I have an 18" kick I absolutely love, and the musicians I play with love it too. The sound is absolutely gorgeous to my ear, has a very clear fundamental (especially listening to the batter side), and of course I love the portability and being able to set my toms and cymbals lower. But I get complaints from the sound engineers at our "big PA" gigs because I have no port in the front head, which makes it harder for the engineer to isolate the kick.

I tried putting a ported head on but I didn't like what it did to the tone. I experimented but couldn't get the sound I loved anymore--it wasn't a bad sound but felt flat and dead in comparison. So the non-ported head is back on.

What I'm looking for is advice on how to make things easy for the sound guy to get something he's satisfied with out of this drum. To my ear it seems like it would be a good idea to mic the batter side, but honestly I don't have much experience with mics or PAs. I plan on discussing this with the sound guys as I work with them, but I'd like to do some homework now to make their job easier since of course they tend to have to get things done in a hurry. Any advice? This is for afro-pop (not superloud but a typical rock volume).

thanks in advance,
matt

Hey Matt,

welcome to Drumdojo. Thanks for joining with us.

The unported kick is great for acoustic and recording gigs but as you have found out is not always ideal for amplified events, particularly if you are looking for separation between mics. Sitting behind any drumset gives a drum sound that is different from that set's sound from out front.

The size & position of the port hole will make a difference to the sound that you get from the drum, the hole should be as small as possible, just enough to get a mic inside. It also needs to be offset from the center but modern ported heads do that anyway.

If a factory-ported head is affecting the sound too much it may be worth making a smaller port in a new head yourself. I haven't done this personally so I'm passing on third person advice but one way to do this is to heat up the end of a tin can (wear gloves) and burn a clean circle in the head. this avoids the raggedy edges that usually come with a blade cut.

It is also useful to consider that the moment you stick a mic in (or in front of) a drum and amplify it, the sound is already very different from the acoustic drum sound especially the particular sound that that you have as a p_layer_ sitting on the drum stool.

I'd say try a head with a smaller port and see if that retains more of the character of the pleasing acoustic drum sound, YMMV :)
If you want to stay with aported kick, here's some advice from Lyle Caldwell from the recording drums section

A good trick when miking the resonant head is to light a match, and hold it just to the side of the resonant head. While someone's playing strong quarter notes on the bass drum, bring the match across the face of the resonant head. When the air from the moving head blows out the match, stop and put the mic right there. This is a good place to get a lot of air movement, but not so much it might crap out the microphone.

Let us know how you get on and thanks for asking.

Paul

Paul - thanks so much for the advice--you make a great argument for a smaller port. I also got some suggestions at Sound On Sound on miking unported drums--I think I will give the intact head one or two more shots (the match trick for finding the sweet spot is especially intriguing), but if it's still too much of an impediment to the engineer I will try your suggestion on the smaller port.

One of the suggestions I got at Sound On Sound that I'd never heard of was using a cluster of pinholes in the same area where you'd cut a port, that offers a little boost for the mic without impeding resonance as much.

Saw Eric Slick perform a couple weeks ago and his 18" sounded like a freaking cannon. And yes, it was ported. :)