When I applied my foil to my bass drum, I completely undid the nuts on the lug threads inside the drum, and re-fastened them with the foil pierced by the threads, so the nuts are directly holding the foil in place instead of tape. Its held on without wrinkling for over 10 years. I also want to point out that it increased the volume and focused the sound like a canon, as though it was keeping the shell itself from absorbing as much of the resonance from the heads and shooting it out. There's also a few inches of bare wood on the reso side instead of the whole thing being coated. The bass drum is 22x22, birch, from the mid 2000s Ludwig Custom Elite series made in China. I think wrinkling the foil may have a different effect on the sound than with it being flat, unwrinkled, pressed up against the shell.
The “Legend” was printed in the book by Stephen Davis, “Hammer of the Gods”. It was explained that Bonham would do this, due to the fact that there was no close mic’ing for the drums back then, especially in small clubs, or small bands. He needed something to be heard above the amplifiers. I use to do this with my first gen Pearl Eports, all the way back in 1988, and would get complimented on my bass drum sound, all the time. Great Video!
Kinda like actually using Aluminum drums (Trick) nowadays. It's not a new concept at all yet so many drummers / reviewers never mention Aluminum shells.
@@Guppusmaximus Such a good point. I Love how originally Ludwig changed from the Super-Ludwig's 'Brass Shell' to Aluminum (Aka: now - "SupraPhonic" ) to save cost... And in doing so randomly stumbled on a perfect bit of drum alchemy (Eventually Ludalloy (Mixed with a bit of Magnesium and Zinc to prevent pitting - as Aluminum and Chrome are like a mean clique of girls in HS or something not getting along with ..anyone..apparently ) *and not unlike making a shell out of the quasi-stellar fragment that " Happy Fun Ball" was made out out of. (. . .any prime-era SNL fans out there? ... ok anyway.. MOVING ON!. . .)(Tho, if DW really wants to impress, they should make a snare out of this..IMHO). ;) It is insane to me how good Aluminum shells can sound ( If you like that sound. and yeah I for one really do. CHEERS!! )
That was truly bizarre. I'd heard people say that Bonham put aluminium foil in the bass drum, but never thought about it much. I also didn't realize that people were talking about lining the whole inside of the drum like that. The difference is shocking, though I can't imagine I'd actually do it. Thanks for doing these crazy things so that we don't have to.
I`ve heard about it a long time ago, but never got around to actually trying it myself. I have read that he used to foil to make his bass drum louder. I figured than a smooth layer of foil would actually reflect sound more than a wood surface, making the higher over tones more audiable and hence perceived as louder. Well what do you know, it's a complete opposite!
I have an aluminum bass drum... at first he was gloating but now he’s feeling left out. Maybe break out the wax paper? Plastic wrap that baby? Hmmm Seriously, I was astounded by the results. It’s night and day, quite clearly heard, and it’s a very nice end result. I’m thinking to try it on a 14x24, just to hear what it brings out! It’d be interesting to see its effect on an 18” bass drum too... I’m thinking a light-duty double sided tape all along the outside perimeter will solve the crispy crunchy. Or gaff tape it all along the edges. I love you guys, you’re always providing a new rabbit hole to dive down. I get as much pleasure from tuning and experimenting and geeking out on drums as I do from playing, so this channel is a blessing. Thanks again guys!
Damn...I don't think anyone was expecting that amount of difference in sound. But it makes sense in terms of distrupting sound waves and such. After watching the video of t shirt in floor tom, I positioned the Pearl kick pillows in my 24" kick so that half the pillow - they are hinged - stands up vertically in drum. Big improvement!
It would if the crinkles were big enough, but we’re talking several inches at least if not several feet. Sound has wavelengths. So if your crinkles were one inch long they would be affecting 13Khz. Who cares on a bass drum? If the crinkles were 1 foot they would affect 1000Hz.
Yes, as this would suppress some of the high end resonances above 3 KHz. The effect is subtle and easily attained alternatively through a high pass filter on EQ.
Holy amazing.. who wudda thought? I love the foil sound in the final samples.. It makes me wonder about other inner surface possibilities such as metallic paint or a sheet of copper held in place by using the inside lug screws.. 56 years drumming and still fascinated by this uniquely American instrument.. Thank you!
I believe I read that Bonham did this in the book "hammer of the gods" which came out in the mid 80s,gonna have to dig it out and have a reread plus go to the store and get some foil
i tried this some years ago on my 26 and encountered a number of problems. the first was difficulty getting tape to stick to the interior surface of the bass drum which was a modern ludwig 14x 26. the second issue was that once i got it attached, the air moving inside of the drum shredded the foil after a few minutes. i wondered if there was a difference between modern aluminum foil and tin foil that in the 60s may have been a heavier gauge. i dont really know.. but i guess its time to try it again! : ). thanks for doing this experiment!
This so unbelievably amazingly incredible my gosh totally awesome man!! i've got my bass drum heads off as i write this and about to have at it! i happened to stumble upon you guys due to an email from Sweetwater and i can't emphasize enough how awesome this channel is!! you def have a new supporter here and will always be 'tuning' in! no pun intended lol! Awesome stuff here guys and i'm impressed !! killa channel!! thank you thank you thank you!! imma get out the ol' roll of foil and a see a what a happens!! again big time thank you!! awesome awesome stuff!!! hooraw rock on 🤘 ✌️🙌
I'd like to try this, but use something soft, such as 2mm thick foam, like the stuff you use under wood / laminate flooring. I wonder if just a piece sitting around the bottom half of the shell would be enough instead of lining the whole thing. I will do some experiments!
Thanks for the kind words! We’re super grateful for the support from those who have joined our Patreon- they’ve made Season Three possible and will soon get to enjoy exclusive access to our new cymbal series!
It’s probably because the foil, having a lot of wrinkles, creates a lot more surface area that traps a lot of the higher frequencies inside the drum. Bass frequencies can travel through walls and carry much further than the high mids and treble frequencies. If you hear a marching band several blocks away, it is the low frequencies you hear most, bass drums, tubas, etc, but the piccolos and flutes do not become audible until you are closer to the band. It can be those higher frequencies die out as they are bounced around within the drum shell, some becoming trapped within the wrinkles. A very interesting experiment that apparently works well. Very cool video.
This reminds me of hammered drums--it seems like hammering a drum does two things. First, it changes the way the shell resonates--as with hammering on a cymbal, more "terrain" lowers the fundamental pitch and in some cases introduces some "trashiness". Second, it breaks up and randomizes the reflections produced from the resonating shell and heads. What's cool about this hack is that you break up the reflections without changing the way the shell resonates! Gonna give it a try... I also wonder what would happen if, for example, I lined the inside of my Acrolite with foil--would it bring out the low tones? I'll report back.
That is exactly what I was thinking. It reminds me of a hammered shell, and has a similar effect as it breaks up the way the waves reflect inside the shell. I am now going to see what this does inside toms and snares.
Your videos are always super high quality. I can't wait to dig in to this. I just moved in to my new house, and am in the process of sound proofing. So until then, I can dig in to some tunings 👍
If the mechanism is scattering sound waves then sound diffusion panels adhered to the drums wall might work as well, albeit a much more expensive solution. If some dampening is also desired then maybe some bits of sculpted foam?
In the 70's specific drum microphones didn't exist really, they just used regular mics. And Bonham probably wanted the kick drum to cut through the mix more, so he did this because it adds more mid-range to the kick. I personally think the kick sounds better without the tinfoil. Some of these hacks are outdated because modern drumheads and mics are doing sound manipulations now.
They still use the mics they had back then... what are you smoking? He used foil for a little while for live gigs... BEFORE Zeppelin. He was imitating his idol Keith Moon. He had to stop because he was mainly playing small clubs and the foil made him sound too loud for the room. He also was using 2 bass drums which probably didn't help the noise issue much... but when he got to Zeppelin, Jimmy and Robert would hide one of his bass drums because it was just too much.
@@TheKitchenerLeslie Thanks for the "true" story I assume. But, if they are still throwing an SM57 with a towel into the kick drum then they might need to invest in some tinfoil also.
@@stickybandit2346 Look up the promo video Led Zeppelin did for Communication Breakdown -- it's really the only evidence you can find that Bonham originally used a double kick drum setup.
It almost sounds like the snare drum changed a little too. Also was that one non "When the Levee Breaks" groove you played there "Something Good" by Alt J?
Now this makes me curious, if the tinfoil interrupts the bouncing of high frequencies, what would something like an internal O-Ring sound like? The ring not being attached to any heads, just sitting in the center of the drum
3:59.. Randomly looks up from "Project-O' Franken-shTining my Bass Drum Pedal", sees hat, proceeds to wake up roommate with an abrupt laugh that shocked even Me. Good one man.. Thanks for that. Lookin' good too bro~sama! Beard suits you ! Cheers!! (Sincerely, Drummer with surgically-repaired torn biceps tendon. . wah.)
Great stuff, as always :) Now try it on different drums, I'm particularly interested to know what will it do to a floor tom or a deep thick snare drum.
personally from what i can hear with my studio onitors and my 5 driver IEMs, the tinfoil one seems to have lost some of the low end rumble that the empty drum had, while it cures the basketball "boing" it raises the pitch a bit and loses some of the punch, just what im hearing though, if this method works for a drummer, then whose to say its wrong! :)
I had a kit at one point where I put a thick gloss oil clear coat on all the insides of the drums and it had a very similar effect. The kick had a really cool tone to it, kinda basketball-ish, but a lot of people often complemented me on it.
Great video. I have the Yamaha 22” oak hybrid bass drum with the weights on the tension lugs. I’m definitely going to try this out. I have the E mad heads and have no tension on the batter, it’s basically wrinkled. I’m curious on how the tinfoil would affect a snare drum, for that matter it would be interesting to try it on the toms also. That might make an interesting follow up video.
Love your videos!!! I have to say that as much as the basketbally sound was mitigated, I actually heard a noticeable attenuation on the low end... No clue why that would happen.
Maybe Bonham put the tinfoil there to keep his stash of tobacco fresh and safe from the rest of the band and it had the bonus of sounding tasty too.😃. I just spent the weekend converting my mapex M Pro 22 by 18 bass drum to a more Bonham like 22 by 14. It's lost it's almost sub bass boom and is more punchy but not as nice sounding as yours. I have the emad2 batter and stock reso with a drum port.
Can you please do a video on when to change snare wires? When to know if the snare wires are shot and need replacing. I picked up a new snare a couple days ago. However I suspect it’s been sitting in the store for a year with tension on the snare wires. There’s a micro buzz every time I hit , and can’t get rid of a residual buzz at any setting or tension
Is this possibly exactly what that silver paint does for the inside of Gretsch drums? I've not heard em without the paint, but they seem to have a similar thing going on
Sounds Like A Drum yes. But you guys mentioned the irregular tinfoil cut the highs a bit. I’m sure grip tape does it even more so. Wish I had a second kick to try it out
@@artpereira That's certainly our hypothesis but we really would need to try a variety of materials. This has opened up quite a few possibilities for future videos...
@@SoundsLikeADrum Thanks for another great video! I have had great success using those rubbery anti-slip rug pads to modify my BD sound. I had it folded neatly into a small pillow and just put in the BD, similar like your sandbag theory. After seeing this clip, I'm eager to line the BD shell with this stuff instead and see how it behaves. Would love to see you guys experiment with this stuff. Also fun to put it on the batters for muffling. Thanks for this great channel and its very helpful content. Learned so much from you guys and started to actually enjoy tuning my drums and trying out new sounds!!
The first thing that came to mind when I saw Cody's aluminum fedora was "Kill the wabbit!" from Looney Tunes. That was in the "What's Opera, Doc" episode.
Thanks! We've been including b-roll where applicable and actually added two additional cameras back in Season Two. We aim to continually up our game as we receive more support for our efforts. Cheers!
I would be curious to know how aluminum faced dynamat would work in a kick drum. Dynamat is used to reduce vibration in car sheet metal. Would need a kick drum you're not concerned about getting sticky asphalt residue on.
That sounds super interesting. We'd love to experiment with a variety of options like this but don't have any drums we could sacrifice for such a project at this time.
I asked Jason Bonham about this in 93, he said John never did anything with his kick drum except tune it differently. Batter head was always much tighter than the front.
@@SoundsLikeADrum That was how drums were controlled back in the day. (Felt strips, paper, tape) Where did you hear this foil rumor? I'm 50 and have studied Bonzo immensely and never heard this rumor. He played wood, steel, acrylic... Coated heads and black dots....but ALWAYS had his distinctive sound. I've even read stories from drummers who said he "sat in" on a gig on their kit and still got his sound out of their little 22" bass drum and when he was done, all their new fresh heads were all indented and trashed. (A big reason a used bigger drums tuned to higher pitches was to have tight strong heads with great attack) But....I've never heard about a tin foil lining. Never saw any photo evidence of it either.
Well, the hat made me laugh out loud so kudos for that! It did change the sound... better? That's subjective. I thought the drum sounded better without it. I think maybe the tuning of the front head was different after you put it back on as well, the pitch was lower and the drum sounded less resonant.
Glad to hear it! Pitch of both heads remained the same (we checked) but the perceived pitch may be lower due to the attenuated frequencies. Just another nice trick to have in your back pocket (and another thing learned when it comes to the acoustics of drums!). Cheers!
Is this similar to going with smaller shells for sonic change? I did all my shells except the bass, it maybe is adding metallic like tone, not like a metal shell kit though, of course. I must confess, it didn't hurt the poplar shell sound one bit, even more punchy on this fusion kit. The foil does kinda touch heads if you aren't careful enough.
There is another method for installing tinfoil in a bass drum, with a much more dramatic effect. 1) Measure the inside diameter (should be close to the size of your heads). Add about 4 inches to this measurement. Example, if your inside diameter is 20” then add 4” and your total measurement will be 24”. This is then the size of your tinfoil sheet. 2) Cut the tinfoil to size. Don’t worry about the width, just make sure the height matches your measurement. 3) Make a right angle fold at the top and bottom of the tinfoil sheet. You should have a 2” shoulder at the top and bottom. The fold is where the tape attaches foil to drum. 4) I use box or masking tape. Place the tinfoil inside the drum, running in the center/vertically (top to bottom) and parallel to the heads. (The 2” shoulders face the side you are installing from). Once tinfoil is in position, with the shoulders facing your direction, go ahead and tape the tinfoil into position. (The shoulders are just there to have a place for attaching the tape). When this is installed correctly, you’ll have a sheet of tinfoil floating vertically in the center of the drum. Make sure it is stretched tight but not too tight (too tight will rip the tinfoil). Basically, this method turns your kick drum into a big snare. Since the tinfoil is floating (like art canvas) it catches the changes in air pressure easily and vibrates each note freely, similar to a drum head. It’s not subtle but it does make a interesting, crispy-metallic effect. ✌️🥁👍
Sounds Like A Drum, absolutely! Doesn’t different thickness of aluminum foil exist as well? Another question that popped up in my head was; What if one only covered e.g. half of the inside? I need to buy some aluminum foil :-)
Back in the late 60s Slingerland offered a single headed BD with a metallic/aluminum type shell liner. It had a minute crinkle surface. As I recall this was on a 20" BD and the thinking was that it would increase sound projection. Actually never really understood any benefit but I owned the set. Maybe it was just cosmetic. All toms were single headed as well (no liner in them). Called the Pop Kit I believe.
Seems to make the wood shell sound like an acrylic one. The foil hat was a nice touch. Seemed to suggest you thought this idea was as crazy as the people who wear those.
I wonder if the space between the foil and the shell is acting as a cushion for the high end frequencies, absorbing them in the really thin foil, while low end has enough energy to continue... Would be interesting to compare with the drum lined tightly against the shell, under the lug screws and all, metallic inlay on a ply shell
i read that online in the early 00's and tried it on my jc penny catalogue harmony 22x 16 bass drum. it worked. I miss that old POS. why did companies move to 22x18 and 22x20 bass drums?
Also protects the drum from 5g
👏... 👏... 👏
so covid safe then.
Off-grid drumming
And the vaccine, hyuk hyuk.
Can you do this episode again but play the iconic “Foil In The Rain” groove?🤔
Well done 👏🏻
You mean the Reynolds Shuffle?
"Foil in the rain" Nyuk nyuk nyuk !!
agree.....well played.
When I applied my foil to my bass drum, I completely undid the nuts on the lug threads inside the drum, and re-fastened them with the foil pierced by the threads, so the nuts are directly holding the foil in place instead of tape. Its held on without wrinkling for over 10 years. I also want to point out that it increased the volume and focused the sound like a canon, as though it was keeping the shell itself from absorbing as much of the resonance from the heads and shooting it out. There's also a few inches of bare wood on the reso side instead of the whole thing being coated. The bass drum is 22x22, birch, from the mid 2000s Ludwig Custom Elite series made in China.
I think wrinkling the foil may have a different effect on the sound than with it being flat, unwrinkled, pressed up against the shell.
How many layers of foil did you do?
Love how you're suddenly wearing a tin foil hat, with no comment and a straight face.
The “Legend” was printed in the book by Stephen Davis, “Hammer of the Gods”. It was explained that Bonham would do this, due to the fact that there was no close mic’ing for the drums back then, especially in small clubs, or small bands. He needed something to be heard above the amplifiers. I use to do this with my first gen Pearl Eports, all the way back in 1988, and would get complimented on my bass drum sound, all the time. Great Video!
Kinda like actually using Aluminum drums (Trick) nowadays. It's not a new concept at all yet so many drummers / reviewers never mention Aluminum shells.
@@Guppusmaximus unless you follow trick drums who use alu shells nearly all the time ^_^
Used
@@Guppusmaximus Such a good point. I Love how originally Ludwig changed from the Super-Ludwig's 'Brass Shell' to Aluminum (Aka: now - "SupraPhonic" ) to save cost... And in doing so randomly stumbled on a perfect bit of drum alchemy (Eventually Ludalloy (Mixed with a bit of Magnesium and Zinc to prevent pitting - as Aluminum and Chrome are like a mean clique of girls in HS or something not getting along with ..anyone..apparently ) *and not unlike making a shell out of the quasi-stellar fragment that " Happy Fun Ball" was made out out of. (. . .any prime-era SNL fans out there? ... ok anyway.. MOVING ON!. . .)(Tho, if DW really wants to impress, they should make a snare out of this..IMHO). ;)
It is insane to me how good Aluminum shells can sound ( If you like that sound. and yeah I for one really do. CHEERS!! )
John is still an inspiration to us all!
That was truly bizarre. I'd heard people say that Bonham put aluminium foil in the bass drum, but never thought about it much. I also didn't realize that people were talking about lining the whole inside of the drum like that. The difference is shocking, though I can't imagine I'd actually do it. Thanks for doing these crazy things so that we don't have to.
I`ve heard about it a long time ago, but never got around to actually trying it myself. I have read that he used to foil to make his bass drum louder. I figured than a smooth layer of foil would actually reflect sound more than a wood surface, making the higher over tones more audiable and hence perceived as louder. Well what do you know, it's a complete opposite!
Awesome. This is by far the coolest video so far. Thank you very much
5:22 Extra points for moving along & not acknowledging you where protecting your brain from mind control 2 minutes ago.
No idea what you're talking about...😉
I have an aluminum bass drum... at first he was gloating but now he’s feeling left out. Maybe break out the wax paper? Plastic wrap that baby? Hmmm
Seriously, I was astounded by the results. It’s night and day, quite clearly heard, and it’s a very nice end result. I’m thinking to try it on a 14x24, just to hear what it brings out! It’d be interesting to see its effect on an 18” bass drum too... I’m thinking a light-duty double sided tape all along the outside perimeter will solve the crispy crunchy. Or gaff tape it all along the edges.
I love you guys, you’re always providing a new rabbit hole to dive down. I get as much pleasure from tuning and experimenting and geeking out on drums as I do from playing, so this channel is a blessing. Thanks again guys!
Damn...I don't think anyone was expecting that amount of difference in sound. But it makes sense in terms of distrupting sound waves and such. After watching the video of t shirt in floor tom, I positioned the Pearl kick pillows in my 24" kick so that half the pillow - they are hinged - stands up vertically in drum. Big improvement!
I wonder if the amount of “crinkle” in the foil affects the sound? Would more “crinkle” deepen the sound?
You would think it would have to do something with the airwaves,im no aerodynamic engineer but logically thinking....
It would if the crinkles were big enough, but we’re talking several inches at least if not several feet. Sound has wavelengths. So if your crinkles were one inch long they would be affecting 13Khz. Who cares on a bass drum? If the crinkles were 1 foot they would affect 1000Hz.
Yes, as this would suppress some of the high end resonances above 3 KHz. The effect is subtle and easily attained alternatively through a high pass filter on EQ.
Holy amazing.. who wudda thought? I love the foil sound in the final samples.. It makes me wonder about other inner surface possibilities such as metallic paint or a sheet of copper held in place by using the inside lug screws.. 56 years drumming and still fascinated by this uniquely American instrument.. Thank you!
Very cool hack! Thanks for presenting this.
I couldn't hear a difference till the back to back comparison, pretty cool guys!
I believe I read that Bonham did this in the book "hammer of the gods" which came out in the mid 80s,gonna have to dig it out and have a reread plus go to the store and get some foil
Please let us know if you find a reputable source!
i tried this some years ago on my 26 and encountered a number of problems. the first was difficulty getting tape to stick to the interior surface of the bass drum which was a modern ludwig 14x 26. the second issue was that once i got it attached, the air moving inside of the drum shredded the foil after a few minutes. i wondered if there was a difference between modern aluminum foil and tin foil that in the 60s may have been a heavier gauge. i dont really know.. but i guess its time to try it again! : ). thanks for doing this experiment!
This so unbelievably amazingly incredible my gosh totally awesome man!! i've got my bass drum heads off as i write this and about to have at it! i happened to stumble upon you guys due to an email from Sweetwater and i can't emphasize enough how awesome this channel is!! you def have a new supporter here and will always be 'tuning' in! no pun intended lol! Awesome stuff here guys and i'm impressed !! killa channel!! thank you thank you thank you!! imma get out the ol' roll of foil and a see a what a happens!! again big time thank you!! awesome awesome stuff!!! hooraw rock on 🤘 ✌️🙌
I'd like to try this, but use something soft, such as 2mm thick foam, like the stuff you use under wood / laminate flooring. I wonder if just a piece sitting around the bottom half of the shell would be enough instead of lining the whole thing. I will do some experiments!
Are you could heat the boards and bend them to make more ply inside the shells.
Love y'all. This is an amazing channel that doesn't get nearly the support it deserves. Thank y'all
Thanks for the kind words! We’re super grateful for the support from those who have joined our Patreon- they’ve made Season Three possible and will soon get to enjoy exclusive access to our new cymbal series!
Tried it. It really works. Sitting behind the kit, the difference is negligible, but in close mics, it’s night and day.
It’s probably because the foil, having a lot of wrinkles, creates a lot more surface area that traps a lot of the higher frequencies inside the drum. Bass frequencies can travel through walls and carry much further than the high mids and treble frequencies. If you hear a marching band several blocks away, it is the low frequencies you hear most, bass drums, tubas, etc, but the piccolos and flutes do not become audible until you are closer to the band. It can be those higher frequencies die out as they are bounced around within the drum shell, some becoming trapped within the wrinkles. A very interesting experiment that apparently works well. Very cool video.
I did a legit double take when I saw the hat. Great video! Thank you. 🙏
This reminds me of hammered drums--it seems like hammering a drum does two things. First, it changes the way the shell resonates--as with hammering on a cymbal, more "terrain" lowers the fundamental pitch and in some cases introduces some "trashiness". Second, it breaks up and randomizes the reflections produced from the resonating shell and heads.
What's cool about this hack is that you break up the reflections without changing the way the shell resonates! Gonna give it a try...
I also wonder what would happen if, for example, I lined the inside of my Acrolite with foil--would it bring out the low tones? I'll report back.
That is exactly what I was thinking. It reminds me of a hammered shell, and has a similar effect as it breaks up the way the waves reflect inside the shell. I am now going to see what this does inside toms and snares.
Your videos are always super high quality. I can't wait to dig in to this. I just moved in to my new house, and am in the process of sound proofing. So until then, I can dig in to some tunings 👍
1. It did indeed dial in the low end. Very cool!
2. The foil hat makes all your eyebrow movements audible. Haha!
Great video as always!!! Thank you!!
lol
If the mechanism is scattering sound waves then sound diffusion panels adhered to the drums wall might work as well, albeit a much more expensive solution. If some dampening is also desired then maybe some bits of sculpted foam?
In the 70's specific drum microphones didn't exist really, they just used regular mics. And Bonham probably wanted the kick drum to cut through the mix more, so he did this because it adds more mid-range to the kick. I personally think the kick sounds better without the tinfoil. Some of these hacks are outdated because modern drumheads and mics are doing sound manipulations now.
They still use the mics they had back then... what are you smoking? He used foil for a little while for live gigs... BEFORE Zeppelin. He was imitating his idol Keith Moon. He had to stop because he was mainly playing small clubs and the foil made him sound too loud for the room. He also was using 2 bass drums which probably didn't help the noise issue much... but when he got to Zeppelin, Jimmy and Robert would hide one of his bass drums because it was just too much.
@@TheKitchenerLeslie Thanks for the "true" story I assume. But, if they are still throwing an SM57 with a towel into the kick drum then they might need to invest in some tinfoil also.
@@stickybandit2346 Why do you feel the need to create a straw man? I never said any such thing. Anyone who looks up what I said will see you're wrong.
@@stickybandit2346 Look up the promo video Led Zeppelin did for Communication Breakdown -- it's really the only evidence you can find that Bonham originally used a double kick drum setup.
@@TheKitchenerLeslie I am still waiting for that top 40 hit where they purposely record the basketball kick drum sound.
It almost sounds like the snare drum changed a little too. Also was that one non "When the Levee Breaks" groove you played there "Something Good" by Alt J?
Now this makes me curious, if the tinfoil interrupts the bouncing of high frequencies, what would something like an internal O-Ring sound like? The ring not being attached to any heads, just sitting in the center of the drum
Now we know what the Gretsch silver sealer really is!
Lol they don’t use Tin if I’m not mistaken. I have visited the factory
Bahasa Drum a lot of people say aluminum fence paint.
artcorvolet Yep. It’s liquid. They told me what it is though
Bahasa Drum so what is it? All i know is a silver lacquer to some extent
artcorvolet all i can say they use different type of things. But yeah Al 😂
It's works like the acoustic tiles you get in studios, scattering and diffusing the high frequencies. Great tip, I'll have to try this. Thanks!
Interesting. I have always wondered what the effect would be. Heard about him doing this!
Wow more than I was expecting to. Sounds good.
3:59.. Randomly looks up from "Project-O' Franken-shTining my Bass Drum Pedal", sees hat, proceeds to wake up roommate with an abrupt laugh that shocked even Me. Good one man.. Thanks for that. Lookin' good too bro~sama! Beard suits you ! Cheers!! (Sincerely, Drummer with surgically-repaired torn biceps tendon. . wah.)
Great stuff, as always :)
Now try it on different drums, I'm particularly interested to know what will it do to a floor tom or a deep thick snare drum.
personally from what i can hear with my studio onitors and my 5 driver IEMs, the tinfoil one seems to have lost some of the low end rumble that the empty drum had, while it cures the basketball "boing" it raises the pitch a bit and loses some of the punch, just what im hearing though, if this method works for a drummer, then whose to say its wrong! :)
I had a kit at one point where I put a thick gloss oil clear coat on all the insides of the drums and it had a very similar effect. The kick had a really cool tone to it, kinda basketball-ish, but a lot of people often complemented me on it.
Thanks very interesting. Love the hat. What is silver sealer?
According to Fred Gretsch, the silver sealer they used was simply fence paint. Go figure!
I died at the foil cap reveal! XD
Great video. I have the Yamaha 22” oak hybrid bass drum with the weights on the tension lugs. I’m definitely going to try this out.
I have the E mad heads and have no tension on the batter, it’s basically wrinkled.
I’m curious on how the tinfoil would affect a snare drum, for that matter it would be interesting to try it on the toms also. That might make an interesting follow up video.
I wonder what happens with floor toms?
Thank you. I'm so blown away by this.
Aluminum foil. So, why not Seran Wrap? I tried it; wrapped myself in Saran Wrap. NOPE. Couldn't breath. Do NOT Do That!
Good Episode. Thanks!
I could use your help. I have everything but my right arm tucked in but I can’t figure out where to go from here.
Love your videos!!! I have to say that as much as the basketbally sound was mitigated, I actually heard a noticeable attenuation on the low end... No clue why that would happen.
Listening with headphones. With foil sounds more two dimensional than without it. Not what I'd prefer but thank you! Very informative!!!! 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Reminds me of vintage drums and silver paint that was used inside.
😮 I'm very impressed! That's a big change!
Maybe Bonham put the tinfoil there to keep his stash of tobacco fresh and safe from the rest of the band and it had the bonus of sounding tasty too.😃. I just spent the weekend converting my mapex M Pro 22 by 18 bass drum to a more Bonham like 22 by 14. It's lost it's almost sub bass boom and is more punchy but not as nice sounding as yours. I have the emad2 batter and stock reso with a drum port.
we used to fill the bass drum with strips of shredded newspaper about halfway full worked great
I hear Bonham did this shredded paper thing too.
Great stuff thanks for the video as always. Interesting!!
Can you please do a video on when to change snare wires? When to know if the snare wires are shot and need replacing. I picked up a new snare a couple days ago. However I suspect it’s been sitting in the store for a year with tension on the snare wires. There’s a micro buzz every time I hit , and can’t get rid of a residual buzz at any setting or tension
Is this possibly exactly what that silver paint does for the inside of Gretsch drums? I've not heard em without the paint, but they seem to have a similar thing going on
Interesting. I wonder what lining the kick drum with skateboard grip tape?
I'd imagine that lining it with just about any material would have some effect on the sound.
Sounds Like A Drum yes. But you guys mentioned the irregular tinfoil cut the highs a bit. I’m sure grip tape does it even more so. Wish I had a second kick to try it out
@@artpereira That's certainly our hypothesis but we really would need to try a variety of materials. This has opened up quite a few possibilities for future videos...
Sounds Like A Drum absolutely! Loving it
@@SoundsLikeADrum Thanks for another great video! I have had great success using those rubbery anti-slip rug pads to modify my BD sound. I had it folded neatly into a small pillow and just put in the BD, similar like your sandbag theory. After seeing this clip, I'm eager to line the BD shell with this stuff instead and see how it behaves. Would love to see you guys experiment with this stuff. Also fun to put it on the batters for muffling. Thanks for this great channel and its very helpful content. Learned so much from you guys and started to actually enjoy tuning my drums and trying out new sounds!!
Hey, that hat made my night! Thanks for that! I'm still laughing! Happy drumming!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Reynold's Wrap: keeps freshness in, takes the highend out.
Carving notched where you need ‘em!
I you had a nickel... you would be the responsible of the coin shortage. Lol!
😂
thanks for the vid. very insightful as always.
Do you have a place in Greenville SC? There's a drum lesson place here where the logo is very similar
Nope, we're based in Brooklyn. Any similarities in logo design are purely coincidental.
The first thing that came to mind when I saw Cody's aluminum fedora was "Kill the wabbit!" from Looney Tunes. That was in the "What's Opera, Doc" episode.
Cody's foil hat is the highlight for me!
Had to make that happen! He was a good sport.
Maybe I'm just weird for loving sustain, but I prefer the empty sound. More low-end as well.
Like the different camera angels and b rolls! Much more entertaining
Huge improvement!!
Thanks! We've been including b-roll where applicable and actually added two additional cameras back in Season Two. We aim to continually up our game as we receive more support for our efforts. Cheers!
I would be curious to know how aluminum faced dynamat would work in a kick drum. Dynamat is used to reduce vibration in car sheet metal. Would need a kick drum you're not concerned about getting sticky asphalt residue on.
That sounds super interesting. We'd love to experiment with a variety of options like this but don't have any drums we could sacrifice for such a project at this time.
I asked Jason Bonham about this in 93, he said John never did anything with his kick drum except tune it differently. Batter head was always much tighter than the front.
And yet there’s evidence of the newspaper segments and the felt strip usage...
@@SoundsLikeADrum
That was how drums were controlled back in the day.
(Felt strips, paper, tape)
Where did you hear this foil rumor? I'm 50 and have studied Bonzo immensely and never heard this rumor.
He played wood, steel, acrylic...
Coated heads and black dots....but ALWAYS had his distinctive sound.
I've even read stories from drummers who said he "sat in" on a gig on their kit and still got his sound out of their little 22" bass
drum and when he was done, all their new fresh heads were all indented and trashed. (A big reason a used bigger drums tuned to higher pitches was to have tight strong heads with great attack)
But....I've never heard about a tin foil lining. Never saw any photo evidence of it either.
Any idea whether this would also work in a floor tom?
I would bet that it would have an effect. Should we try it on toms? maybe even the snare too just for fun?
Please do a sound demo of this with the sand bag and the Tom/ floor Tom hacks!! Great video!! Thank you!
Sounds like an improvement to me...... I dig it! What is the source of this Top Secret Bonhamania?
lmao was totally caught off guard with the tin foil hat, nice touch lol.....damn it man that was funny
Love this.
Nice! I didn't expect that!
Well, the hat made me laugh out loud so kudos for that!
It did change the sound... better? That's subjective. I thought the drum sounded better without it. I think maybe the tuning of the front head was different after you put it back on as well, the pitch was lower and the drum sounded less resonant.
Glad to hear it! Pitch of both heads remained the same (we checked) but the perceived pitch may be lower due to the attenuated frequencies. Just another nice trick to have in your back pocket (and another thing learned when it comes to the acoustics of drums!). Cheers!
@@SoundsLikeADrum Really? Thats pretty interesting... like you said, its certainly easy and cheap to try this out. I may have a go.
Is this similar to going with smaller shells for sonic change? I did all my shells except the bass, it maybe is adding metallic like tone, not like a metal shell kit though, of course. I must confess, it didn't hurt the poplar shell sound one bit, even more punchy on this fusion kit. The foil does kinda touch heads if you aren't careful enough.
This seems to have more to do with creating an asymmetrical interior.
I did this when I was a freshman in high school, 99 to 2000, crazy!!!!
Hey I just realized I have not seen a video from you in months. And I thought I was subscribed with all notifications. Fixed that problem.
Plenty to catch up on! We've had two videos a week most weeks for the last few months. Cheers!
I love at 4:05 how the hat like jumped on his head lol
can someone tell me why the bass drum is always mic ed in the inside of the drum and not the batter side like the rest of the drums?
I wonder what it would do to the sound of a metal or wood snare drum?
Curious how some Aurelex type acoustic foam in there would sound now. Based on your note on reflective surfaces.
I'd imagine more of a low-pass rather than a notched EQ band. -Ben
Makes me wonder if household foil was once made of tin instead of aluminum. Indeed before WWII it was!
Can you please try it with a full Reso head??
There is another method for installing tinfoil in a bass drum, with a much more dramatic effect.
1) Measure the inside diameter (should be close to the size of your heads). Add about 4 inches to this measurement. Example, if your inside diameter is 20” then add 4” and your total measurement will be 24”. This is then the size of your tinfoil sheet.
2) Cut the tinfoil to size. Don’t worry about the width, just make sure the height matches your measurement.
3) Make a right angle fold at the top and bottom of the tinfoil sheet. You should have a 2” shoulder at the top and bottom. The fold is where the tape attaches foil to drum.
4) I use box or masking tape. Place the tinfoil inside the drum, running in the center/vertically (top to bottom) and parallel to the heads. (The 2” shoulders face the side you are installing from). Once tinfoil is in position, with the shoulders facing your direction, go ahead and tape the tinfoil into position. (The shoulders are just there to have a place for attaching the tape). When this is installed correctly, you’ll have a sheet of tinfoil floating vertically in the center of the drum. Make sure it is stretched tight but not too tight (too tight will rip the tinfoil).
Basically, this method turns your kick drum into a big snare. Since the tinfoil is floating (like art canvas) it catches the changes in air pressure easily and vibrates each note freely, similar to a drum head. It’s not subtle but it does make a interesting, crispy-metallic effect. ✌️🥁👍
I added tin foil to the inside of my banjo resonator years ago. I folded the foil several times and it def changed the sound.
How about using it on the different toms (especially the floor tom)?
Think we should do a follow-up episode?
Sounds Like A Drum, absolutely! Doesn’t different thickness of aluminum foil exist as well? Another question that popped up in my head was; What if one only covered e.g. half of the inside? I need to buy some aluminum foil :-)
Back in the late 60s Slingerland offered a single headed BD with a metallic/aluminum type shell liner. It had a minute crinkle surface. As I recall this was on a 20" BD and the thinking was that it would increase sound projection. Actually never really understood any benefit but I owned the set. Maybe it was just cosmetic. All toms were single headed as well (no liner in them). Called the Pop Kit I believe.
I wanna try this in my toms! especially on the floor tom where the basketball ping can get really bad
Nice job on the comparisons at the end. Much quicker back and forth makes the changes more noticeable!
Thanks! We've been including those when applicable at the end of all of our episodes as of late. Always worth sticking around until the end!
Seems to make the wood shell sound like an acrylic one.
The foil hat was a nice touch. Seemed to suggest you thought this idea was as crazy as the people who wear those.
The kick has more attack and with that hat aliens cant attack your brain cells ..
I really like to lay a hand towel out in the bottom of my kick to get rid of that basketball sound. Less effort than taping foil down.
I wonder if the space between the foil and the shell is acting as a cushion for the high end frequencies, absorbing them in the really thin foil, while low end has enough energy to continue... Would be interesting to compare with the drum lined tightly against the shell, under the lug screws and all, metallic inlay on a ply shell
Lots of opportunities for future experiments! Should we make some episodes to share our findings?
Welp time to bring out the 26” kick again
YO This would be super cool in an 18" jazz combo bass drum!
I wonder if that was the reason Ludwig used what they called a granite coating on the inside of the Standards.
How about that vertical cymbal? Backhand attack? Sweet.
i read that online in the early 00's and tried it on my jc penny catalogue harmony 22x 16 bass drum. it worked. I miss that old POS. why did companies move to 22x18 and 22x20 bass drums?
does this only work with a front head on?
Only one way to find out :) -Cody
D12 - best door stop ever made.
PLEASE TELL ME YOUR SNARE TUNNING PROCESS! SOUNDS INCREDIBLE TOO!
Check out Ep. 1 😉