Bass drum or “kick drum”?

#61
Savage_Dreams said:
what you play it with doesnt change what an instrument is. its right up there with saying you cant call a bass guitar a bass guitar if you play it with a pick instead of fingers. by your logic jimmy page was playing violin when he used a bow ;) or a snare is a dust pan if you use brushes lol
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I get where you’re coming from but having messed around with both bass drum and kick drums playing in a symphony and in a rock band they are very different instruments. The only things they really have in common is they both put out some low frequencies and they are both drums. By that logic we could basically call a low tuned tympani a bass drum.

kick drum
B785A03A-5923-41EA-9D35-2A858485EEFC.jpeg

bass drum
C0DB3E46-2323-4DC8-BBAE-7C601BE729E9.jpeg
 
#62
Nephilymbass said:
I get where you’re coming from but having messed around with both bass drum and kick drums playing in a symphony and in a rock band they are very different instruments. The only things they really have in common is they both put out some low frequencies and they are both drums. By that logic we could basically call a low tuned tympani a bass drum.
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i was in marching band drum line, the kick drum and bass drum as you have labeled them are all constructed the same, its just the difference in how theyre mounted. playing them in different styles doesnt make them different instruments. tympanis are a completely differently designed and constructed instrument. in a marching band you have the bass drum line which has sizes from as big as you showed to smaller than the kick there. what do you call the small one? theyre all bass drums, anything smaller is in the tom line. bass drum isnt just one size. again it would be like saying a 34" bass guitar is a bass while a 32" isnt a bass anymore.
 
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#65
keith1r said:
I’ve always used the term “bass drum” and not “kick drum”. I grew up with my father as a drummer and 2 brothers that play drums and they all call it a bass drum. I’ve heard the term “kick drum” was started by sound guys and recording engineers so they wouldn’t confuse the bass drum with the bass guitar. I know that you can not buy a “kick drum” as all drum companies call it a bass drum. I think of a bass drum as sounding full and big and boomy old school and a kick drum sounding like a ported drum that sounds like a basketball bouncing or the beater hitting the mic and sounding like an electronic drum.
Which term does everyone prefer?
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green because aliens don't wear hats
 
#67
Savage_Dreams said:
i was in marching band drum line, the kick drum and bass drum as you have labeled them are all constructed the same, its just the difference in how theyre mounted. playing them in different styles doesnt make them different instruments. tympanis are a completely differently designed and constructed instrument. in a marching band you have the bass drum line which has sizes from as big as you showed to smaller than the kick there. what do you call the small one? theyre all bass drums, anything smaller is in the tom line. bass drum isnt just one size. again it would be like saying a 34" bass guitar is a bass while a 32" isnt a bass anymore.
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bass guitars can come in different sizes and tunings so can bass drums. Thing is people don’t normally play them with their feet like a “kick” drum. It’s what it is, I personally don’t really care, I can’t believe I’ve gone on about to this length as it is.
 
#71
JRA said:
yeah: a lot of FOH cats i know call it a "kick"...and mark it as "kik" on the board/desk.

i accept either/both and most major credit cards. :D

whatever you call it: you have to hope that the cat playing it knows what to do with it!
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yep - because there's already a "bass" on the board's scribble strip. I'm going to say that "kick" is more of sound/recording engineer term.

But to me, this is a "real" bass drum:

IMG_1399.jpg
 
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#74
25 year pro audio guy here. Like several other posters have said, in my world (and the de facto standard in the industry) if it's played with a pedal, it's a kick drum and if it's played with a mallet it's a bass drum. Floor toms are floor toms or called by their size, 16, 18, etc. Double bass is the gigantic fiddle. If I have a stage with a bass drum played with a mallet (and I have seen this) I abbreviate it as BD.
 
#77
JimmyM said:
On a related note, how come marching band snare drums all sound like total dogcrap these days?
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It's the tension on the batter head and the material being used. Tension on marching snares started to increase in the mid-80's. This was to give the attack a clearer and cleaner sound. The tighter head caused a few issues such as a higher pitch (which got lost in the overall sound, or "mix") and a lower lifespan for the head. Because of this, marching snare drum heads began to made from kevlar instead of the usual mylar. This allowed drums to be "cranked-up" without becoming stretched out. But, the result was a less than natural tone. So, some marching drum lines compromised by not putting as much tension on the drum head. However, as the need to "cut-through" became more necessary and clarity became more important with more complex snare parts, the kevlar heads began to be cranked-up more and more (there are some drum lines who will use a power drill with a special drum key attachment to crank-up their kevlar drum heads). The problem with cranking up kevlar heads is that they resonate less and sound less natural. Combine that with the fact that a lot of marching snare drums have kevlar heads on the snare side of the drum, you aren't going to get much resonance or "rattle" like you would expect. It's still there, it is just harder to hear. But, again it comes down to clarity and the need to cut through the band. I don't like that sound either. On my middle school drum line's snares, we use kevlar heads, but they are not tuned so high that we loose the resonance of the drum. They also have mylar snare side heads. Yes, I have to replace those every year (where as I haven't replaced a kevlar head in about five years), but it sounds better. But, the drum line plays about 90% of the time by themselves (except for the one pep rally the band plays) so they don't have to worry about cutting through anything.

That's probably more information than you were looking for...
 
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#78
BD Jones said:
It's the tension on the batter head and the material being used. Tension on marching snares started to increase in the mid-80's. This was to give the attack a clearer and cleaner sound. The tighter head caused a few issues such as a higher pitch (which got lost in the overall sound, or "mix") and a lower lifespan for the head. Because of this, marching snare drum heads began to made from kevlar instead of the usual mylar. This allowed drums to be "cranked-up" without becoming stretched out. But, the result was a less than natural tone. So, some marching drum lines compromised by not putting as much tension on the drum head. However, as the need to "cut-through" became more necessary and clarity became more important with more complex snare parts, the kevlar heads began to be cranked-up more and more (there are some drum lines who will use a power drill with a special drum key attachment to crank-up their kevlar drum heads). The problem with cranking up kevlar heads is that they resonate less and sound less natural. Combine that with the fact that a lot of marching snare drums have kevlar heads on the snare side of the drum, you aren't going to get much resonance or "rattle" like you would expect. It's still there, it is just harder to hear. But, again it comes down to clarity and the need to cut through the band. I don't like that sound either. On my middle school drum line's snares, we use kevlar heads, but they are not tuned so high that we loose the resonance of the drum. They also have mylar snare side heads. Yes, I have to replace those every year (where as I haven't replaced a kevlar head in about five years), but it sounds better. But, the drum line plays about 90% of the time by themselves (except for the one pep rally the band plays) so they don't have to worry about cutting through anything.

That's probably more information than you were looking for...
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Actually, that's EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thx man...personally, I don't think they cut through at all.
 
#80
BD Jones said:
It's the tension on the batter head and the material being used. Tension on marching snares started to increase in the mid-80's. This was to give the attack a clearer and cleaner sound. The tighter head caused a few issues such as a higher pitch (which got lost in the overall sound, or "mix") and a lower lifespan for the head. Because of this, marching snare drum heads began to made from kevlar instead of the usual mylar. This allowed drums to be "cranked-up" without becoming stretched out. But, the result was a less than natural tone. So, some marching drum lines compromised by not putting as much tension on the drum head. However, as the need to "cut-through" became more necessary and clarity became more important with more complex snare parts, the kevlar heads began to be cranked-up more and more (there are some drum lines who will use a power drill with a special drum key attachment to crank-up their kevlar drum heads). The problem with cranking up kevlar heads is that they resonate less and sound less natural. Combine that with the fact that a lot of marching snare drums have kevlar heads on the snare side of the drum, you aren't going to get much resonance or "rattle" like you would expect. It's still there, it is just harder to hear. But, again it comes down to clarity and the need to cut through the band. I don't like that sound either. On my middle school drum line's snares, we use kevlar heads, but they are not tuned so high that we loose the resonance of the drum. They also have mylar snare side heads. Yes, I have to replace those every year (where as I haven't replaced a kevlar head in about five years), but it sounds better. But, the drum line plays about 90% of the time by themselves (except for the one pep rally the band plays) so they don't have to worry about cutting through anything.

That's probably more information than you were looking for...
Click to expand...

I was just gonna “Kevlar” but you nailed it! In the Scottish snare drumming world we went Kevlar in the ‘90s but have gone back to Mylar....some of the older drums just couldn’t handle Kevlar heads. But we did switch from those old nylon slings to the drum line harnesses. That was a great move and none too soon.
 
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