Re: Rethinking bass drum muffling
Originally Posted by
ItalianAvalanche
I had tried everything, one pillow, two pillows, three pillows, throw pillows, even a pair of long johns. I just couldn't seem to find what I was looking for in terms of bass drum muffling. I've always known that internal pillow muffling reduced the volume of the drum, and I was trying to think of ways around it. I took a roll of closed-cell camping foam (you're supposed to sleep on it) and put it in place around the inside circumference of my bass drum.
It sounds AWESOME. The drum is noticeably louder, even when all I had before was a single tiny pillow. It absorbs unwanted overtones without sacrificing ANY of the low-end. I like the idea of the energy being able to travel through the drum from head to head without hitting a pillow or some other obstacle. It's a cannon.
Thoughts on this type of muffling? Anyone use this type of muffling? Any ideas for other materials to use? The foam I'm using is very stiff, and I'm interested to hear what soft acoustic pyramid foam would sound like. Anyone tried it?
I haven't done it to my own bass drums, but when I was tuning a student's set he had that, a lining of soft foam going for a half a circle around the inside of a 22" kick, the sides of the foam lightly touching each head. After a bit of tuning, wasn't quite like a cannon, but definitely had a good punch to it.
As for myself, all I use now for muffling a 20" kick is a small sofa cushion that I lie lengthways, touching each head, whereas before I used to use a Remo Ring Muffle that would sit inside the batter head.
Last edited by Drumbledore; 05-12-2011 at 02:52 PM.
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