Wore my Sounds Like A Drum shirt in the studio last night while putting down tracks for our next album, it was great inspiration!

Cool vid, definitely different, despite the heavy muffling! Thanks for the insight! I'm an EMAD guy. Single ply. Just love the controlled thump. Nothing in the drum except a small towel, not touching the heads, to kill the "basketball bounce" sound. Wide muffling ring on the 22, narrow ring on the 18.

That G1 with a pillow is just begging for some high voltage rock!

I absolutely love these videos. What a resource for drummers ... especially for those trying to make a gear decision on a limited budget! What is the bass drum beater you are running in this video? Thanks for the awesome content!

my 20" Gretsch (Jasper) has Aquarian American vintage both sides, with felt strips, plus a very small pillow barely touching both heads. I find that unported but muffled gives the best approximation of old records (my goal playing roots music isn't to sound "accurate" to a vintage drum in the room in 1963, it's to evoke the qualities that give the impression of that era - but still work with modern guitar amps and a mic.) the 22" Slingerland (3ply) I just got has a very old superkick (coated) and ported Aquarian regulator - cause they are what came with it. And they sound great, ready to go basic "rock" sound but with enough vintage tone left to be "right" for my tastes.

Cliff's Notes (I got a little excited): 22 diameter x 20 inch bass drum--Pillow--Felt Beater--Clear Single-Ply Heads "top and bottom". While I am nowhere near the caliber player of legends like Tony Williams, Simon Philips, Billy Cobham, Steve Smith, and the like, a few years ago I decided I wanted to run clear heads on the bass drum, like those guys did back in the late 70s to early 80s. I just loved the look and I liked the idea of creating a "window" through which interested audience members could see what my bass drum foot was doing. The problem is, my kick drum is 20 inches deep by 22 diameter and I have struggled to get a sound I like out of it for years (my next kick drum will NOT have these dimensions). In an attempt to combat the boomy-ness caused by the depth (I think), I ran a wooden beater, wide-open bass drum with an Aquarian Classic Clear reso and Super Kick 1 batter---open bass drums feel completely different feel than "pillowed" and I had to change something. Unsatisfied, I ended up adding a blanket. Then a full-on pillow. Finally the head felt good, but sounded awful. And I knew there was something counter-intuitive about stuffing a pillow into a bass drum with a pre-muffled head. So, get this! I decided to keep the pillow and switch back to a felt beater--old school style--and threw a 22" Remo Ambassador on there.. Haha! For my taste, in my room, it sings! I love it! I never would have thought to go this route, but I finally found a bass drum set up that I love for this weird year-2001 20x22 bass drum.

Thank you for this! I appreciate your videos so much. You give such great examples of sounds; it's super helpful.

Cool video man, i use small kicks mostly 16” 18” and always an Emad on Batter and Calftone or Fyberskyn on reso, but before the Jazz police hit me with sticks, i’ve gotta say that adding a Pillow on Smaller kicks adds more punch, and low end, it’s been working for me for few years now, keep up the good work man, always very informative stuff!

What a difference the different heads make. Love the snare drum sound. It has such a crack. Cheers

thank for one more awesome epic episode! I used to play that Evans Eq 3 (beater and reso), with a big dense foam inside, touching both heads in a large area with some pressure of this large foam compressed between both heads, and tuned tottaly low - the old recipe you always talk about. Now I tune my heads a little higher, a took off a lot of the foam, touching the heads only lightly, and got that wood beater - and it sounds way better! Thanks for teaching me to listen and get a sound so awesome from my cheap drums! lol ; ) Now I've got one more knowledge for shapping my sound the best way it can sound. Priceless free information! Worth a billion likes and followers! Cheers from Brazil!

my 18" bass drum came with a remo ambassador on it, switched it for an evans UV EQ4 and i'm in love. the inside of the drum is empty and there's no port so it has tons of tone but also a lot of thump and just feels so good on the foot

On my Yamaha Recording Customs from the 80s I use a clear head with a pillow, nice n punchy. My practice kit is a Pearl Forum, not a high end kit but I always struggled with bad overtones. So I used Onyx heads for awhile with bush jackets until I discovered Emad 2. Sounds great without additional muffling, more deeper sound then I had before and punch

I love those calfskins.

I’ve been loving the sound from my 14x20 Ludwig with just a Remo smoke reso (port hole) with the Evans emad on the batter. I have a vintage TMTN pajama shirt (cowabunga) that I will sometimes put inside. The sound is super punchy and dry even though their is little to no muffling. I like that sort of “rap kick” tone. I have not used a pillow in a kick drum for years. Gotta try it again. It seems like it would work for me.

Just ordered a GMAD for my 22" Tama kick, once it gets here it's replacing a 3 year old SuperKick II. I have used Powerstrokes before (liked them but nothing more than that), loved EMADs, really loved SK2s, but I've never tried the GMAD and I've heard decent things. I do have a weird setup, I play in a high energy hardcore 3 piece, and there's no bass guitar, so I generally keep my kick drum WIDE OPEN, nothing inside, and a red Evans Hydraulic head as a reso. Also as an aside this is without a doubt my favorite drum channel to check out now, I have lots of favs but I find myself watching the vids on this endlessly🥁

Currently using Remo Powerstroke Pro, Powerstroke 3 reso and 2 Evan's EQ pillows barely touching both heads. Loving this combo!

I had a vintage Gold Sparkle Premier (late 60s/ early 70's) 20" and with the right heads it absolutely slammed in the studio with masses of punch and low end - completely not what it was designed for but it recorded so beautifully. It beat my 24" Yamaha recording custom even. It's really worth playing with different heads and having a selection on hand in the studio.

I recently purchased a used Pearl Masters with a 24" x 18 " bass drum. After nearly going insane trying to get a sound and feel I like, I have settled on Powerstroke 3s for batter and reso,5 inch porthole and two Pearl pillows. The pillows are small and light and together are about 3/4 size of pillow in this video. I am not sure if I will ever get the sound or feel I am after from such a big drum but this combination is close.

I just keep trying new heads from both Remo and Evans whenever I need to get new heads. I’ll be doing that until a set of heads just completely blows me away to become my main set, so far I do really like the Evans HD Dry on my snare based on the sounds I can achieve. Especially a timbale-like effect when I go snares off and then a right, crisp sounding w/snare but also is only tuned about medium with puresound twisted 20’s which all together just makes it like a real dope sound for what I love to play, which is funk rock, classic rock, some jazz, hip hop, blues, some Latin, and the way it blends with the toms and the sensitivity of those snare wires, I don’t get much buzz when I hit my rack toms unless I like tighten the snares to the point where they’re basically choked. I let my stock bass batter go a long time without a new one and for my first one I got an EMAD Clear which was real different because I was using the stock with a big pillow and it was similar to the G1 sound and then I got the pre-muffled EMAD and decided to just stick an EQ pillow in there with a 15lb weight on the pillow so it doesn’t touch the drum. I still have the stock White w/Black Pearl logo reso that I’m now looking to replace because it’s definitely losing a lot of its life, I can tell by how much I have to go and just tighten up a few somewhat loose tensions rods. I actually need new resos on pretty much all my drums at this point, but the bass and snare are going out of tune within 40 minutes, plus the stock bass reso is from August 2018 when I got the kit and the other resos are all from about a year ago, so timing works out based upon most averages. The main thing I’m thinking would play the biggest roles in having a pillow inside the bass would be 1. Single vs Double ply (as well as overall thickness) and 2. Coated vs Clear. I’d like to see coated vs clear of the same bass drum heads with the pillow and see if there’s a difference. And then maybe two coated and two clear, one of each that’s as thick as they get and the other about as thin as they get and see the difference on that. I think those would yield interesting test results. And besides me getting a emad reso for my current emad, I’ve been looking at the hydraulic heads by Evans for a long time, so I’ll likely be getting one for the bass batter when I eventually get that set. I’m also really excited to try and get my hands on the new Evans UV2’s. The videos I’ve seen so far, they sound great and that UV coating is so durable. Can’t wait to try em, plus my floor tom doesn’t like to tune up for me all the time, so having the level 360 heads I think should help. Can you possibly do a video on the difference between different reso heads for toms? Especially including the Evans EC Reso that apparently has some sort of tonal muffling to make like as clear of a note as possible and to have the actual note resonate and not all the overtones n stuff. So like if you could show how those work compared to others, that’d be cool. Keep up the great work guys!!!

Aquarian Super Kick 2. No more muffling than that. I have them on my 20", 22', and 24" bass drums.

Little late but Evans EQ3 stole my heart years ago, just exactly what I hear in my head and want from my bass drum. Added an EQ pad and took it to another level that really turns heads.

My main choice for heads is Remo Ebony P3 resonant / Remo PowerStroke 3 clear or coated. For me it has the right balance of tone, attack, and sustain. They also feel great, and allow for a range of dynamics. My bass drums are dw collectors 16×20", and 18×22".

Another great videos gents! Please tell me what are those hi hats?

Thanks for doing this. Changing bass heads used to be more affordable back in the day. The UT heads that usually come as stock on kits are close to g1. It is not cheap to upgrade heads today, luckily I bought a secondhand kit from a pro drummer who had spent almost the cost of the whole kit on top quality heads including an emad bass batter head. To try the 3 heads you featured costs about 150 bucks right? So thanks for that.Great job guys. Must add final note that its easier tune with more lugs despite the downside of taking longer to change heads. I had one ambassador head break during a gig, wooden beater smashed it! My pay for that gig was withheld because all I could do was play the floortom as a poor substitute haha ..nightmare!

I consider the EQ3 my "Goldilocks" bass drum batter head. Not overly abundant in any one characteristic but just a perfect blend of all the good things you typically want out of a bass drum. Loud, great feel, thick attack that can span the range from thump to click depending on tuning, all combined with a short burst of tone that carries the low end and decays quickly to avoid becoming too wild or muddy. I'll pair it with an EQ3 Resonant and generally use two EQ Pad's; one always lightly touching the resonant head, the other ranging from not touching anything (just soaking up some of the reverberation from within the shell) to jammed up against the batter head, all depending on the room and musical context. After experimenting with a bunch of different batter heads, this combo has come to be my favourite and has worked a treat on a number of different drums (Pearl Masters MCX 20x18, Tama Starclassic Birch 22x16, Tama Starclassic B/B 22x20).

Just put on Calftone EMAD for batter (using thin foam ring) and Calftone EQ4 as reso unported. Have felt strips on each. Pulled the pillow, but still wanted some focus. So, wanted more resonance and projection, but not too much sustain. Still getting used to it. But liking it so far. Nice rebound for my foot on faster stuff.

After 28 years of playing, I've changed a lot over time. I have the same backstory. Grew up playing rock, using tons of muffling, clear heads, double bass... But over the years, as I've settled down, I've gotten a lot more bluesy and now I've settled on a wide open bass drum with a coated emad. I love that sound and plan on using it until I can't stand it anymore.

It may sound old-fashioned compared to pre-damped heads but I prefer a coated 2-ply Emperor with a felt strip as it seems to work for all the styles I play.

First it were Powerstrokes 3 on a 22" bassdrum, but i switched to Evans EMAD Coated with a wide open drum. Played it on a similar bassdrum of a friend and fell in love immediately. So easy to tune properly and sounds fat everytime

As a fan of wide-open bass drums, I'm surprised how much I liked the sound of the clear G1! Currently playing a Renaissance P3 batter and an uncut Fiberskin reso on a 18×20 Tama B/B. Going for a "Motown on Steroids" kinda vibe. I like an articulate bass drum sound that sits on top of bass guitar instead of under it.

I use the Emad. I think mostly because I'm a modern rock drummer, and I find the mix of attack and tone to be the most pleasant for me. I have tried powerstrokes, aquarian super kicks, and of course stock heads. Always came back to the Emad

The g1 with a pillow is massive sounding and the Calftone is thick and vintage. Very cool. I use a SKII, the emad never sounded the way I want and 1 ply wasn't able to get low enough. Now I am considering a Calftone and self muffle.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the sound and attack of the Evans G1 with a pillow. However, I'm not sure that I'd like It with my 20" bass drum. I think I will try my 20" bass drum with a porthole on the reso head, as i usually use an unported head on smaller diameter bass drums for more resonance. This time it will be a Powerstroke 3 clear batter with a ported Powerstroke 3 coated resonant on my 20x14 vintage bass drum. I think this combo will still retain enough resonance and punch without annoying overtones. Great comparison as usual👍

I have a Pearl Masters Custom (maple) 18 x 22, and I use an EMAD Batter (the one with the foam ring in the port hole) and a clear EMAD with the medium ring. The only thing in the drum is an old pair of slacks--breaks up the sine wave and mitigates that basketball tone. I use those because I want something that sounds good to me while practicing and mics up well for club shows, and that combo does it. I get a deep, long tone that isn't boomy or Bonham-y. I find that I can't use pillows because it limits the bass drum's dynamic range. Hitting hard and hitting soft both sound like a medium volume "thump" to the ear, and don't differentiate enough in the microphone. I also have an early 2000s Pearl Export 16x20. I have a Remo Powerstroke on the front and a coated Ambassador on the batter side. Tuned medium, it's a great open sound for quieter bar gigs and acoustic stuff. I use a big fluffy beater on it and leave it wide open! Pillow in there very rarely.

My favorite bass drum head right now is the Aquarian Super Kick 2. Was an emad guy for a while, but I saw Darren King (he’s played with Mutemath, Sucré, Scarypoolparty. He’s an animal, check him out if you haven’t heard of him) playin with one and I decided to give it a try. It’s pretty similar to the emad, but I personally like it more because it uses a felt ring rather than a foam one. Little bit softer of a damping tone in my opinion. All that aside, that G1 with the pillow sounded super killer and might just be what I try next!

18 inch Evans Onyx Emad I got to it because I was looking for a sound like the Hydraulics and was told they didn't make a Hydraulic head in that size so it was the next best and I am in love with it

great! as always! will try with my 16 kick. i use remo coated ambasador both sizes, somethimes emperor coated reso. i really hate all that ringing basketball sound in my drum. i watch your 16 bass drum video, but maybe, this same experiment, with a 16 kick? just thinking loud. probably is stupid idea. anyway. love ya guys! m.

Could you make a bass drum playlist? Or... one for all the various instruments?

Oooo that gear G1 is nice!

I use a Powersonic Clear batter (which is already pretty muffled) and I used really thin hotel towels. One around the bottom edge of the reso head and one that I don’t even think is touch the batter head much at all.

I'm now really interested to try a Calftone head. It sounded like a tone I've been chasing in my mind for a long time, especially when compared to the modern style heads.

If my heads are pre-muffled I like an empty bass drum. Remo Ebony P3 reso / P3, P4, or PowerStroke Pro batter. If I use something like an ebony or chrome reso / Ambassador, C.S., Emperor, or PinStripe batter I like something in the drum. I really like when the P3s are tuned up on an empty drum. It might be an adjustment if someone is used to burying their beaters.

When are we gona get a deep dive on weird snare drum batters/combos? The hydraulic black, the hybrid, putting marching heads on a non marching head...ect...

One of these days, I'll get around to buying my own rig. But technically, I've been borrowing my father's practice set for about twenty years. It's a CB-700 Internationale, which you should definitely not feel bad if you don't remember. It's one of two products produced in the 90's with a fiberglass-lined shell, the other being the Pearl Export. Anywho, that fiberglass was meant to focus the sound and provide more punch out of what were really very thin shells that otherwise don't provide much body. It does that, but at the expense of volume and and increasing upper-range frequency ringing. None of this much mattered for a drum set that was always meant to be played in big, loud 90's metal situations. And it came with black dot heads on the batters and silver dot heads on the resonant heads, so clearly, resonance was not a priority. But as my sound as changed, I've had to finesse tone out of drums that just don't want to produce it on their own. My bass rig reflects these realities. I want to hear something other than "THUMP," so I need the bass to ring out more. Sad, because that's really it's sweet spot. But I've discovered that using an EMAD2 for my batter head, a calftone head for the resso and an EQ Pad inside the shell, basically puffed out as far as I can get it gets me the sound I'm looking for. The result is enough ring to sound legitimately "boomy" while taming the ring. I also replaced the stock plastic and aluminium hoops with Pearl wood hoops, which did a LOT to add nice wood resonance.

Also don't forget not burying the pedal helps and the tension springs on that pedal.But then again I'm old school I like the tones a tad open and classic sounding ala Emp/Amb/felt strip.🤖📡

I have never had or heard a kick drum that didn't need muffling , I use the Evans eq pad and also a pillow ! I also use the Evan's retro screen on the reso side which is basically having no front head at all and an Evan's onyx emad as a batter tuned just above wrinkle , its tight, focused, punchy in the chest etc that's what I like anyway and it records like a dream . Part of this also is pedal feel and I like a buried beater feel anyway mu .02 cents

My go to is a Aquarian Superkick 1 on batter. I was using a pillow and a mesh reso. Now im trying out no pillow and ported stock mapex coated reso.

Ok, completely off topic, but interesting nonetheless: I have been trying to set my rack toms more parallel to the ground instead of at an angle (since I play with traditional grip most of the time) but they simply refuse to resonate. The sound dies almost immediatly like there's some heavy phase cancellation happening. If I put them back at a considerable angle or raise the tom mount high enough for Tim Duncan to confortably play on them while standing, it all goes back to normal. Does anybody have any ideas?

I wouldn’t have guessed the clear G1 would have the deepest and fullest low end of those 3 heads but to my ear it sure does. Sounded fantastic

I'm an EMAD kind of guy, but man that g1 sounded pretty killer not burying the beater, overall shocked I liked the g1!

I use an Emad with a cheap ebay $6 soft (felt)yet slightly firm beater and love it. Beaters make a huge difference. It bugs me when I see younger drummers automatically putting crap in their bass drums and it especially bugs me when I see or hear seasoned players tell younger drummers to put pillows in their kick drum...it should not be an automatic thing.

Im running a coated ambassador x over a coated ambassador on my 18", just using external muffling when needed. I was using a coated emperor but not quite lively enough for the sound i wanted

I've had an Ambassador Coated on my Crush Chameleon Ash bass drum for awhile, and I actually don't really like it without some serious dampening (it ends up sounding kind of like the G1 with the pillow when I tune it right). I've seen that both Steve Goold and Jeff Randall use the Powerstroke P3 Coated, so I'm gonna try that next cause I like the sound they get out of their drums.

Interesting how different the kick sounds in this comparison. Any chance you could do a follow-up to this using an unported bass drum front head?

I've been using Emad 2's since the original head on my first kit broke. This was usually accompanied with pillows or blankets as extra muffling, due to neighbors. Earlier this year I decided to go for a coated Powerstroke 3, because it seemed like everybody was using PS3's. But after playing the Emad for so long, I had a hard time with the PS3. The response felt off and during double pedal runs, the head would counter my second beater with the trampoline effect. I also couldn't get the PS3 to sound good, which was a lot easier with the Emad 2. Now I'm using the Emad Heavyweight with an EQpad. It's nice to play but can sound a bit boring and boxy behind the kit, so now I usually have the kick mic'ed up. Recently I've been wanting to try the PS3 on again. See if I can't get something better out of it than last time.

With the Evans UV Emad, there was this sort of almost clicky sound accentuated with the hit. Do you know what that might have been from? Was it a normal thing from a head like that? Is it just because it was tighter/more dampened?

Great videos. Please keep them coming. I am trying to make my cheap maple drum set sound like john Bonham’s ludwig. The ludwig will be mine one day but not today (she will be mine, she will be mine). The 22 kick came used with an evans coated with a muffling ring on the batter side. Not at all the sound i am going for. I bury the beater at this point and currently have no muffling. I have the reso Head tuned up high. I don’t record or gig. Just play in the basement . I am considering trying out an ambassador clear or emperor coated. Do i need muffling? Any other suggestions?

The EMAD head almost sounded like a sample! Should work great for metal drumming. I generaly use the clear powerstroke 3, but I've wanted to try out the coated version for some time now. And after this video, the EMAD seemed interesting!

Currently I have an Evans MX2 Black on my batter for bass. Stupid amounts of low end and I love it

Great stuff. Of course it all matters to the player and purist but I have had more issues with engineers just making things sound however they want instead of using their power for support. I love single ply heads on bass drums with no muffling rings because it leaves the head to bearing edge relationship pure. I love being able to control my tone. Pillows and or weather stripping do great for me when I need a more muffled sound. That being said I currently have. Clear SKII that has a tear in the top layer. I was doing a lot of gigs that needed that super control and I don’t want to put a bunch of stuff in the drum to retain volume and resonance. Close mic live a studio they work great for that punch and low end with very few mids. I like mids. But the engineers hate them

I’ve tried several of Evans EQ# series heads and none of them worked for me. Remo Powerstroke, usable but not good, hard to get any volume. Even more so for Fiberskyn Powerstroke, which has a nice tone, but not much loudness. When I tried the Aquarian Superkick 2, I think I bought the wrong head - I heard a Superkick on a friend’s kit and it was great, but I think it must have been Superkick 1. So probably my fault it didn’t give me what I was after. Best results I’ve had have been with: 1. Rogers Holiday 1963 22x14”: Remo Ambassador Clear batter, Smooth White reso, felt strip under each head, no port, nothing inside. This drum and this setup is beautiful for any music of any kind, no adjustments needed. Just exactly what a bass drum should sound like. 2. Yamaha RC (1992, 20x16): Remo Pinstripe batter, Ebony Ambassador reso with small port, folded carpet square in the bottom of the shell, which could be turned so it touched only the batter, both, or neither head. Slight tension adjustments up or down and placement of that carpet square made that drum incredibly versatile and easy to play.

Nothing like rage quitting drumming and seeing a new video from you

This is was very very EAR opening!! Lately pillows have been a huge no no for me but after watching this I realized that there is usable sounds there!

Hey guys! What would happen if you ported the batter head on a bass drum, and how would it compare to ported reso or fully unported?

That calftone is awesome! Would you expect the sound to vary even more without a reso head, or in the extreme case in a shallow pancake kick drum? It seems there'd be fewer variables to colour the batter head's tone in those cases.

Exactly, that's why I don't get expensive bass drum heads, because I'm going to put padding in anyway. I prefer a clear emperor, although I put a clear ambassador on my 1970s Ludwig 3ply 14x22 and it's sounds even better! I always use a Remo falam so I'm not worried about going though it.

Still love putting pillows in my 22s 👌🏽. Not for the 16/18 or 20s though

I used to use the Evans EMAD on my bass drums with no muffling. Then, I saw another drummer who was playing a festival I was playing break one in the middle of a set, which freaked me out, so I went out and got an EMAD Heavyweight. Then I started working with a sound guy who would sometimes want to trigger the bass drum, and the ring on the EMAD got in the way, so I switched to a Remo P4 on the bass drum. It sounds good when it was mic'd, but it really was too dead sounding for me in, so I switched to a P3 with a little blanket in the kick in it and I make sure to use the little badge and hope that I won't break head.

Have you ever tried a marching bass head? I currently run an Evans MX2. Give it a try.

Haha, that G1 reminds me of every bass drums I used to play of 15years ago, when I couldnt find any drumheads with muffling (in my country, not US).

22” Coated EMAD, with the widest damper, nothing inside. I love it.

i like 1 ply heads with a. pillow and a port hole. also add a bass drumpatch. extreme natural clickiness thats amazing for metal or rock.

Calfskin. Love those ‘56’s!

My favourite are: Remo Ambassador (10 mil or 12 mil) and Remo FIberskyn.

+soundslikeadrum *I had a situation calling for the lowest usable pitch and almost Classical sustain from a drumset bass.* I therefore used an EVANS®/D'Addario® BD22EMADHW 10+10-mil hazy batter fitted with the wide perimeter damping ring and REMO® KS-9404-00 FaLam Slam at center, (Evans having no direct analog available through Hoshino) a TAMA®-branded REMO® ES-1022-00 10-mil resonant, and no internal damping on my TAMA®/Hoshino® IMB22E ø22"x18" poplarbuilt kick. Eliminating a side load on the batter that killed sustain required a cut-down wood plaque blank under the bottom batter lugs. The tone is good enough to approach on the YAMAHA® RY2T4 at OMS Japanese Christian, using two EVANS®/D'Addario® heads on the BD922Y birchbuilt kick: A BD22EMADHW batter with narrow perimeter damping ring and a BD22GB4CT resonant (with large Ho-o and vertical "日本楽器製造" as watermark behind three-fork Mon and small "山羽株式会社" replacing the "'56 CALFTONE / Evans").

Evans Emad coated with the thin ring, emad reso, small pillow inside touching the batter head. (EDIT: I had a G1 on my other kick and didn't really like the sound at all, I prefer pre-muffled heads because I want to tune my bass drum really low.)

coated 2-ply heads give me volume and warmth. but clear 2 ply heads give me punch and a perfect balance. I like both :)

My kicker is 22x18 I prefer no pillow just the natural sound pinstripes on the kicker side clear I like big and bold sounds

I muffled the shit out of my bass drums on my Export and Prestige Session Select kits but on my Gretsch New Classic kit, an EMAD head with the smallest ring is perfection. (stock coated Gretsch resonant head)

Evans calftone eq4 on my old Ludwig studio 22” bass. Eq4 in my 18” bass. G14 on my martini kit. I use calftone reso on all of them. no batter head muffling on any of them. Usually felt on the reso side depends on the gig or producer. I just came to these choice thru trial and error. I also like emperor vintage heads but Remo has priced themselves out of the working musicians reach.

Not to brag, but I have an amazing bass drum sound, without any added dampening, either internal or external. The drum is a 1960 Camco, 20”. Remo Powerstroke3 front and back, with a Toneport installed. Sounds perfect on stage or in the studio.

how does the sound of your snare effect the way you play (your kick) and how does the sound of your kick effect the way you play (your snare). Like do certain sounds make you play different styles in improv?

I think it depends on the type of music you play. Since I play acoustic and/or mostly low volume, I prefer the "boom" over the "thump". At low volume, I want my bass drum to sound more like music than hitting a cardboard box or firing a cannon. I use a Remo Ambassador Powerstroke 3 for my 18" batter side and a Remo Ambassador single ply for my resonant side. But, that's just me. There is no right or wrong here.

I'm feeling the tone of that calftone head

For heavy rock or metal: Reso is Aquarian Regulator. Batter is clear Powerstroke 3 if you're using a mic, whether for live or studio playing. Kick mics just love the clear PS3. If you're not using a mic, say for a small gig, EMAD Heavyweight reigns supreme.

Me personally I don’t like a lot of muffling I play with remo power strokes p4s with the muffle ring that’s all I need nothing inside the bass drums . As you noticed I said bass drums because I play 2 bass drums . I hate double pedals .

Does using two 16” crash cymbals create a good hi-hat sound? Is it possible to use a top hi-hat as a crash or ride, or does it sound bad ? Thanks!

Would love a video on pancake kick drums, like the dw design 20 inch. Love the channel guys!

I have Superkick 1 on a pdp Encore. No pillow. It sounds incredible. I just got a dw Design Series and put an Evans hydraulic on it to match the color. No pillow. It sucked. I put the factory Remo on it with the supplied pillows. Now it sounds pretty good,but not even as good as the cheap pdp...so I’ll probably buy a Superkick and take out the pillows. A poplar bass drum should not sound better than one made of maple.

in all honesty, i think you forgot something to take into account is the beaters. hard or soft, the combo makes a huge difference. some react better with hard beaters and some not. durability too. some heads are resilient to be pounded by hard beaters where some simply blow after 1/2 hours of play. that's why 1 ply heads require beater patch on it. it also helps "focusing" the sound a lil bit. personnaly i like 2 ply clear reso with 1 ply clear batter + beater patch. the decay is short and powerful. i use 6 pieces of foam that i stapled inside the shell to contact the heads. it really gives that natural feeling to the foot. when i have a pillow, i need to engage more power. i hate the feeling of it.

G1 sounds excellent

I used Evan's bass skin. THEN at guitar center I kept seeing aquarian skins. so I grabbed a set and got the super kick. THEN MY MIND EXPLODED, the super kick II was forever my bass head. remo vintage emperor coated tom Tom's Aquarian High-Velocity snare head. as well as Aquarian Modern Vintage

I use a emad or gmad with a couple of old dress shirts and my sound is explosive

Does the batter matter? :-) I don't use a pillow so for me YES it does. Aquarian Super Kick I or II for rock, and Aquarian Modern Vintage for jazz. When I do use something in my BD it is air pillow packing material that I get from Amazon shipments. I don't use Evans heads very often but the Calftone heads are the ones I would likely use. I believe these videos would be better if other brands were included. I know D'Addario is the sponser but it would seem less like a commercial if other brands were included.

one pillow lol, I usually have my bass drum a little less than half full :D

Remo powerstroke 3 on my 28" no muffling, no hole

when we getting the snare wire comparison video guys??????

What about a PINSTRIPE kick head?

What beater model is that?

Can you do a "live" set up? Seema like most of your stuff is studio use? Or am i wrong?