Remo Adjustable Bass Drum Dampener and Sub Muff’l - New bass drum orientated products for 2019

Adjustable Bass Drum Dampener

This is pretty much what you think it would be, so I’m not going to try and poetically describe it. It clamps to a bass drum hoop and dampens the head.

If you watch the official video from Remo with Dave Weckl explaining and demonstrating the dampener, you’ll see and hear it being used in what is probably its most useful setting – with a full front head – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWtiCth_Z3s

To use the dampener on a full front head – with little or no muffling inside the drum itself – makes perfect sense; it works well in that sense and would probably suit anyone playing jazz or who doesn’t like having a duvet in their kick. However, I tried the Dampener on my ported bass drum to see how it worked with that.

The drum itself had nothing inside it and a five inch hole at about 5 o’clock. On the batter head, the Dampener’s effect was subtle but there all the same. I could definitely feel its effect on the feel of the drum.

On the front head, I could again feel the effect but this time it was more concentrated on the sound although, unsurprisingly, this was subtle and less pronounced than it would be on a full head.

This isn’t a new idea in itself – go look at photos of kits pre 1960 – but it works and will probably appeal to the type of player mentioned above.

https://remo.com/products/product/adjustable-bass-drum-dampener/

Sub Muff’l

The Sub Muff’l is basically a plastic rim which fits in between the head and the bass drum hoop, into which you insert four pieces of foam. The Muff’l isn’t a dampened head itself, it effectively fits over the head and will work with any head that doesn’t already have external dampening.

I decided to see how the inserts individually affected the sound of the drum. I didn’t really notice any physical difference when playing the drum with the Sub Muff’l on. The sound was obvious though.

If you listen to the video with headphones, you can hear the sound progressively change from no muffling to the full ring. Admittedly, I’m guessing the Muff’l was probably not designed to work quite in this way, but I think it emphasises the fact that it does indeed work as advertised.

https://remo.com/products/product/external-sub-muffl-bass-drum-system/