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Kick drum sustain

#2
There are a couple of factors that contribute to kick drum sustain - depth of the shell is a biggie and no hole in the reso head is another (although those two things give entirely different results). A thin reso head may help as well. The idea is to get the sound inside the drum moving air back and forth between the heads. A lot of the sustain comes from the vibration of the reso head.

Don't use muffling on the batter head. That includes blankets and pillows etc. as well as drum heads with built in muffling.

I'll have to say, I've never understood why really deep shells have more sustain. It seems backwards because the air from the batter head has to travel further to reach the reso and so it reaches it with less force. Whatever the scientific explanation is, it works.

One last thought. Try a harder beater.
 
#7
What kind of muffling is in the bass drum? I use felt strips on both sides of the bass or sometimes just on the batter side. A solid front head will increase sustain but will make miking a little more tricky. Also having the heads closer to the same pitch will aid in sustain.
 
#8
sustain on a kick? i'm not even sure how that would happen, apart from low-end feedback into the kick mic, or a badly tuned kick drum that booms out like a marching band bass drum.

maybe a pinch of reverb on the kick, to put a little "tail" on the (properly short) transient?
 
#11
What that calls to mind is the "DOOOOM, DOOOOM, DOOOOM" sound I hear emanating from low rider pickup trucks. I hope that's not what you are going for; if the drummer in a band in which I was the bassist used that kind of kick sound, I'd look for another band.
 
#13
ggunn said:
IMNSHO, kick drum with lots of sustain just gets in the way of the bass.
Click to expand...

^^^This

Does the band want one note bass all night, or do they want the various bass notes heard and accentuated by the punch of the kick? Because "sustain" is the opposite of "punch".

I have a compression setting that kills kick drum sustain. First, it is gated, then a 70ms attack time that allows the kick to pass uncompressed for that duration, then a low threshold, high ratio compression and 200ms decay that essentially mutes it for that time. It also prevents bleed from the kick mic when the kick isn't being played. It works great for 1-3 or four on the floor kick patterns under 200BPS, or playing eight notes at over 100BPS. If he's using a double pedal for speed, forget it. For longer sustain, increase the attack time, and decrease the decay (or you will have trouble at faster tempos). I suspect this will muddy the tone if you increase the attack time too much.

This may seem counter-intuitive to a drummer who wants to make sure he gets heard, but it does make the kick more audible and percussive.

The sound approaches the old school ideal that I describe as the "sound of a tennis shoe on the floorboard of a '57 Chevy."
 
#15
Sounds like you need to go to the source and tune the drum with the appropriate heads and damping materials (if any are needed at all). A drum has a few things mechanically which attribute to sustain and tuning, the most important seem to be making sure the drum is round (shells can warp and this effects tension from lug to lug) and making sure the bearing edge is even and smooth (this is where the skin makes contact to the shell, once again you want this to be even and smooth so you can get equal tension at all lug points).
There is also technique. If the drummer rests the beater against the head once struck, it'll kill the sustain.
 
#16
You could use a compressor to achieve that. Using heavy compression, like 8:1 or more with low threshold and fast realease time would usually do the trick, but in a live situation you'll have a lot problems to deal with once you dial the desire bass drum sound (e.g. Feedback, bleed, etc).
 
#20
I caught and episode of all things, American idol.
Say what you will but actually some amazing singing talent, but that's not the point.

Out playing drums on some some songs is Rex Hardy Jr
Even Steven Tyler is commenting on the great drummer. Some poor kid singer trying to be a singing idol and Tyler's talking about the drummer. Then Randy Jackson starts talking about the drummer.

It's 100% Rex Hardy Jr talent, but you do have to hear his talent. He's playing Roland V-drums and it sounds totally amazing. Cymbals, all of them, everything is electronic. And it sounds amazing.

I can't imagine how much time and effort it would take to mic an acoustic set, even stupid phasing from running a couple of overheads. Pro sound engineers would have a time of it trying to balance everything. They just push these v-drums out on a platform and Rex is ready to wail. No acrylic shields.

Drummers like Alton Fig on Letterman have been triggering their acoustic drums for years.

Mics, it's all good. Real mics, good ones, that don't wash out or overload are not cheap. but triggers are sure doing a great job these days.
 

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