Kick Drum Beater Material

[J-Mac]

What kind of kick drum beater material are you using when you guys record drums? I have always leaned towards felt, but I see quite a few rubber and wood beaters on the market too.

Does anyone have experience with material other than felt and care to share some insight into pros/cons of the other materials?


Cheers

 

[visceral]

plastic all the way....at least for me!

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Doesn't hurt to have a variety.

The harder the beater the more attack you'll get.

The pedal will feel very different with a lighter beater, Iron Cobra vs standard felt.

Consider the Falam pads too

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Wood.

 

[ojready]

round felt on unmuffled Remo Powerstroke 3 w/Slug patch.

 

[BLUElightCory]

For metal/hard rock, felt's not going to get it done. Go for wood or plastic (I prefer wood beaters).

Felt will give you a rounder sound with less attack, which is good for pretty much anything else.

 

[J-Mac]

I appreciate the insight guys! Just scooped up some wood beaters to try. For those suggesting wood do you use falam pads (or some sort of reinforcement pad) to keep the head from getting the shit kicked out of it?

 

[AdamWathan]

You can, but you don't put a falam slam pad on your snare drum and you beat the shit out of that with wood all day long as well

 

[Brady k]

try look for some axis pedal beaters, they are heavy as fuck and a are made of pure metal. whick give me great attack and a nice punchy sound.

axis rules! ....only problem is you break a lot of skins with metal beaters..

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[BLUElightCory]

For those suggesting wood do you use falam pads (or some sort of reinforcement pad) to keep the head from getting the shit kicked out of it?

Yes, I do. I usually use Evans EMAD batter heads on the kick, and they're only one ply, so some kind of reinforcement is a good idea.

 

[ElektricEyez]

I've got some DW5000 pedals (felt beaters) hitting an Aquarian super kick II with a gibraltar click pad, and with just some added high end eq and that thing sounds freakin amazing!

 

[paladin shredder]

You can, but you don't put a falam slam pad on your snare drum and you beat the shit out of that with wood all day long as well

if there is a drummer that can bust through snare heads while playing with normal wood sticks, that is a beastly fucking drummer!

 

[Erkan]

if there is a drummer that can bust through snare heads while playing with normal wood sticks, that is a beastly fucking drummer!

Tomas Haake. The guy uses fucking kevlar drum heads to avoid breaking them.

 

[Razorjack]

Wood all the way for me.

 

[Strachan of D]

ye i got wood at the rehersal room .....

i depends on the instument,tuning and condition for me ANYWAY

 

[DblKicker]

For speed and heavy sound I prefer wood...but everyone is different. Go online and order the 3,see wich one you like best. It's not that expensive to experiment. Have fun \m/

 

[acappa]

I´ve only tried felt & plastic for the latest pack I did Alien and to be honest I did not notice a hell of a difference

 

[MrBongo]

doesn´t have to be different material than felt. Proper micing, and i get a super kicky attack without EQ (felt + Remo Falam on EMAD).

anyway, i´d recommend using some sort of pad for any kind of music ... except maybe some forms of jazz. Kick rum heads are prone to deformation at the beater impact point(s), especially when tuned loosely, so they might break within few months