I went to look at a dw set this past weekend. The bass drum had a small muffling pillow velcroed to the inside. Seems like a pretty easy way to keep the pillow in place.
This got me thinking about trying some muffling on my cocktaiul drum (something I haven't messed with very much). I was thinking that a little muffling on the inside of the shell, but NOT touching either of the heads might sound good if you tend to really crank the top head (I think alot of us here like to do that). Velcro seems like just the thing to keep the muffling in place.
Anyone tried this yet?
-Joe
muffling pillow
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matthew medeiros
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Re: muffling pillow
I haven't tried a pillow but on my Club Jordan set which I use as a bass drum only (15"X24") and a side snare, I threw inside about three or four handfulls of the packing popcorn, and it gets rid of the ring. If you are close micing for recording this probably wouldn't work as the mics would probably pick up a little bit of the popcorn sound sometimes as it rains back down on the bottom head but I can't hear it live. The heads are still the original Yamaha heads, and it gives it a nice punchy sound!palacki808 wrote:I went to look at a dw set this past weekend. The bass drum had a small muffling pillow velcroed to the inside. Seems like a pretty easy way to keep the pillow in place.
This got me thinking about trying some muffling on my cocktaiul drum (something I haven't messed with very much). I was thinking that a little muffling on the inside of the shell, but NOT touching either of the heads might sound good if you tend to really crank the top head (I think alot of us here like to do that). Velcro seems like just the thing to keep the muffling in place.
Anyone tried this yet?
-Joe
Matthew
heard/read this tip elsewhere on the board (thankyou original author) - have been using cotton balls to very good effect for bottom head muffling. I suspect very similar to Mattew's popcorn muffling, but of course, silent.
I've found that there is a small but important effect in the number of cotton balls (or if really small, ballettes) used, and how thick the head is and how low it's tuned. Cotton balls are cheeep, malleable and weightless. Try em.
I've found that there is a small but important effect in the number of cotton balls (or if really small, ballettes) used, and how thick the head is and how low it's tuned. Cotton balls are cheeep, malleable and weightless. Try em.
I've had good luck with fiber fill or craft foam discs. They offer just the tiniest bit of attack, then float into the air to open the tone, then land to mute only the high frequencies. Cotton balls and packing peanuts work the same way, I think.
Your pillow idea got me thinking--those Evans bass drum muffling pillows might be cool. The bulk of the pillow could be velcroed to the shell, and then the small part of the pillow that flops back and forth could still flop up and down off the bottom head. It might be a cleaner solution than stuffing the drum--my muffling/baffling system was overly complex and sometimes shifted when I moved the drum around, which made me either have to shake the drum back into shape or take it apart right before a gig and retune it--not something I could do quickly.
With the foam ring touching just the shell--not the head--I tried a few variations on the idea and didn't have any luck. On a traditional drumset, the only muffling I use is a thin, loose felt strip barely touching the beater-side head of the bass drum. My toms and snare are wide open. I wanted to tune my cocktail set wide open, too--I just found I couldn't do it with my set. I had to make the bass drum have that disco thump to keep it from sounding like a tom, and I had to crank my top head tighter than I normally would tighten the snare in order to get the most snare like sound I could. So I ended up with a very wet bass sound and dry snare sound--neither with much sustain. But it sounded funky. I guess my method ended up being to exagerate the bass-ness of the bass and the snare-ness of the snare.
Good luck!
Will
Your pillow idea got me thinking--those Evans bass drum muffling pillows might be cool. The bulk of the pillow could be velcroed to the shell, and then the small part of the pillow that flops back and forth could still flop up and down off the bottom head. It might be a cleaner solution than stuffing the drum--my muffling/baffling system was overly complex and sometimes shifted when I moved the drum around, which made me either have to shake the drum back into shape or take it apart right before a gig and retune it--not something I could do quickly.
With the foam ring touching just the shell--not the head--I tried a few variations on the idea and didn't have any luck. On a traditional drumset, the only muffling I use is a thin, loose felt strip barely touching the beater-side head of the bass drum. My toms and snare are wide open. I wanted to tune my cocktail set wide open, too--I just found I couldn't do it with my set. I had to make the bass drum have that disco thump to keep it from sounding like a tom, and I had to crank my top head tighter than I normally would tighten the snare in order to get the most snare like sound I could. So I ended up with a very wet bass sound and dry snare sound--neither with much sustain. But it sounded funky. I guess my method ended up being to exagerate the bass-ness of the bass and the snare-ness of the snare.
Good luck!
Will