Well it wouldn`t go well in a Ringo kit now would it ?

Not really going off point, liquid and air are both examples of pressure.

Kieth had bearring edges that were kept well like I do to mine,...Smooth as a babies bottom, Mine are scrorned, I did it myself with an ash drumstick. He also had floating heads too, and under very little tension, like mine, his FT will hold water and air well useing the operateing pressure of the drum. Like mine !! The finnish on mine will hold out for hours, the finnish on his would hold for years and years if filled with water up to the vent holes, wich is what we`re talking about.

It is interesting to know if a valve inside a vent hole will or will not impact the first wave out after every hit. Maybe it`l make the note pure and easy, play`n so free like a breath rippling by !!

You know, this is going nowhere. I appreciate your willingness to defend a point and I honestly understand why you continue. The bottom line is you have a differing opinion based on what you believe is truth. I base my opinion on science fact. I have slowly learned that at times, some members are open to deep explanations, and others ... not.

With that said ...

As far as the original topic is concerned ...

I will not bore you with the detailed explanations of longitudinal speed propagation relying on the pressure of the medium as a major variable, along with temperature and the atomic makeup of said medium. I would invite you once again, and again, to spend a few moments researching a very simple piece on mechanical longitudinal (compression) waves. It will seriously bring the answer to the forefront. That's all I've tried to do here ... refocus the OPs request into the correct arena for the answer. This forum is all about history and understanding vintage drums. It just makes sense to me that a deeper understanding of HOW a drum works would naturally belong within this thread. The 14 inch depth of a larger bass drum makes a huge freekin' impact on this. But, the vent hole is even more important. And that is what was asked. The only way to grasp the depth of this connection is to dig a bit deeper into compressional wave propagation.

So, I'm going to just say, "cool, I used to dig that song and preferred the version on the jumpsuit solo disc over the mbbab version."

Have a nice day.

I just wanna see 510 excell up to 515 :D

Seriously though, I`ve always been a single batter player,..I`ve tried the double batter pedals many times over. (never owned one) The reason I`m not so fond of them unless they have a mic. is that the volume seems to go way down after the first hit. There`s something going on inside the BD that don`t allow for each hit to be as loud as the first. I play hard so I notice it more than soft play. That don`t happen on the C-toms, and don`t seem to happen with two individual BD`s with single pedal each. My kit in the 12 drum configuration comes with two of the same size BD`s. Someone out there knows what I`m say`n !!

RogerSling - You are right when you say "The only way to grasp the depth of this connection is to dig a bit deeper into compressional wave propagation.”, but that is unnecessary when what counts is “how does it sound?”. I was just hoping some of us (maybe you) who have the interest, and more resources than I, could simply do what I am suggesting by adjusting a vent in a deep shelled BD that has similar construction (re-rings, plys, heads, tuning note etc.) and compare it to the shallow shell, tweaking it till you hear if you can get them to speak similarly, and that way we might know for sure what an adjustable vent would do for a drummer. Don’t forget here that the first drums were likely made from logs, so understanding the physics is the long way around when we can just listen.

Most of us are just merely asking a hypothetical question, and in many cases, "bench science" will only go so far. Most of us are merely asking the million dollar question: "how do you think this would work?"

If it were me, I would make a series of holes, eyeletted (if you wish). Then have some bolts and nuts (along with gaskets to seal the holes) to fill those holes (to effectively plug the holes). Heck- I'd even make one big hole that would be covered by metal plates with different sized holes in in, including a hole that barely covers the hole. Make certain you have gaskets to seal the sound. Then, I would make a controlled recording room, and take samples of sounds with all of your hole sizes. Half of the fun of figuring it out is to do the research. And if you came up with something cool, you could sell the prototype on ebay!!!!

If I would have done my research on how to build a new, never-before built bike frame design off of a forum, I probably would have never built some of the crazy stuff I came up with. People were telling me how I didn't understand the laws of physics and blah blah blah. Practical research beats hypothetical stuff any day. I spent a lot of time and money building prototypes. Some of them sucked, and one design was so cool that I can't talk about it. And I had fun!!!!

I say just do it.

What I've noticed:

I have a Gretsch round badge 12x8 tom. I HAD a Slingerland 12x8 tom. They both had no air hole. Each of those drums were very (read: overly) sensitive and responsive at quiet dynamics, and choked up when played louder.

I have a DW 12x8 and a 1970 Ludwig 12x8. They are both vented. Neither of them have this "sensitive" quality, and neither of them choke.

...I don't know what this has to do with a bass drum with/without venting, but clearly there IS a difference between a vented and non-vented drum. I don't know if I want that quality in a bass drum, though. 510--when you make that custom bass drum with the adjustable air vents, give us the link to the YouTube video where you demonstrate it...

The pressure differences between the vented and unvented cylinders is part of the key. When you adjust pressure (in this case, air) within the resonance chamber, the medium that the energy travels through behaves differently. As the energy travels through the cylinder (in the form of a compression wave), it either meets with more or less resistance (depending on the amount of pressure increase or decrease). In short, this pressure will help define the molecular behavior of the medium.

This is one of the reasons I've never been drawn to Gretsch drums. The effect is dramatic in the smaller and shallower drums. You can vouch as a Gretsch player that the floor toms SING and the wing toms break up when you really lay into them. I like the reduction in pressure that a vent hole provides. It allows me to play IN to the drum quite a bit more. The only drawback is a slight reduction in head response, but that's something I can live with. I try to make sure my smaller toms are thinner shelled which helps to make up for some of the variance.

I'll have to disagree with that statement, I had a set of 3ply gretsch broadkaster early 50's, damn should have never sold that kit, the 9x13" on that kit sang like the choir. no vent holes, low or high volume made no difference, that drum was perfect, didn't realize it until I sold it. the engineers I used that kit with said it was an absolute joy to record. At least that was my experience anyway!

Mine as well.I have no issues with any Gretsch toms.I guess it means we,re back to how we tune our drums.

No. Actually, this is part and parcel with trying to explain the points. There really is no way to disagree or dispute wave speed propagation. Those variables and behaviors are not for us to refute. That's just the laws of physics and we're stuck with it.

That being said, there are countless variables outside of these. I use different sticks, heads, tensioning, technique, angle mount, etc etc etc etc etc.

Of course there are some that are happy with the sounds and responses of their drums. That should go without saying.

We weren't speaking of specific drums ... at least that was not the intent of this question and my attempted initial response ... and ridiculously bad decision to add something of meaning to this crapbed of confusion. No offense to any individuals. I'm just a slower learner than we first thought. Until I made yet another fool hearted attempt to get specific, this thread was all centered around the vent hole on a bass drum and how it impacts drum speak. That has been answered. Let's leave it at that.