ish hole (generally 4 to 5") so as to insert/place a mic inside. If you're on a tight budget, my favorite old/cheap/discontinued mic for a kick drum is an Audio Technica Pro25 (not the later Pro25AX model - the older one with a red stripe around it). They go on eBay for $25-40.

My kits all have a 4"-5" hole in the lower corner portion of the head.....but I am seriously rethinking that.

One of my drum heroes is Steve Smith, and he has a full head on the reso side of his BD, and only a couple of felt strips to dampen. His sound is AWESOME, and I have noticed that most of the really killer players who have an incredible sound have a BD set up similar to Steve's. It just KILLS me to see guys with beautiful, well made instruments stuffed with pillows and covered with tape and towels! Any resonance and tone in a drum are completely gone there! It is like playing cardboard! The older I get, the more I appreciate the INSTRUMENT aspect of drums. They are musical instruments, and they correctly speak when the shell and head combination are allowed to vibrate and resonate as designed and intended. They should SING!! I am VERY into the theory and science of drums.....I have, for many, many years, been of the mind that the very least mass attached to a drum shell allows it to speak at it's full potential. But it is a delicate balancing act, with numerous variables to consider.....shell construction, depth, thickness....lug design, size, mass, and attachment.....bearing edge cut....head thickness and size, mounting options, humidity..... it all has to be factored in.

That's my $.02 worth.

our drummer uses a resonant head with a dampener so it can vibrate and control the unwanted ring.he also has a 5 inch hole 2 inches from the rim with a kick port,his bass drums sound evil.don`t use pillows,couches,funiture,etc.DO NOT put a big hole in the center,this will kill the sound!and as for taking out the front head,it can`t compare to what i`ve mentioned above.compare no front bass drum head to a marshall cab without the back panel on.

Maybe not quite on topic as I'm talking more from studio experience than live but if you're kick is going to be mic'd, the same principles still apply.

Mic-ing a kick with a resonator head and no hole is a nightmare. No low end, no real 'kick' sound. Sure it can be EQ'd but it sounds sh*t. Only worth doing for jazz really or if like Drumbo you happen to have a mic permanently installed inside your drum…

Having a resonator head and a hole larger than 4-5 inches is basically like having no head at all.

Choosing whether to have a resonator head is up to the drummer and the style of music.

Drumbo have you tried other mics inside your kick other than the 52a?

Maybe not quite on topic as I'm talking more from studio experience than live but if you're kick is going to be mic'd, the same principles still apply.

Mic-ing a kick with a resonator head and no hole is a nightmare. No low end, no real 'kick' sound. Sure it can be EQ'd but it sounds sh*t. Only worth doing for jazz really or if like Drumbo you happen to have a mic permanently installed inside your drum…

Having a resonator head and a hole larger than 4-5 inches is basically like having no head at all.

Choosing whether to have a resonator head is up to the drummer and the style of music.

Drumbo have you tried other mics inside your kick other than the 52a?

I have to agree with the above. My drummer had a no-hole resonator and it was a real pain trying to get a good sound. Especially live. He just changed to a head with a hole and the little guard thingy. I can barely get an AKG D112 into it, but what a difference! very little eq. On a Presonous 24.4.2, you have 4 band parametric. I didn't have to touch the low, notched out about 8db of 380Hz, shelved the highs from 2.2K at about +3db and it's a wonderful sound, clear, in the chest and nice attack. Reminds me of Carter's bass drum on Dave Matthew's 'So Right'.

Ive used 2 mics in the past when recording kick w/ no front hole ( audex d6 at the beater head close & akg 414 or AT 4050 off to the side actually pointing at the shell of the kick about 50 dgrees from d6 ) seems to help give deffinition, placement can be tricky/time consuming. & most of the recorded mix comes from the shell mic w/ the d6 for attack ( pedal noise can be a problem )

I always have used a 5" hole. My kit is a Sonor Signature with absolutley no laundry in the kicks. I just went from Sure mics to Sennhieser new e602 II 's and they sound great for Symphonic Metal!

I like the 609 & 906 alot also works well for gtr & toms