I have played three "modern" shallow bass drums and was perfectly happy in all three of the sounds-for what it was. I have played on a Taye Go-kit (was it 10x20? I can`t remember), a Pearl Rhythm Traveller (something like 10x20 as well I think) and recently a Yamaha Tour Custom special order which is a 10x20. This Yamaha Tour Custom was a special order from the factory. It had a pillow inside and gave a good deep R&B thump ( for being a shallow drum) With that said, they are not the same as deep drum- but I think it`s a good idea. Good luck with the project and lets see some picsCool1

I have a 28" scotch bass drum I'd like to try. I think it could sound great! I've heard some portable sets with what were probably 2" deep bass drums that sounded pretty good. It might be good with no reso head and a pillow.

I use a 26" kick and it's really low, like thunder, but I prefer to play it really soft. When I play it loud it sounds smaller in a way 'cause there's less of a ratio of bass to treble, if that makes sense.

I've found that large bass drums aren't so much louder, but lower. For a louder bass drum I'd use my Ghost pedal. That pedal on a 20" kick... I'm not sure a larger bass drum would be louder. A larger bass drum is a bigger sound though and I like that a lot.

Mastro I too have a 26 (x14) bass drum, Radio King with calf heads. I recorded with it a few weeks a go and the engineer swore I had some sort of subkick thing going on with it. I recorded with it a few weeks later with the same engineer and he said it sounded completely different and not nearly as low. I figured it was the calf heads still adjusting to the room. Turns out I was hitting the drum a little harder. I backed off and the thing sounded killer. This place had a ton of vintage mics so there was an old RCA ribbon near the front head and some old German monstrosity that looked like a big cheese grater about two feet back. Huge sound. That bass drum wants to be caressed rather than kicked .

That's what I've found with mine. Mine's not special, a Frankenstein'd 70's Slingerland with a calf batter, and I use a prehistoric woolly mammoth type beater.

If 1 is softest and 10 is loudest, I play mine 1,2,3 and accents maybe 4, whereas with plastic heads and a hard felt or wood beater I would usually be in the 6 - 9 range. Nothing I planned, it's just what sounds best to my ears. I use an old Neumann on my kick and next time I'm going to try miking it from the batter side. Why do we mic every drum from the batter side but not the kick? If the kick's batter is miked, it's usually the secondary mic. It could be for convenience.

And it does feel like a subwoofer!

When I was in HS, we would sometimes make a makeshift drum set from a scotch bass drum. I'm guessing it was 10 x 24 or 26 and I remember it to be a great sounding drum.

I had a Leedy 12 x 22 that was killer and now I use a slingerland 12 x 20 that I love...both of those had calf heads, so I never used them on gigs...

If I remember correctly years ago when I was still searching for a large "old school" (20s-30s) type bass drum, I did some drum “inside” area calculations. I wanted to get a general idea of the overall internal air capacity (circumference x pi 3.147 x depth, or was it divided by 3.147, somthing like that, no...no...no...that's wrong. Try this: In circles the AREA is equal to 3.14 (pi) times the radius (r) to the power of 2. So the formula looks like: Capacity = pi x r2 x the depth of your drum.) of what the contemporary BD sizes were in comparison to those old drums (I bought a brand new BD to use until I found my old one). In that regard our new contemporary drums are very similar to the various sizes of old drums. It’s my feeling that basically the thinner the drum the larger the circumference (or diameter) it should have. You could figure the capacity of your favorite BD and translate that to the thinner drum measurements to get something similar. It will behave differently but the thump might be exactly what your looking for. Just my two cents!...times this that and the other!DOH

If I did the calculations right a 20 x 16 BD (cap. 5035.2) would be similar to the capacity of a 28 x 8 (cap. 4934.496).

Mind Blowi

I own a Premier Heritage Club kit, which has an 8x20 Artist Birch kick drum. I put a Powerstroke 3 on the batter side and the stock intact logo head on the front. There's a small rolled-up towel inside, just barely touching each head, and it sounds MUCH bigger than it looks. It fills up a small barroom. I've even recorded with it.

I can't recommend it enough. Great attack, as is the case with shallower drums, IMO, and more depth than it really ought to have.

Dan

this is an interesting point.

what are the physics behind it all? do hoops make a difference? my silngy is a 20 by 14, but it has to 1.5" hoops, is it essentially behaving like a 20" x 17"?

My input on the hard hitting vs soft hitting on larger drums would be around the desired sound. in both scenarios above calf heads are being used, so ic an only assume a more open vintage sound is your target? as opposed to the modern emad thump. in which case to my mind softer would definately be better