I have always perferred the sound of a kick drum with no hole in the front head. Every once in a while I will come upon a sound man who tells me I need to put a whole in the front head. Well, I have done this before and have replaced numerous front heads because the sound man will let the cable touch the edge of the hole and it ends up splitting the head. I got tired of replacing heads.

Anyways, I have not really had a problem with the sound myself. I have let other people use my kit and it sounds fine to me. Sometimes I think it might just be a lack of skill on the soundman's part. I remember back in the 80's and early 90's when every soundman told me I needed to put some duct tape on the toms. They tell me they cannot get any punch out of the kick. Well, I have run sound on occassion and have not really had this problem, recording or live.

The kick is a 22" Remo Powerstroke 3 on back, nothing in the drum, a 3 inch strip of white felt under the front coated head. Other drummers seem to think it sounds great. It is usually red neck soundman who tell me "You need to put a hole in the front, so I can put the mic in there."

Am I being stuborn? Do I need to cut a hole in the head, or do they need to learn how to deal with it? I will need to get a new head. I have a 1970 Slingerland and it is the original head. I do not want to put a hole in it.

take one of your old, ripped-by-the-soundman's-cable front heads, and cut off pretty much all of the head itself, leaving only about 1" around the rim. then put it on. if you're not gigging with it, just take then entire front head off, hoop and lugs and everything. but for gigging, to protect the bearing edge in case you ever want to put a head on it someday, do that 1" thing i described. i don't know if this is totally abnormal or something, but with my kick drum, the way i see it is, what purpose could a front head serve? i just don't feel like there's anything missing without one.

try to mic your bassdrum with two mikes . one on the head side( but please no hole ) and another one on the beater side close to the impact point . sometime the latter is enough . it give a lot of attack in the sound .

cheers
-Olivier

I'm with you-- I don't like a hole in the front head. For me the front head makes all the difference. However, there is a position that says if the hole is smaller than 6 inches and right up against the rim then it doesn't do as much harm as having the hole dead center. Still retains a lot of the front head "boom" and the soundguy gets his mic hole. Plus, if you buy one of those metal reinforcement rings from your drum dealer it can protect the head from tearing. Just a last resort option.

With no hole in the front of the head, you get a great sound in the room. The trouble is, it is more difficult for some sound guys to get a good attack sound out of it. With the proper mic placement and mic, etc...you can make it work and work well (see footage of john bonham with that re20 on the front of his kick with no hole).
But, a small hole, say just big enough to fit a D12 or other kick mic in is what you want. Go buy another kick head and cut it out for live gigs. On a small, 4" hole, which is what I use, you still get primarily the sound of a double headed kick, but can still mic inside. If the hole gets much bigger than this, or is centered, you might as well take the front head off as that's what it's going to sound like.
later,
m

the sound guy who tells you that you need a hole in the kick drum head will be the same guy that insists on taking the bass direct. in my experience neither of these things are required for good live sound. if you like the sound of your kick drum with no hole then just leave it and explain to the guy that you like it as is. a competent sound man should not have a problem with this.

-e

The next time a sound guy says: "you need to put a hole in that there drum". You say: "No thank you sir, my sound requires no hole".

If he gives you shit all you have to say is " what's the problem guy? You’re the professional, you should be able to make this work."

Of course you run the risk of this asshole intentionally making you sound bad. But if you are creative with your words you may yield results.

I had this same problem with a sound guy some years ago while I was still playing drums. I had a 28" kick drum with no hole. The sound guy scoffed but I explained that this is how it is and insisted he try his best to make it sound good. He also freaked out that I had a snare that would not take a mic clip... eventually he saw it as a challenge and made us sound great.

Man I wish I still had that bass drum...

OK - another perspective based on a tiny bit of experience....

I prefer a hole for the following two reasons:

1) the hole provides a way to get the mic up close to the beater head. This allows you to easily dial in the right amount of beater "click" which is what gives the kick drum some added definition in the mix. I know it's possible to extract the "click" while miking from the front head but it usually requires a bit more effort and tweaking.

2) putting the mic inside the kick tends to reduce the amount of bleedthrough from the cymbals and other elements.

The amount of click is subjective and how you "get it" depends on your mixing ability. Speaking from experience, soundmen are usually trying to get to clarity quickly. The less futzing around the better. A 4-6" hole isn't going to destroy the sound of your kick and might win you a few points at your next gig.

I know they make these plastic rings that protect the hole rim. Check with your local drum shop.

Anyway, it's not a show stopper in any event. As the others have already said, a good soundman will compensate one way or another. Unfortunately, really good soundguys are few and far between

Larry....that's my point exactly. Why give these guys the "rock star" attitude if it's not really necessary. If you're that worried about the integrity of your sound, you won't get on their bad side in the first place. Also, I'm sure your kick sounds great and has plenty of punch in the room you're in, but with a mic up front stuck an inch from the kick head, it's not going to have the same attack. Yes, you could or should be able to get it if you mess with it enough and have a great sound guy with the proper mics, but this just isn't going to be the case. In a studio setting, you'll even add a mic in the back to get the attack you're missing from the front. In a live setting, this isn't going to happen. They're just going to use their one, banged up kick mic and move one. If the sound isn't sounding right, they're going to eq the crap out of it on their Mackie board to get it to fit in the mix. Then you're bonham-esque kick is going to sound anything but.
Just put a 4" hole on the bottom left corner of the front head. Make it easy on the sound guys.

later,
m

just play reeeally hard!
no need to mic anything.
then the soundman can shove the mic up his soundhole!