As I observe postings about how fast the shallower vintage bass drum shells speak, I keep thinking about the physics of the drum and how the lowly vent hole is not considered as a possible way to get the deeper basses to speak quicker. It seems that if there were no holes in the drum the physics of "equal opposite reaction" would come into play. As you can figure, that with more of a vacuum the batter head would force the resonant head to respond more immediately. So how about an adjustable vent hole?
Note: With no resonant head it obviously doesn't matter.
Also I once did a little calculating of the area inside bass drums because I wanted to try and see what size a contemporary bass had, as compared to a vintage shallow bass. I discovered some are very close in internal area size (space volume).
So, maybe contemporary drum depths could have some not often tried ways of getting a more satisfying sound and attack.
