Sometimes a big pillow is good.

[Snooter]

I use Aquarian super kick and reso. Works great and sounds great too!!!!!

 

[Rock Salad]

How did you go about closing the port? Piece of an old drumhead? How is it held in place? Cool idea.

It's one of those adhesive dots, this one is by Aquarian, then some tape on the outside too to help it stick well

 

[aratts]

I use one of those small, thin felt blankets you can buy at Target for $10, cut in half, folded, so it just touches both reso and batter.

 

[MrDrums2112]

I generally do not muffle my toms at all. Occasionally, I may put a small piece of tape on the snare, but the bass drum needs more of an adjustment from time to time, depending on the room. Sometimes it's no muffling at all, sometimes a towel or two.

 

[Dwdrummr1]

I generally dislike pillows in my kick. I still have flashbacks of the my music school days of recording engineers deadening the heck out of my kick. Not having the right of rebound always messed with my playing. Now that music is merely a hobby, no pillows for me as I like to hear the drum sing with a small amount of muffling.

 

[bpaluzzi]

I've found pretty consistently that drummers like open kicks a lot more than recording engineers, live sound engineers, and artists do.

I have 11 kick drums.
- 1 of them has a full-size feather pillow (like what you'd use on a bed)
- 1 of them has a DW "dogbone" pillow
- 4 of them have Evans EQ pads
- 1 has a rolled up towel inside, with a felt strip on the reso
- 1 has a felt strip on the batter, with a PS3 on the reso
- 1 has a felt strip on the reso, with a PS3 on the batter
- 1 has an EMAD on the batter, with a PS3 on the reso
- 1 has PS3 on batter and reso

I don't consider any of my drums to be "wide open", but I've never been in a situation when I felt like I needed more ring / boom from my drum.

 

[Whitten]

Agreed. I tend to go for a tight, controlled bass drum sound.

 

[TheDrummerFromAmsterdam]

At my current 24” RC I use the 10” centred hole ambassador head at the front, coated ps3 on the batter with a plastic patch l, and half a tile of Acoustic Pyramide isolation foam inside.

It sounds big and well balanced in my studio.

I like to have as less dampening to let the natural tone breath as much as posssible.

Otherwise I can just use a cardbox or wooden plank to kick against (although this less important to me when playing live and the kick is part of the big picture under someone elses hands).

 

[Stickclick]

That's it I've hit the threshold. I'm putting that pillow in my bass drum, it's too boingy for me anyhow.

 

[patrickwitherow]

My bass drums wear Fiberskyn PS3 batter heads with their muffling rings intact, and Fiberskyn PS3 reso heads with the muffling rings cut to half their original width. No other muffling, no laundry and no ports.* I almost always play off the head but occasionally bury the beater if I want that sound as a contrast.

*Ever. (I don't play drums for money and I don't play pop music.)

Is your reso-side PS3 Fiberskyn an Ambassador or Diplomat weight? I'm on the fence about trying one of these for my 14x24 WFL. Just not sure what weight to get for the reso...

 

[hsosdrum]

Is your reso-side PS3 Fiberskyn an Ambassador or Diplomat weight? I'm on the fence about trying one of these for my 14x24 WFL. Just not sure what weight to get for the reso...

My bass drum batter and reso heads are Fiberskyn 3 PS3s in Ambassador weight. Although I use Diplomat weight Fiberskyn 3 heads (non-PS3) for tom-tom batters and resos I've never tried Diplomat weight bass drum heads.

 

[JimmyM]

I've found pretty consistently that drummers like open kicks a lot more than recording engineers, live sound engineers, and artists do.

I have 11 kick drums.
- 1 of them has a full-size feather pillow (like what you'd use on a bed)
- 1 of them has a DW "dogbone" pillow
- 4 of them have Evans EQ pads
- 1 has a rolled up towel inside, with a felt strip on the reso
- 1 has a felt strip on the batter, with a PS3 on the reso
- 1 has a felt strip on the reso, with a PS3 on the batter
- 1 has an EMAD on the batter, with a PS3 on the reso
- 1 has PS3 on batter and reso

I don't consider any of my drums to be "wide open", but I've never been in a situation when I felt like I needed more ring / boom from my drum.

I worked with a guy who wanted the open bass drum sound, so he insisted every drummer use his old WFL 26” kick. But he wasn’t going for attack…he liked it played lightly so it added a touch of what he calls “voom.”

 

[patrickwitherow]

My bass drum batter and reso heads are Fiberskyn 3 PS3s in Ambassador weight. Although I use Diplomat weight Fiberskyn 3 heads (non-PS3) for tom-tom batters and resos I've never tried Diplomat weight bass drum heads.

Thank you! I appreciate your response. I’m leaning toward the Fiberskyn Ambassador as well. I usually use felt strips on the reso coated Ambassadors I use. I wonder if the PS3 Ambassador will allow me to get off the felt possibly plus it is a pretty thick head with the added layer of fiber.

 

[hsosdrum]

Thank you! I appreciate your response. I’m leaning toward the Fiberskyn Ambassador as well. I usually use felt strips on the reso coated Ambassadors I use. I wonder if the PS3 Ambassador will allow me to get off the felt possibly plus it is a pretty thick head with the added layer of fiber.

Ambassador weight film is 10ml thick and the fiber coating adds another 3ml for a 13ml total thickness, only 1ml shy of an Emperor's 14ml total (although Emperors are two 7ml layers).

Before Remo made PS3 heads available in Fiberskyn, I used plain Ambassador Fiberskyns with felt strips on my bass drums. The problem with conventional felt strips is that they mess up the seating between the head and the bearing edge in two places (so the head doesn't tune evenly), and it's difficult to get the felt at the proper tension while installing the head: too tight = too much muffling; too loose = too little muffling. Although I'd always used felt strips since I got my first drumset when I was 13, I always found it to be a PITA.

If you like the sound of felt strips I recommend looking into Remo Felt Tone Fiberskyn heads, which have built-in felt strips. They don't affect how the head seats to the drum's bearing edge, and the felt is pre-tensioned. — win-win! You can check them out here.

 

[patrickwitherow]

Ambassador weight film is 10ml thick and the fiber coating adds another 3ml for a 13ml total thickness, only 1ml shy of an Emperor's 14ml total (although Emperors are two 7ml layers).

Before Remo made PS3 heads available in Fiberskyn, I used plain Ambassador Fiberskyns with felt strips on my bass drums. The problem with conventional felt strips is that they mess up the seating between the head and the bearing edge in two places (so the head doesn't tune evenly), and it's difficult to get the felt at the proper tension while installing the head: too tight = too much muffling; too loose = too little muffling. Although I'd always used felt strips since I got my first drumset when I was 13, I always found it to be a PITA.

If you like the sound of felt strips I recommend looking into Remo Felt Tone Fiberskyn heads, which have built-in felt strips. They don't affect how the head seats to the drum's bearing edge, and the felt is pre-tensioned. — win-win! You can check them out here.

Do you have to use any extra muffling on the PS3 Ambassador reso head…or just leave it wide open?

 

[hsosdrum]

Do you have to use any extra muffling on the PS3 Ambassador reso head…or just leave it wide open?

When I switched to PS3 heads I had to cut the muffling strips to half their original widths on the reso heads, to get a bit more of the 'boom' that I like. The PS3 batters remain stock.