Your favorite recorded Bass Drum

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?

A few come to mind, so many, these are just off the top of my head.

Simon Phillips, perfect mix of punch and boom. Anything from Smallcreeps Day Out or Hiromis Sonicbloom it just works

John Bonham on When the Levee Breaks comes to mind, but of course, that sound isn't going to fit a lot of songs.

All around? Tuomas Saukkonen, of Before the Dawn, usually has a pretty kick sound. In particular, he had a side project called Black Sun Aeon, where he got a sound big enough for the slow parts, but still cuts through on the fast part on the end:

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".

I'm a huge Neil Peart RUSH fan all day long, every day, but for the best recorded bass drum sound I've got to go with Curt Waltrip's 26" Joyful Noise solid shell bass drums. Maple or birch the tone is killer.

The kick sound off Dark Tranquility's Character album is my favorite.

Of course you have to start with Ringo…

Beatles—Sgt Pepper Reprise. Hits you in the gut and has plenty of real ambience.

Jimi Hendrix Experience—-Manic Depression. More on the jazzy side of tones but was still pretty heavy, and was probably the best example of that in their catalog.

The Who—-Baba O’Reilly. Tell me you don’t throw your fist in the air when the beat starts! It took until I was playing bass for a year before I realized there’s no bass in the intro.

Chic—-Le Freak. Even after disco allegedly went away (only the name went away), the production on Chic albums still defines dance pop and R&B.

Pearl Jam—-Alive. Can’t put my finger on it why the kick sounds so good, but it works great and Dave Krusen is very underrated.

The Commodores—-Machine Gun. That dry funk drum sound always gets me, and I could have picked any number of 70s funk tunes, but Machine Gun was the first that I started to notice each individual piece of the puzzle. It probably originated with Stevie and Superstition, though, so…

Stevie Wonder—-Superstition. The handbook of dirty funk.

Power Station—-Some Like It Hot. I thought Tony Thompson on Bowie’s Modern Love had extreme gating, but this song cuts off the reverb trails and crashes so abruptly that it sounds like it’s skipping. I’m a fan.

Led Zeppelin—-Achilles’ Last Stand. It’s my favorite Zeppelin song.

Vanilla Fudge—-You Keep Me Hanging On. Carmine Appice isn’t lying when he says Bonham was influenced by him.

Whoops I don’t have a favourite. I certainly have opinions about the acoustic/live sound of a kick and I know a good kick when I hear it but a sound engineer can make any piece of crap beginner bass drum sound good.

If I barely notice it that’s prob a good thing. I hate it if sounds too big or clicky.

I like the Parade Version of bass drum
The Marching version. Open two heads no holes no pillow.

Idris played that way with Ahmad Jamal
Philly Joe played that way with Miles Davis 54-57
Benny Benjamin and the early Motown

Nothing gets a crowd moving like a Naw'lins Parade drum

Some great opinions so far, I agree with them all.

My choice is Joe Morello’s bass drum on Time Out (Dave Brubeck Quartet). The sound he gets especially on Take Five is incredible.

The one that I remember making me notice was Stan Lynch's on Jackson Browne's "In the Shape of a Heart". It had attack but coupe with a round, full sound.

I'm with @Duck Tape and @Skitch - I prefer a balance of attack and low-end tone (in rock and funk, anyway). The clicky sound gets old quickly.

My favorite? I can't really pin that down. @JimmyM mentioned "Alive", one of my favorites (that whole "Ten" album, really), along with Soundgarden's "Fell On Black Days" (well, again, the whole "Superunknown "album), most of Better Than Ezra's "Friction, Baby" album, and most of Stan Lynch's work with Petty. But I also can't discount Bonham. More recently, I was impressed with the bass drum sound on a televised Eagles concert (newer, but I think from before Frey died...?) but I don't know if my surround system's subwoofer was overly influencing it.

Wounded Knee off of Primus' Pork Soda album.

Lars Ulrich bass drum on The Justice Album ?

IMO, Ian Paice's drum sound back in his Ludwig Classic Maple days was just amazing.

Intro on Woman from Tokyo.

Also, this outtake from the Fireball LP is killer.

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Too many to count but one of the top for me in rock is actually a sample from a fairlight sampler LOL.. Def Leppard Pyromania but I ONLY like the kick. the toms were sort of ridiculous but that Mutt Lange guy definitely had bad taste with those and also the snare was lame... He just got lucky with the kick IMO.

JoeVermont said:

IMO, Ian Paice's drum sound back in his Ludwig Classic Maple days was just amazing.

Intro on Woman from Tokyo.

Also, this outtake from the Fireball LP is killer.

Click to expand...

Bass drum and overal drum sound on Infinite and whoosh : recent deep purple, is magnificent. Beefy yet very natural.

Always loved the way Cozy's kick drums sounded.