Ported vs Unported Kick Drums: The Game-Changing Showdown!

[@drumdrumdrum]

Should you port your bass drum head? How is it going to affect the drum's sound and playability? This is usually an important topic when it comes to recording the bass drum for studio work. But it also comes into play fo live gig miking, and general fell of the kick as well. Let's take a deep dive into this topic and head decisively the difference between a ported and unported head.

[@an30805]

Your wizard name shall be Cymbaldore! Got cymbal? Great vid btw, Thank You!

[@drumdrumdrum]

Hah! Thank you : )

[@JohnCoenJr]

Thank you soooooo much for sharing!!! I ordered my Classic Grey Marine(Finish Ply) with gold hardware about a month ago. I just waiting til it arrives. I was going to order natural Mapa Burl but after seeing what the drum head did to ur ton and the pedal did to your bass, I decided to go with finish ply. I am way too particular, so I would never be able to take a lacquer kit anywhere for a show. It would drive me crazy. Your video was definitely a big help and it helped to persuade me on a couple things so thank you thank you THANK YOU

[@drumdrumdrum]

So glad I was able to help!

[@brent3760]

I always go no port. I love tone and warmth. I dont like big, cardboard box sounding kicks. I usually tune my resonant head quite high. But, to each their own. Objectively, there is no right or wrong. Preferences are subjective, and my sibjective opinion is yes, batter head with no port. You can always deaden the heads if you want, but you cant make a dead head sound super lively.

[@RPSchonherr]

close to the batter side looses a lot of the bass frequencies.

[@ZeBubba]

Yes. That is if you want a mic to pick any kind of high frequencies from the batter head. If a low end thud is ok, then no.

[@drumdrumdrum]

Word : )

[@cvltgoth3768]

personally i dont play with a resonant head at all. feels great to play, all attack on the low with no unwanted overtones and its super convenient for placing mics wherever you want in and around the drum oddly enough i think getting into the nitty gritty of details when it comes to micing bass drums is often missing the forest for the trees when the size of the room you are recording in has probably the biggest impact on the sounds you can get due to physical size of bass drum sound waves.

[@justintornberg3002]

it sounds like you only got the audio from the camera mic or something is very wrong with your setup.

[@RPSchonherr]

2 sounds the best to me.

[@Jarqueivies]

It mostly depends on the genre you play in, but for rock and metal I feel like 5. closer to the batter head has the most potential in a full mix