Any ideas? Would substituting vents (in heads) for muffling increase volume? I've never experimented with vents before.
Cheers,
Hayden.
Increasing bass drum volume
Hi Heyden
On a traditional bass drum you vent the resonate head. On a Cocktail you play both heads ...So venting probably is not an option. I found a great deal of sound can be increased by making sure your beater is striking head directly. you may have to lower main drum to achieve this.
The "Beater also has an effect on base sound.A wooly or soft felt beater sound more muted than a hard composite beater.
Does your main cocktail drum have an air hole?
In our earlier discussion about heads and tunning your choice of batter head for both top and bottom is the real factor in end sound. a double skinned head will be warmer,less ring but more muted. a single ply with more tension should increase volumn, with more ring
If your playng in a live situation a simple Mic can resiolve volumn issues, I'd tune to sound you like and have everyone else lower volume or Mic-up and let it rip
Good luck
Tunning is an ever-present issue with all drums and even after 40+ years I still find my kit does't sound the way I'd like it to. A final note a kit sound quite different when your playing it and when your across room listening to someone else playing it.
Peace
Bongo
On a traditional bass drum you vent the resonate head. On a Cocktail you play both heads ...So venting probably is not an option. I found a great deal of sound can be increased by making sure your beater is striking head directly. you may have to lower main drum to achieve this.
The "Beater also has an effect on base sound.A wooly or soft felt beater sound more muted than a hard composite beater.
Does your main cocktail drum have an air hole?
In our earlier discussion about heads and tunning your choice of batter head for both top and bottom is the real factor in end sound. a double skinned head will be warmer,less ring but more muted. a single ply with more tension should increase volumn, with more ring
If your playng in a live situation a simple Mic can resiolve volumn issues, I'd tune to sound you like and have everyone else lower volume or Mic-up and let it rip
Good luck
Tunning is an ever-present issue with all drums and even after 40+ years I still find my kit does't sound the way I'd like it to. A final note a kit sound quite different when your playing it and when your across room listening to someone else playing it.
Peace
Bongo
Hey Hayden,
Bongo is right on all counts!
I found that my 14" drum was not cutting through as much as I liked from the kick side so I switched to a wooden beater. It defintely helped! It gies it more focus and attack but the mass of the beater just puts a little more leverage behind the hits making it a bit louder.
Where the beater hits the head makes a huge difference. The pedal on my Slingerland drum is pretty old school and can shift in an arc across the head. This makes it easier to adjust the strike point between dead center and the edge of the head. I find on the 14" drum that dead center kills the tone of the drum (which makes it sound smaller). If I move the beater slightly off center it makes a world of difference.
IN general for smaller kicks you want to leave a little extra resonance compared to larger kicks just to get a stronger tone and a bit more volume.
The resonance will also interact with whatever room you are playing in. Like Bongo said, it may not sound loud to you being right next to the drum but it could sound much louder to someone across the room.
- John
Bongo is right on all counts!
I found that my 14" drum was not cutting through as much as I liked from the kick side so I switched to a wooden beater. It defintely helped! It gies it more focus and attack but the mass of the beater just puts a little more leverage behind the hits making it a bit louder.
Where the beater hits the head makes a huge difference. The pedal on my Slingerland drum is pretty old school and can shift in an arc across the head. This makes it easier to adjust the strike point between dead center and the edge of the head. I find on the 14" drum that dead center kills the tone of the drum (which makes it sound smaller). If I move the beater slightly off center it makes a world of difference.
IN general for smaller kicks you want to leave a little extra resonance compared to larger kicks just to get a stronger tone and a bit more volume.
The resonance will also interact with whatever room you are playing in. Like Bongo said, it may not sound loud to you being right next to the drum but it could sound much louder to someone across the room.
- John
Not sure if this would help as I haven't tried it. But while I was reading this thread I was thinking of the construction project Keith Cronin did. He has a 'combination drum' with a snare on top and a bass on bottom. He put a baffle between them and cut a large hole in the shell to project the bass without triggering the snare. Maybe that would increase your bass volume. Of course you'd have to cut a 4" hole in your shell. Has anyone else had experience with this?
That sounds interesting BykrMyk, but I doubt I'd go that far in the name of experimentation at this stage. I would like to hear more about this, however.
jmettam: You are certainly right, I discovered today just how much difference even a small shift in beater position can alter sound. And managed to begin further optimising my sound.
Hayden.
jmettam: You are certainly right, I discovered today just how much difference even a small shift in beater position can alter sound. And managed to begin further optimising my sound.
Hayden.
