Bass drum not loud enough

oldpunk

Junior Member
Any tips or tricks to make my bass drum louder? I'm playing a lot of fast punk stuff, and while trying to build up the speed/strength/stamina in my leg, I seem to be hitting a lot softer than I do when playing slower beats. So until I develop the power and strength to hit hard while playing fast, is there anything I can do to the drum or drum head itself to make it louder?


Thanks
 
what size is it? do you use anything for internal muffling? what type heads do you use? is it ported?
 
Technique and tuning...
Go through Stick Control with your feet. You can do this with your feet on the floor, or with a double pedal. Start really slowly, heel down and let the beater come off of the head. It's important to first build up ankle strength and coordination, then you'll be ready to play heel up. Play each exercise for a minute, one page per week, upping the tempo every day before moving on to the next page...

Tuning wise I get a lot more volume from a kick with no hole in the reso side, and the only muffling from the batter side (Evans EQ, etc.) - nothing inside the drum. I like the EQ because they chill out the sustain without killing projection. I also tension up the bass more than most people - it makes the drum resonate more, which makes it much louder. If you let the beater come off of the head, that extra sustain also helps... Finally, experiment with pedal tension, I found dialing it a little tighter helps get the beater off of the head, and gives more power/volume.

Hope that helps!
 
Take all of the muffling out of the drum (switch heads if you're using something with built in muffling), adjust your pedal to give a really long throw, play heel up with your toe close to the floor end of the pedal, let the beater rebound, and play simpler. Relax and just ride the pedal-- you don't need to use a lot of muscle. That worked for me when I needed a lot of volume.
 
what size is it? do you use anything for internal muffling? what type heads do you use? is it ported?

Not sure of the size, it's a Tama Rockstar DX from like 88 or 89?

No internal muffling, Aquarian Super Kick II on the pedal side with a Remo Falam Slam patch on it. Outer head is a Aquarian Force II Resonant with no holes cut out.

Take all of the muffling out of the drum (switch heads if you're using something with built in muffling), adjust your pedal to give a really long throw, play heel up with your toe close to the floor end of the pedal, let the beater rebound, and play simpler. Relax and just ride the pedal-- you don't need to use a lot of muscle. That worked for me when I needed a lot of volume.

I play heel up for slower beats, but when playing faster punk style beats, I have to play heel down to get that fast double hit. I can't do that heel up.

I think I need to learn how to do the "heel toe" or "slide" technique? I watched some youtube videos of guys using like the ball of their foot and then their toes to do a double tab really fast. It kinda blew my mind and I just can't figure out the mechanics of it. So for now I'm just trying to do a double tap on a really fast beat heel down, and that works, but I just have no power to hit as hard as I'd like.I think it's going to come down to conditioning and building strength.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Not sure of the size, it's a Tama Rockstar DX from like 88 or 89?

No internal muffling, Aquarian Super Kick II on the pedal side with a Remo Falam Slam patch on it. Outer head is a Aquarian Force II Resonant with no holes cut out.

IMO the SKII is one of the deader heads out there....and its 2 ply. Its just too muffled for me, and what i do not like is you cannot adjust the muffling, as on an EMAD.
On the other hand, its a very 'tame' and manageable bass drum sound, so I can see why folks like it.
 
I think I need to learn how to do the "heel toe" or "slide" technique? I watched some youtube videos of guys using like the ball of their foot and then their toes to do a double tab really fast. It kinda blew my mind and I just can't figure out the mechanics of it. So for now I'm just trying to do a double tap on a really fast beat heel down, and that works, but I just have no power to hit as hard as I'd like.I think it's going to come down to conditioning and building strength.
I'm just at the stage of really working on my right foot speed. I've been 100% heel down up til now. What's got me going to fast hits heel up has been building the tempo on tunes that require it (Hendrix's Little Miss Lover, for eg). What I found was that my foot started naturally going to heel up with the fast taps. I've read the speed-obsessed double bass threads on this forum and read some people saying you shouldn't have any particular technique in mind; just build up tempo slowly and see what you naturally start to do. It seems to be working for me.

As for volume you need to hit sharply and cleanly and probably not bury the beater.
 
I think I need to learn how to do the "heel toe" or "slide" technique? I watched some youtube videos of guys using like the ball of their foot and then their toes to do a double tab really fast. It kinda blew my mind and I just can't figure out the mechanics of it. So for now I'm just trying to do a double tap on a really fast beat heel down, and that works, but I just have no power to hit as hard as I'd like.I think it's going to come down to conditioning and building strength.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SPUpLGVtL0

:) literally just woke up, sloppy.
 
Thanks man! That was really helpful. So, I get how it works, but for some reason I can't make my foot do it, if you know what I mean. I guess it's just going to take practice. I have size 12 feet, so that probably doesn't help.
No prob. Once you get the motion down, it'll come very easily. If you understand the "release" of the free stroke; throw stick, leave hand down, allow full rebound but keep fingers on the stick just slightly- it's virtually the same motion with your foot. Maybe that is a better explanation, i'm not so good at explaining. lol Not sure about the foot size thing, maybe others have some tips. I'm size 11 so we aren't too far apart.
 
I think I need to learn how to do the "heel toe" or "slide" technique? I watched some youtube videos of guys using like the ball of their foot and then their toes to do a double tab really fast. It kinda blew my mind and I just can't figure out the mechanics of it. So for now I'm just trying to do a double tap on a really fast beat heel down, and that works, but I just have no power to hit as hard as I'd like.I think it's going to come down to conditioning and building strength.

I never needed any kind of special technique for that, but maybe one of those things will work for you. I think you'll find if you experiment with the set up I described-- long throw, toe far back on the pedal-- you get a lot of excess beater movement, which, once you harness it and refine it a bit, leads to being able to play fast, loud, and relaxed, with a fairly small foot movement. The thing is derived from something Steve Gadd does playing running 16ths on the bass drum in his old Up Close video-- it's probably on youtube somewhere if you want to dig it up.

If you're going to stick with the heel down thing, practice doing full strokes-- start and end each stroke with the beater all the way back, and try to eliminate any muscular seizing up at any point in the stroke, making both the down and the up parts of the stroke as fast as you can. When you go to work on your doubles, don't think about the two fast notes you have to play, think about doing your full upstroke between the notes-- if you can get that motion happening, your doubles get a lot easier, and more powerful. Good luck!
 
Just to not repeat what everyone else is saying, I found it easier to play when I upgraded my drum kit. I was playing on an old Pearl Export forever. When I upgraded to a Pearl MCX, I didn't have to hit the bass drum as hard to hear it. It has a Powerstroke 3 with no muffling. My old kit had an EMAD, which sounds great, but it probably muted my drum too much.
 
Back
Top