Anyone Use a Bass Drum Woofer?

[ruanddu]

Anyone use a bass drum woofer in addition to their main kick drum? If so, how do you like it? Use it live, in the studio or just at home? What size do you use?

Thanks.

 

[TommyWells]

I used to use one. Now, if I'm working on a track that needs a 2 headed bass drum sound, we just use another bass drum where the woofer went. It is so the engineer can mic the original bass drum from the inside, like always, and have a mic on the woofer, so he can blend the "double headed" sound as much or a little as he likes. The problem with those things is, they are ringing in the room. Just a low rumble, that you can't get out of the overhead mics. So, it can be usable sometimes, and sometimes not. Now with the Yamaha SubKick, they will just put that close to the (ported) front head of my bass drum and use a little of that, and there is no constant rumble. Sometimes we will put a 2nd ported bass drum in front of the primary bass drum, with no muffling in it, and put the mic in there, then they will cover it up with a packing blanket to get rid of the rumble in the room. This is in addition to the primary mic in the primary bass drum.

Hope this helps....

 

[dcrigger]

Like Tommy I use one occasional in the studio if I want a bit of double-headed open sound without giving all the punch and focus of a more pop damped and ported drum. The creates a sort of hybrid - with the woofer tracking the dynamics of the main drum quite nicely... meaning the "double head" rattle varies with the dynamics very organically (in other words it would be difficult to get the same effect with samples.

And again as Tommy wrote - even though you might only be using the woofer for 50% of the overall bass drum sound - you're still hearing 100% of it ringing in the room. So it's not at all a thing you can put up and whether to use it or not in the mix - as it's there making noise from the outset.

As far as using one live - I don't know. I mean for me it sort of produces this sometimes useful "split the difference" sort of sound - which is cool. But at the same time, it is never as dramatic as the sound of a big ole 26" being played for real. So much more dramatic... I think if I was in a live situation that lent itself to that big double headed sound, I would be reluctant to neuter the sound by choosing the woofer over just a big, doubled-headed drum.

As for the sub-kick, to my ears, a pretty different sound - more like adding an 808 sample to the sound of a regular drum, than all that flappy head rattle (which isn't completely about lows at all) that the woofer generates. Both, different, but cool useful tools.

David

 

[BillyGoodness]

I'm not a big fan of Bass Drum Woofers. I have used a version of the Yamaha Sub Kick that Mick Guzauski built while in his studio:

There's a mic in the BD, the Sub Kick, and another mic at the end of the "tunnel"

Billy G.

 

[Bongo Congo]

I picked up a DW Keller Shell 1997 kit that came with a 16X22" bass drum, and an 8X22" woofer. The woofer has a Sennheiser mic installed.

I love this thing. Absolutely outrageous low-end. Just booms. Before I had tried it, I thought the idea was cute, but quirky and far-fetched. Turns out it's much more nearly-fetched than I gave it credit for. Now I know that DW really had their heads on straight when they started making them. Works amazingly well.

I have it on a May Woofer cradle, but was reluctant to drill the shells for those long arms they make. So I cooked up a couple of inexpensive little flat clamps from aluminum bar stock that grab both drums by the hoops. They're covered in neoprene and grip very snug with almost no tension, and they don't mar the finish on the hoop. Now it's absolutely stable, and prevents guitar players from knocking over the woofer on stage.

Since DW calls their clamping rods "Doobie Bars", I call these little 5" rectangular clamps "Candy Bars". I can photo them for you sometime if it's at all interesting to anybody....

 

[GeneZ]

I pity those rich audiophiles who spend $20-30,000 on their systems, and can quite get a real bass drum sound. Maybe, that explains it.

 

[Chonson]

The studio aspect of this has been covered in some detail - I will add that my experience was similar and you're going to have some low-end management to contend with when using a woofer. Tenting works OK and abbreviates the woofer's sustain a bit. I don't see it as interchangeable with the subkick, they're different tools - or at least, I get markedly different results.

The one thing I've seen from my experience is that a bigger woofer than kick is the way to go. A 28" woofer against a 22" kick gives a lot of interesting low-end to the kick, moreso than a 22 kick and 22 woofer. IMO, of course, it's all tools for experimentation but when appropriate it's great.

Live or just behind the kit? Haven't used it live, can't see it making a huge difference (though I could be wrong) and I've never been able to really hear mine when playing behind the kit. In front? Sure, totally.

 

[ruanddu]

Bongo - I'd appreciate seeing some pics of your setup. Thanks.