Subs or an acoustic bass drum?

[cstoliker]

I was planning on buying a cheap acoustic bass drum perhaps 22x14. Cutting it in half to make two 22x6 shells then closing each end with MDF and mounting a sub woofer in each enclosure. It would look great and be functional. But I got thinking. The only reason I want a subwoofer is to produce bass drum sounds. My JBL Eon's I use are more then sufficient for the toms and the even do a nice job on the bass drum. They are as loud as an acoustic but just do not move enough air to be "felt" the same way. Anyway making an acoustic bass drum into two subs would require carrying and extra amp and the mdf and speakers would add some weight to the shells. (I already have an extra amp and two new subwoofer to install) So why not just buy a nicer acoustic bass drum and play it directly? I need to decide which way to go because it will determine what bass drum I buy. Any suggestions on playing V-drums with an acoustic bass?

[stickinthemud]

Seems to me you would have a much greater range of volume if you just go with a sub. It doesn't take much amplification to overcome an acoustic kick, but if you have a sub, and th Eons you mentioned, you should be able to keep up pretty well.

[vctr]

When you use a sub you have to keep in mind that the woofer and cabinet are a match. About 90% of the low end that is produced ( or felt ) is comming from the cabinet itself, the woofer is just producing the punch. sounds like a real cool idea mounting a sub in a bass drum but don't know if you will get the low end like a true sub cabinet.
Think back in the day of sensoround. I believe JBL or cerwin Vega designed these massive engineered marvels of a sub cabinet that would rock down movie theatres back in the 70's. There are schematics of these somewhere online but they where all driven with a single 15" or 18" woofer.
Just my thoughts here ?

[cstoliker]

I know enough about enclosure design to get it done. It will be a sealed enclosure and I will adjust the inside volume for a resonance frequency to match the bass drum frequencies in the majority of kits. I will use a sealed design because they are less affected by environmental variables (humidity, temp exc.) then ported enclosures. Never know when or where I will be playing. Step one is to get a clean sample of a few bass drums to measure the frequency then I will build accordingly. My only concern is the wood. Bass drums are built to vibrate and give a little.

[mystic fred]

this thread gave me an idea

i have just acquired a (slightly) used pa system which includes Mackie 408S amp/mixer (500/250 watts stereo) with two JBL 15" speakers, i have a 22" bass drum in my setup with a trigger crossmember arrangement in the bass drum - having not tested the system out properly yet i may try placing a subwoofer cabinet inside the drum shell....may send too many vibes through the kit but will see.

[SuperPuss]

I know enough about enclosure design to get it done. It will be a sealed enclosure and I will adjust the inside volume for a resonance frequency to match the bass drum frequencies in the majority of kits. I will use a sealed design because they are less affected by environmental variables (humidity, temp exc.) then ported enclosures. Never know when or where I will be playing. Step one is to get a clean sample of a few bass drums to measure the frequency then I will build accordingly. My only concern is the wood. Bass drums are built to vibrate and give a little.

Perhaps you could build a traditional square cabinet inside the bass drum shell to house the sub. I agree with you about sealed vs ported too but I'd be more inclined to create the enclosure based on the Thiele-Small parameters of the driver itself rather than basing it on other kick drum resonant frequencies.
If you base the design on the driver, you'll end up with a far less coloured and much more efficient subwoofer that will much more accurately reproduce what the module is creating.

[Forflex]

.... just as a side note...

you mentioned in your initial post that you weren't feeling the air of the bass drum. I was finding that too when I played.

A subwoofer is a good addition... but you also might want to consider attaching a buttkicker or aura bass shaker to your throne.

F.

[cstoliker]

I have not built the actual inclosers yet but at last band practice I used the speakers in a square MDF box as a test run. OMG what a difference! Sounded incredible. Unfortunately a had a big screen rear projection HDTV next to the drum set and all the vibrations or magnetic fields knocked the color convergence way out of whack. Still sounded great. I used two Kicker compVR 12" they provide a punch that is hard to equal.

[gingerbaker]

To tell you the truth, I have thought mightily about just going with an acoustic kit so I wouldn't have to carry all the armaments needed to electronically produce a kick drum sound.

1 used acoustic kick - $100.00 => 20 pounds
Subwoofer +/- amp - $800.00 + => 90 pounds

Carrying in just a 40 pound keyboard amp for full drum kit -- priceless.

[Michael Render]

Do you guys remember Electric Drums from Johnny Nobody? He brought them to the last FutureDrum and the enclosed speakers worked great! They were clear, articulate and had tons of neat effects you could accomplish with the vibrations. And they were LOUD! Very loud. As much crap as we gave him around here, they were still very interesting.