New Ludwigs arrived!!

Nothing wrong with porting the kick.

I think you might like the sound better after the porting.

Just dont make it bigger than 5 or 6".

Playing acoustically, I prefer the round sound and pedal response of an unported head. But I'm not real hard headed and I want the kit to sound good out front. In fact, I already ported the head this morning, so I'll be using it that way tonight! Not a real big deal.
 
Unfortunately, we weren't really satisfied with the bass drum through the PA. We tried several mic positions, etc, but never really got a clean sound out of the PA - it tended to be muddy. I'm going to go ahead and port it.

On my old kit I used a Kelly Shue and loved the sound even with an unported reso, but I had a hole drilled in the shell for the cable. I'm not drilling these Ludwigs, so I guess porting is the best answer to get the isolation and attack that we want. Too bad, because I love the unported sound and feel.

Did you try mic'ing the batter head? That's done the trick for me; one on the reso and one on the batter.

I see you've already ported the head but just curious.
 
That is a beautiful kit. I love the retro finishes so much pizzazz. I also love the sound of an un-ported head, but you gain so much by having the port. I have one of those Evans EQ pillow in my bass drum, and it's great. With the port in the bass drum head, I can move the pillow wherever it needs to be for that particular room or style of music. I also took some of that fabric that you can put between your floor and your carpets so the carpet doesn't move and I attached it to the back of the Evans EQ pillow. That way it doesn’t slip away from the head while I'm playing.
 
Did you try mic'ing the batter head? That's done the trick for me; one on the reso and one on the batter.

I see you've already ported the head but just curious.

Yes, tried that too. It gave better attack, but we couldn't gate the snare all the way out, and being so off axis wasn't a great sound. We actually did finish out the night like this, but yeah, I went ahead a cut a very small port, about 3 inches or so - the exact size of a can of Dole pineapple, in fact!
 
Unfortunately, we weren't really satisfied with the bass drum through the PA. We tried several mic positions, etc, but never really got a clean sound out of the PA - it tended to be muddy. I'm going to go ahead and port it.

On my old kit I used a Kelly Shue and loved the sound even with an unported reso, but I had a hole drilled in the shell for the cable. I'm not drilling these Ludwigs, so I guess porting is the best answer to get the isolation and attack that we want. Too bad, because I love the unported sound and feel.

If you prefer unported, how about this: Instead of porting the head, just put a very small hole in the reso, enough to run a cable through and use the Kelly. Put the hole near the bottom. It will barely be noticed.
 
It's ashamed that you had to port the reso because someone couldn't ascertain how to get a great sound from your bass drum otherwise. I very rarely gate snares on live gigs, it's really not needed and can cause more problems than it's worth.

Your Ludwigs are a beautiful set of drums.

Dennis
 
It's ashamed that you had to port the reso because someone couldn't ascertain how to get a great sound from your bass drum otherwise. I very rarely gate snares on live gigs, it's really not needed and can cause more problems than it's worth.

Your Ludwigs are a beautiful set of drums.

Dennis

Thanks Dennis! I think they are lovely. Porting wasn't soooo bad. I made the port really quite small - just a bit larger than the D6 - so the drum still has plenty of resonance.

I used a post-fader monitor mix tonight so I could get a better idea of what they were hearing out front, and it sounded quite good to me. I wish I could be in both places at once - FOH and at the kit!

We don't normally gate the snare, either. We just wanted to gate the snare out of the bass drum mic when we put it by the batter head. The snare coming through the D6 off-axis had a really unpleasant sound. At least that's a non-issue now.

All well - all worked out OK. I kind of like BGHs suggestion, but I was worried that the cable would rub on the reso head and damage one or the other. I'm sure there is a solution.
 
All well - all worked out OK. I kind of like BGHs suggestion, but I was worried that the cable would rub on the reso head and damage one or the other. I'm sure there is a solution.

You could get a rubber grommet to surround the cable where it goes through the head. It would protect both cable and head, and seal off the hole.
 
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