Your favorite recorded Bass Drum

Living Dead Drummer said:
Inspired by doggyd69b's "favorite recorded snare" thread. What are some of your favorite bass drum sounds?
I've gotta say Neil's sound from the Moving Pictures album is up there for me. Now I was never a real huge Rush fan. I've always appreciated their status and talent, but it wasn't until I was much older that I started to enjoy their music. That being said, I've always thought Neil had a fantastic kick sound. Great attack to cut through the sound, but still warm and with a full bottom end.

What about you all?
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All of these have to be listened through at least a 12 inch sub if not a pair of 18 inch subs to really appreciate the punch those bass drums really have.

Deftones White Pony album just has the perfect drum sound for me:
That bass drum hits you on the chest , just amazing.

80's cheesiness aside the recording here is also amazing:

This one again is a great recording overall but that bass drum kicks some serious butt.

Of course Led Zeppellin's tone is legendary so that is also in this list,

I guess I like clicky bass drums but again the overall sound they achieved here is awesome to me:


it's not in your face but the drums are super clear even through the wall of guitars.

just like this one (much more modern tone but still great):


Edit I forgot one very underrated Black Sabbath album but IMO their best work to date:


I guess I should have started the thread with what is your favorite bass drum and snare combo..
but those are just a few of mine.
 
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Out of Round said:
I unexpectedly like the way the single-headed bass drums sound on Live at Leeds. It makes me rethink what's actually possible within the spectrum between "boom" and "punch".
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A lot is possible but now you not only hear the bass drum itself, they add other samples including typwriters (for that clicky sound). and electronic bass drums to give more punch, plus lots of other recording trickery. Maybe the ones from the early 80s and before that were more "pure" but now.....
 
doggyd69b said:
Edit I forgot one very underrated Black Sabbath album but IMO their best work to date:

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Funny, that was one of the tracks I was thinking of when I mentioned Cozy Powell earlier.

First time I cranked it up on the PA in the studio and it nearly tore my head off, LOL!
 
Keith Moon and Phil Collins get my vote. My favourite tone is Quadrophenia and Wind And Wuthering for overall drum tone, and Who Are You and Abacab for kicks alone. But the worst one is the electronic kick on "Second Home By The Sea" - that Simmons sound is best reserved for tom use.
doggyd69b said:
A lot is possible but now you not only hear the bass drum itself, they add other samples including typwriters (for that clicky sound). and electronic bass drums to give more punch, plus lots of other recording trickery. Maybe the ones from the early 80s and before that were more "pure" but now.....
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There are lots of nice-sounding electronic kicks in records, but they are not "drums" per se 😃
 
Iristone said:
Keith Moon and Phil Collins get my vote. My favourite tone is Quadrophenia and Wind And Wuthering for overall drum tone, and Who Are You and Abacab for kicks alone. But the worst one is the electronic kick on "Second Home By The Sea" - that Simmons sound is best reserved for tom use.

There are lots of nice-sounding electronic kicks in records, but they are not "drums" per se 😃
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As a kid, I even thought it was a tom being played!
I love home by the sea. The tom/bass sound is incredible - yet, it's the only tune where it can be played!
 
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Iristone said:
Keith Moon and Phil Collins get my vote. My favourite tone is Quadrophenia and Wind And Wuthering for overall drum tone, and Who Are You and Abacab for kicks alone. But the worst one is the electronic kick on "Second Home By The Sea" - that Simmons sound is best reserved for tom use.

There are lots of nice-sounding electronic kicks in records, but they are not "drums" per se 😃
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It is always funny to me how people get so hang up on that debate. Electronic drums ARE drums, you play them like drums, they sound like drums they ARE drums. is an electric guitar not a guitar? or an electric piano not a piano?. The fact that electronics are involved doesn't make them less drums, is miced acoustic kit no longer a kit because electronics are involved? Why not focus on the end result and care a little less about the tool used? At least that's what I do. I have done tons of gigs with both acoustic kits and electronic kits. Nobody and I mean nobody ever said to me that what I was playing was not drums. On the contrary, they came and complimented me on the sound. (every single time). Really not a single person cared that I was playing with small pads, all they saw was a drummer drumming.
 
doggyd69b said:
It is always funny to me how people get so hang up on that debate. Electronic drums ARE drums, you play them like drums, they sound like drums they ARE drums. is an electric guitar not a guitar? or an electric piano not a piano?. The fact that electronics are involved doesn't make them less drums, is miced acoustic kit no longer a kit because electronics are involved? Why not focus on the end result and care a little less about the tool used? At least that's what I do. I have done tons of gigs with both acoustic kits and electronic kits. Nobody and I mean nobody ever said to me that what I was playing was not drums. On the contrary, they came and complimented me on the sound. (every single time). Really not a single person cared that I was playing with small pads, all they saw was a drummer drumming.
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The Simmons is 100% drum. The Linndrum is also pretty much drum, but the 808 is a bit percussion to me. By the "not drum" comment I was meaning the layered typewriter sound onto a synth bass note - it's more of an SFX than a percussion or drum.
 
doggyd69b said:
...is an electric guitar not a guitar? or an electric piano not a piano?. ..
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I take the general point that you're making, but just to be pedantic, there is a difference between electric and electronic: an electric guitar is an acoustic instrument, amplified electronically. The initial sound is produced the same way on an electric guitar as it is on an acoustic guitar - the strings are fretted & plucked, they vibrate & create a sound. The pickups & amplification are secondary to that initial sound. Whatever effects are added afterwards, the notes you play are created acoustically. You can even play an electric guitar completely acoustically, without & amp. It's quieter, but it's still a guitar.

In contrast, a drum pad is not producing the initial acoustic sound - it is simply a trigger for the electronics, which are the actual sound producing part of the system. Try to play a Simmons kit unplugged and all your "drums" sound exactly the same, like a table top.

Electric piano is broadly similar: you had stage pianos, like the Yamaha CP series, where hammers strike strings to make the sound, then the electrics deal with amplification; then there were electric pianos, like Rhodes or Wurlitzer, where the hammers struck metal bars instead of strings, but the sound production was still mechanical/acoustic, before electric amplification. (Modern digital pianos are electronic, just like a drum pad - the keys are simply triggers.

doggyd69b said:
...is miced acoustic kit no longer a kit because electronics are involved?
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Of course not, it's an acoustic kit whether the mic's are there or not. That's my entire point: the difference between an acoustic sound that is amplified versus a sound which is entirely electronically generated.

(For the record, I'm not against you - I love some electronic drums : Bill Bruford took me on that particular journey. :) )

Anyway, back on topic...

Bonham had great sounds but I'd pick Good Times Bad Times or Since I've Been Loving You over Levee... as being less special effect & just great bass drum sound.

Moon's single headed sound is logic defying, and great.

For a change of style, Abba represent that dead studio sound better than almost anyone - the head engineer in the first studio I worked in would go on for hours about the bass drum on The Name Of The Game being the best drum sound anyone had ever recorded (personally I would add Stewart Copeland to that particular conversation ;) )

But I find it hard to get beyond the Blue Note, Rudy Van Gelder, etc jazz recordings of the 50's & on as being a pinnacle of recorded drum sounds, although in the present day Brian Blade represents that sound as well as anyone could.

:)
 
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