Kick Head Shootout | SpectreSoundStudios
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- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
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Many thanks to AQUARIAN DRUMHEADS for participating in this shootout!
www.aquariandru...
In today’s episode on Spectre Sound Studios I’ll be shooting out 7 different kick drum skins. Check below for the gear I discussed in today’s episode. Subscribe for more! bit.ly/1SfU1m4
A few of the products I discussed today in my video:
Aquarian Force 1: amzn.to/2bbPpyE
Aquarian Super Kick 10: amzn.to/2bHd0Wl
Stay tuned for the next episode where I’ll be unboxing a new mic preamp!. And for more Spectre Sound Studios videos click here! bit.ly/1STfmQQ
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About Spectre Sound Studios:
I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, and plugin effects. Everything you've wanted to learn about recording Hard Rock & Heavy Metal can be found right here on this channel!
I also respond to your comments & questions: The best make it into the SMG Viewer's Comments series of videos. Loads of fun, lots of laughs.
Thanks for checking out my channel & please subscribe!
I never realized how much all these companies different heads sound like an Audix D6 with a plastic beater hitting a kevlar patch.
Imagine if drummers were as outrageous and particular as guitar players.
"You use a cotton pillow in your kick drum? Memory foam is the best!"
"No! Duck feather pillows are the best!"
no chicken feather pillows are the best. duck feathers are made of inferior tone-feather.
Memory foam is the way to go tho
"Tone-feather" Amazing
no then the drummers would believe that the wood the drum is made of makes no difference
Empty is the way to go anyway, especially if you're using the Super Kicks ;)
# Typical SMG Drum Mix
Remo Powerstroke 3: 1:27
Remo Powerstroke 3 with new front head: 1:37
Aquarian Force 1: 1:48
Aquarian Super Kick 1: 2:01
Aquarian Super kick 10: 2:12
Attack 2 Play Clear: 2:25
Remo DW Factory Head: 2:37
Aquarian Super Kick 10 without a pillow: 2:49
# Audix D6 Solo
Remo Powerstroke 3: 3:00
Remo Powerstroke 3 with new front head: 3:05
Aquarian Force 1: 3:10
Aquarian Super Kick 1: 3:14
Aquarian Super Kick 10: 3:19
Attack 2 Ply Clear: 3:24
Remo DW Factory Head: 3:28
Aquarian Super Kick 10 without a pillow: 3:33
# Raw mic - no processing
Remo Powerstroke 3: 3:37
Remo Powerstroke 3 with a new front head: 3:42
Aquarian Force 1: 3:47
Aquarian Super Kick 1: 3:51
Aquarian Super Kick 10: 3:56
Attack 2 Ply Clear: 4:01
Remo DW Factory Head: 4:05
Aquarian Super Kick 10 without a pillow: 4:10
Wow. The Force 1 are extreme good: its the loudest and has the best „wet“ punch. I didnt expected that.
I always used remo powerstroke 3 and would never ever change it! Got everything you need, even in different drums, from low bidget to high end! However thanks for the comparison and showing me i'm not mistaken, these drum heads are not cheap!
why no Evans heads? :(
idk man :[
(also hi...love ur channel)
He used the Heads he had laying around.
PowersOnDrums There is no best.
Don't you use triggers anyway?
Yep never understood why any drummers using triggers would bother about their kick tone as no one will ever hear it anyway.., you could plug the trigg on mesh heads it would work, heck I even saw someone using a cardboard box with trigger on, and it works just as fine!
Aquarians are the best man. I've had the same super kick ll on my kit for over 10 yrs and it still kicks ass.
cheers Glenn.
agreed ... I still have my first super kick 1 head on my old old old set ... 1999ish?
Being a drummer, and fellow studio owner, I can say that tom resonant heads have a HUGE impact on toms sounds too. Next shootout after all the other head shootouts are done? lol
Attack 2 play was probably my favorite. Not an overbearing click and really nice low end
agreed. It had a more classic metal sound to it, but it still had enough attack to cut through. Didn't sound like popcorn, like many kicks d these days.
Attack 2 I found was the most modern sounding of the lot, that really attack heavy (hence the name) scooped kick sound. The best low end for me was the super kick 10 but overalll the Attack (for metal/hardcore and hard rock) was the best. For everything else it was a tie between the Powerstroke with the new reso head and the super kick 10.
I like the 'attack 2 ply clear' the most.
Thank you very much for your great videos!
Aquarian makes an incredible drumhead. The sound is amazing. If I were to give Aquarian any flaw is that they sound too good all of the time. You may ask "How is that bad?" Well, because of the great sound all of the time, you might not keep them optimally tensioned and then they break, whereas if you had kept them tensioned it wouldn't have happened. With Aquarian before you play do the thumb test and tension accordingly. :) BTW, Evans also has a great bass drum option where you can switch in and out the muffled rings.
Really digging the Attack 2... It's got some good Death Metal "click" to it on top. Very cool vid. Thanks Glenn.
That REMO DW factory head sounds amazing.
Hey young drummers! That basketball sound that Glenn is referring to is sound bouncing around and phase canceling inside your bass drum. You dont have to use a pillow to get rid of it. You can use a towel folded in half to cover 1/3 of the entire bass drum interior. If you prevent the towel from touching the heads, you will still get all the punch and slap you want but your kicks will sound LOUDER! Thanks to Udo Masshoff for that little tip!
It works for anything of a similar material, I have blankets but you could use pretty much anything
+rabidninjacupcake Absolutely!!
yup, found that when i tuned low, but i tune my bass drum higher than most do, and i dont get thst boingy sound :)
With the amount of control and the quality of your mics, I would suggest not to reverse the beater in a test.
I understand the technique in a live situation, to get the extra plastic click that helps the definition, but in a test it just flattens out the differences. It's harder to tell what high freqs are produced by the head, 'cause the plastic click cover them.
must of took forever to change out the heads and tune up that many times. Appreciate the work!
True that, changing heads can drive you to drink if you don't have the correct tools!
Btw I had one of those tuning clocks that Glenn uses and I hated to fucking thing! I found the torque key by Rythemtech to be much faster and user friendly.
I’m really liking the sound of the Aquarian Force 1!
same
yeah!... sounds exactly like a Remo PS3 though ... on a serious note: quality of Aquarian is going down the drain the last 2 years. Several of my drummer friends had to stop using them. a lot of heads simply had such poor quality that it was a waste of money. Sad, cause they had som great heads.
@@HR2635 Aquarian’s are probably the most durable heads I’ve used, I’ve had those quality control issues with Remo. But each to their own.
The Remo DW Factory head I think sounds the best.
Hey Glenn,
I've been watching your channel for a couple months now and I've noticed people tend to focus on small aspects such as your attitude towards bass players or mic position rather than focusing on the big picture of your channel: helping all of us young musicians. In the small time I've been watching you I have learned more from you than any other audio engineering oriented channels. Its quite shocking to see the underwhelming amount of people thanking you for the service you're providing us. Not only are you helping prepare thousands of musicians and guiding them down a better path, you do it in a fucking hilarious way. Hats off to you for taking your personal time to educate us. Keep up the good work!
P.S. If you ever want to hear the most hilarious and by far the most awful attempt at metal (?) listen to a song called "doomsday orgy" by "The Backsardigans". I swear your reaction will be more bizarre than you'd expect.
The superkick 10 won this one IMO, but the real star of this video was the snare
Tbh, I like the sound of the DW Factory heads with the Audix D6 Solo
It sounded a bit too dead for me :/
I thought it sounded like it had very little attack.
Almost sounded electronic
Northfold agreed
Liked for the snare comment 🤘
Amusing how both of the superkick heads are the ones that have got the less kick out of all the drumheads
Can you see if you can do a video on the difference between what recording double bass with two kick pedals and one bass drum and two kick pedals with two bass drums sound like. I see a lot of drummers use both ways of kick drums and I'm wondering how would it sound in a mix either way. Like does one way sound messier than the other way?
+xTWOGPlays
+xTWOGPlays
+SpectreSoundStudios i agree
+SpectreSoundStudios well said
+Daniel Stefanov Happens the same with me... must be a bug
I'm a bassist and I totally and fully agree with your shirt
It's amazing how far bass drum heads have been developed since the sixties and seventies.
Nice comparison, Glenn. I was a PowerStroke 3 guy for many years, but I've been using Aquarian on my set almost exclusively for the past bunch of years. In the past year or so, I moved over to the Force I and find it retains a lot of what I like about the PowerStroke, and improves upon it (at a better price to boot). Let's not forget that Aquarian have a tendency to last longer and are more consistent in quality control. The SuperKick I, while the most tolerable of the SuperKick series for me, I just felt to lack a little too much upper end projection (as is common with heads that feature a soft material for dampening). While some of the heavier 2-ply heads sound OK in recording, I do not like the feel of 2-ply on kicks, or snares for that matter, at all.
I'm not a huge fan of Evans heads, but the EMAD is quite possibly my favorite for the kick drum.
try emad heavyweight or ec2, those are great too
Evans Hydraulics. Haven't found anything better.
@@porcelainthunder2213 I prefer a super kick ii over the hydraulics.
Super kick 10 to me sounds the best.
that sounds awesome with the attack 2 ply, in my opinion i think it sounds better than the remo heads
also, aquarians dampening rings arent foam, theyre traditional style felt :)
the impact series have a wider felt ring, giving a more dampened sound :)
Man, that must have taken forever. My back goes out just thinking about it. :)
pretty cool shootout....myself...i thought the super kick 10 was closest to the sound i get with mine...my bass drum is a 24 inch pearl elx with an evans emad(with the wide foam ring) wide open(no pillows here) evans eq patch and wood beaters...killer attack..big sound...
Those are nice heads!
I've been playing the Evans EMAD heads, which have a dampening ring. Recently, I've actually taken all other dampening out of my kick.
Tuned down as low as it will go, it sounds huge and punchy. There was a gig where another drummer borrowed my kit, and it just sounded enormous in double kick runs.
I'd be curious to see a shootout of your favourite heads with different beater types as well. I know you like your wood and plastic beaters.
wooow.. That took a long time to make! Thanks, great video.
really appreciate the time you take to make these shootouts.
definetly helped me out with the drum head selection.
i sport all Aquarian heads now!
Tried a power stroke, tried an EMAD, Tried a super kick 2, and 3(black coated)... Super kick 2 is the only one I've purchased more than once.
im between the attack two ply and the remo dw factory. i like punchy kicks.
I agree, the 2 best sounding. The Aquarian Force 1 isn't bad either.
I liked the Super Kick 10 with no pillow. It sounded more lively to me.
What about a shootout where you change the drum itself?
Thanks dude
Have you had any experience with Aquarian’s Super Kick 3??? It’s coated only, but it has a power dot in addition to their internal muffling ring. And it is said to be meant for drummers who don’t want to put any kind of internal muffling inside of the bass drum at all.
I got a drum set with an Aquarian Super Kick 2 and I really don't like it because that muffling makes it sound like plastic or too bouncy, I liked the Remo Powerstroke because it had close to the punch I like. I play skate and pop punk so i have a different sound than metal drummers so that plays a big part. I also like a wide open bass drum sound as well
THIS RULES! thanks Glenn!
Superkick 10 for sure!!!!! Runner up........dw remo head sounds badass as well.....
Thanks!
Remo equivalent of the force 1- Powerstroke 3.
Difference in price - $30 more for the p3. It's a no brainer for the working drummer on a budget.
A worthwhile exercise nevertheless in demonstrating what you really get for your money with this choice of heads
Attack 2 Head is brutal!!!
Wouldn't have given it a chance without this vid.
I quite like the Super Kick 10
If you get two half dollars and tape them to your bass drum it is the same as the DANMAR pad but a little cheeper. Vinnie Pual did something like this in pantera
im using evans EC2 but i really like that attack 2 kick
Ply clear sounds the best imo
Have you tried Aquarian’s Super Kick 3 bass drum head??? It’s a coated head, but I’ve read where you won’t even need an internal muffler of any kind inside the bass drum itself if you were to have that drum head in particular!!!
I liked Remo Attack 2 Ply Clear. Sounds more mix ready to my ears. Thanks for the shootout!
Attack 2 ply clear was my fav
I use Aquarian SK I and Regulator, with a very thin (Evans) patch on an empty drum. Heads muffling is more than enough to get rid of that "basket ball" noise, and if I need a more defined sound I use my muscles.
on the raw files, the differences were very clear
total cool video,
No one else heard "Achy Breaky Heart" during the tests?
totally did...
My favorite is the superkick with the audix. Without processing, my favorite is the attack 2 ply.
That Force 1 sounds killer!
I use those danmar metal click kick pads. I love those things.
I like the Aquarian Force 1, Attack 2 Ply Clear, and the Remo DW Factory Head. They all have a nice clicky attack that I like. The other ones sounded a bit too muted for my liking. Granted, they could all work given the right circumstances and genre, but for metal, I'd say the Force 1, Attack 2, or Remo. Attack 2 is probably my favorite.
Super kick! The factory head sounded pretty sick.
Wanna have some fun? Tape a couple silver dollars to the head just tight enough that they snap when the beater hits them without falling off. Put a re-20 about an inch away on the inside. Just far enough that it won't get impacted. Compress soft-knee between 4:1 and 8:1, or wherever sounds the best for the mix. You're pretty much just recording the coins snapping together and the proximity effect of the mic. For extra fun, you can tape over a few of the ribs on the mic for more proximity effect or go full out and gate trigger a 50hz oscillator on an adjacent track. This trick works well for keeping double-kicks from getting muddy in speed metal. And it's fun to abuse microphones. Don't plan on using that re-20 for vocals (or anything else, really) after you try this. But, really, that's the case with any mic that's been on a kick.
Have you tried Aquarian's Super Kick 3??? THOSE heads, in particular, have their typical muffling ring, but they also have a power dot, and they only come in coated heads -- no clear versions at all.
What a kick in the head! Great video.
-Here lies Wakener, he died of telling the worst joke ever told....
Right as I needed new heads... Thanks!
Thanks for doing this video. I was hoping to like the Aquarians, but honestly, I didn't care for the sound of them at all. I think it will be a Remo PS3 for 22" Pearl Maple bass drum.
I like the Attack 2 ply clear...
super kick sound dope,
I enjoyed the attack 2 ply clear
Coming next week is the Head Kick Shootout.
oh look at that calf woo
awesome video as always Glenn. I like the remo powerstroke 3 the most it just sounds more full.
Thanks for all the work you put into this Glenn. Off to sign up !
Super kick 10 sounds so sweet! You know a kick is sweet, if it sounds good pre processing! The D6 is a great microphone but I think a microphone similar to the AKG d112 would really add some sweet mids, but I come from a rock background, I guess a more wideband swept frequency response is better for this sort of music. I dunno, thoughts?
Recived my #2 tee, it feels great. Thank you man! -sinercly Norwegian Bassist.
Superkick 1 would be my pick
remo powerstroke with new reso head sounded awesome. Not sure about a full mix with a whole band but dang it was my favorite one out of the bunch.
the superkick 10 was amazing
Man, I almost think I like that DW factory head the most. I've used Aquarian Superkick I and II basically since a couple months after I started drumming 14 years ago.
Yeah that was closest to the sound I like on a head.
I really enjoyed it as well. Had a good range of Mids and lows and less slappy highs.
Lets be honest, the difference among these heads with this sort of set-up is so slight that tweaking your sound on the desk would have much more effect than picking one head over any of the others
You should try the Evans Emad head, its like the super kick only is a thinner ply producing a lot of low end. You'll need an impact patch/striking surface of some kind but the end result is amazing.
Superkick 10. That's what graces my double bass Pearl Export :-)
I used the Danmar pad on an introductory kick drum with 22" Evans EMAD batter and resonant heads while a recording an album last year and it wasn't half bad. (To anyone wishing to hear the outcome, I regret to inform the project has been canceled.) While I'm not certain, I'm pretty sure the engineer just used an Audix D6 set just inside the mic port. Again, the sound wasn't half bad, but it was too dull and dead for my taste.
Last semester, I watched Rob Brown's drum tuning videos before re-skinning a Pearl Export kit for my audio course's big project. (Throwing on new EMADs.) Using those methods while recording in my college's choir room yielded amazing results with an SM57 internal kick mic and an SM81 external kick mic. (I know it sounds stupid, but it worked!) I used an Aquarian kick pad to protect the head from damage over time.
I would use the Danmar pad again in a live situation as it gave me a faux-triggered "click" that works great for death metal. I can't say that I'll be using the Danmar pad for recording anytime in the near future unless the project I'm with calls for the excessive attack.
Not hating on Danmar over here, just sharing my experiences! Been loving the channel for about two years now :)
I liked Remo PS3... "Remo is Remo" 😄
best with headphones
Remo Powerstroke was so great
What kind of beaters are those?
Shoot oot to the shoot oot!!
I'm a doom metal guy so the super clicky kicks have never been my thing. I really like that Remo DW head, the Super Kick 1 had some deep subs.
I'm shocked but I liked the attack 2 ply.
I like the DW the best, but that super kick 10 is cool too
DW factory sounds great! DC
Have you ever had to do a kick drum with no hole on the resonant side. Jam band with 60s Ludwig kit perfectly tuned. my only time dealing with this so I put a beta 52 on the beater side.
Hey man, I love the video! The SuperKick 10 sounded incredible! I play rock drums mostly that calls for a lot of resonant kick and that dreaded basketball sound is a headache for sure. I like to throw a small shirt or something that doesn't touch the reso and often doesn't even touch the batter and it gives me that full kick with no dribbling on the court! Of course, I'm sure it'd be a muddy mess if I had a double pedal as well!
Love the sound, man!
Glenn, what is your stance on modern metal? from a musical; skill and productive view. of course I mean bands line asking alexandrea, issues ect.
bands like devil driver and modern thrash are, to me, symbols of 'hope' for metal. keep up the videos man!
hey Glenn! have you ever tried or thought about trying the gibraltar click pad patch? It supposedly adds an enormous amount of click to your kick.
Could you try out these new Kick Drumheads:
Remo:
Powerstroke 3
Powerstroke 4
Powerstroke Pro
Powersonic
Evans:
Eq 4
Eq 3
Emad
Emad 2
Emad Heavyweight
Aquarian:
Force 1
Super Kick 1
Super Kick 2
Super Kick 3
Super Kick 10
Impact 1
Impact 2
Impact 3
Wow definitely liked the pillow better