The primary characteristic of a bass drum is that it produces indefinite or low-pitched sound. We can generally classify them into concert bass drum, pitched bass drum, and the kick drum. As the name suggests, concert bass are used in concerts or orchestras. The kick drum is, usually, seen on drum kits. It is attached to a pedal and is stuck with a beater to generate music. Marching bands and drum corps use the pitched bass.
When two bass drums are used operated by each foot it is called the Double bass drum. It was used as early as in the 1940s and 1950s. Louie Bellson, a jazz drummer, first formulated the idea of using two bass drums. He was in the high school then. Earlier, two pre-tuned bass drums were used as a double bass drum. Later on, with cost of electronic extension getting lower, double pedal was employed. Now, the tuning has also become easier.
Ray McKinley and Ed Shaugnessy were the first to use the double bass drums in jazz concerts. However, Ginger Baker of Keith Moon of the Who, created public approval for them. Music is a form of experimentation, and drummers are no slouch in using trial and error method in creating new and exciting beats.
Drummers have used two different tuning for each bass drum. They also have tried working with two drum beaters with more than two pedals.
Double bass drums have been popular with some form of extreme punk, heavy metal and jazz. Both, heel-up and heel-down methods are being used in playing double bass. A difficult technique to use is the heel-toe technique. Here the first note of the composition is played with the heel, with the feet being suspended over the footboard.
For the budding drummers the tip is to develop the technique of playing the double bass drum in the right way. This would save valuable practice time in the future for the drummer, both novice and intermediate alike. If a beginner can learn around 20 drum beating techniques from an experienced drummer he can then progressively build up his drum skill.
This also helps in building up the speed drumming process. Not only experienced drummers can help an aspiring drummer but there are video tutorials also which can help improve the double bass drums beating skill.
Here are some important points related to double bass drumming techniques:
- Heel-down is harder to accomplish than heel-up technique. It also is harder to gain speed with this technique.
- It is difficult to not find the sweet spot and still attain the maximum speed. To find it, one needs to find the center of the pedal and then need to place the groove between the toes and the foot.
- One of the better ways to attain the balance of playing double bass drums is to sit up straight.
- Another proper way is to find out the proper muscle position while playing the drum for a long time. Some postures will help the drummer to play for a long time with less exhaustion.
- Ordinary calf raises is a good exercise to help in getting strength in the calf-muscle area.
Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, and synthesizers. You can find the best marketplace for guitars, drums, and synthesizers at these 3 sites: guitars, bass guitar, bass drums, double bass drums, and synthesizers, keyboards.
Filed under Used Drum Kits Articles by on Sep 15th, 2010. Comment. 
Recording drums can be a challenge both to the mics and record. So, we need to have a good idea about the techniques that can help us to get a better result. While recording one thing should be kept in mind: if the drums are good, then everything else would be perfectly all right. That means everything else can be fixed later and the take will be perfect.
Various microphone techniques actually affect how much bass, midrange, and treble that we hear in the monitored sound of a musical instrument. There are various points that one should keep in mind while deciding the microphone techniques. The mic choice and placement affect how distant the instruments sound in recording and how much background noise is picked up. But there are no hard and fast rules about where the mics should be placed. If the placement of the mic sounds good to the user then that should be the correct position to use them.
There are various techniques of microphones that can be used in various environments to record drums. Let us learn those in details. Like in the home studio environment the most common and the most successful way to get a perfect sound is to use the triangle miking style. This style involves three mics, hence called triangle. The first mic is placed on the kick drum, and the other one on the either side of the kit. This method will allow catching us a bit of the drum kit.
Before using the microphone technique we need to know what kind of sound output we prefer, such as whether it is big and boomy or round and subdued or tight or punchy? Then the technique will be different while capturing the sound.
If we want big and boomy sound the mic should be placed around two inches in the front head of the drum or away from the head pointed at the center of the drum. For getting a round and muffled sound the drum should be stuffed with a large piece of foam. If the position of the mic is placed in such a way where the halfback is striking out the tight and punchy sound will be recorded.
But this kind of method has one drawback. Some kind of weird lower mid unpleasantness will come, but that could be rectified during the post production stage. In any case the microphone should not be placed in any other direction inside the drum because sound bouncing all around the waves will end up canceling themselves out, thus resulting in loss of volume and tone.
But the microphone techniques will change when the type of drum changes. The above technique could only be used for kick drum only. Setting the microphone for snare drum will definitely be different. In order to record this kind of drum we need two microphones. But just placing the microphone on the front of the drum is not enough. So, planning is needed to decide where the mike should be placed. It would be a good idea to place the bottom mic exactly to the opposite of the top mic. Before the recording starts just turn over the mike on and off and then a decision has to be made about which setting is delivering the perfect sound.
Victor Epand is an expert consultant for music gear, speakers, and microphones. You can find the best marketplace for music gear, speakers, and microphones at these 3 sites: music gear, DJ equipment, recording equipment, speakers, subwoofers, and microphone techniques.
Filed under Used Drum Kits Articles by on Sep 3rd, 2010. Comment.
