Would a drum work as a speaker cabinet

ericerik

I have two bass drum wood frames ( no drum heads) from a drum set , that I was thinking of making into speaker cabinets . Actually just woofer cabinets . They are hand crafted I believe. Beautiful Raw wood . No finish. So basically it would be a cylinder . Would this work well as a cabinet?

VR3

Similar has been done before

FestYboy

No, the shell is not in any way acoustically inert (without modifications). You'd want to build baffles and multiple cross braces and somehow laminate MDF or Sono tube onto the i.d. of the shell. Then, since they will be sizeable, a ported enclosure will likely be the best fit in an isobaric configuration. That way you can still maintain the look of a real drum.

mhardy6647

The DCM timewindows (which were/are very fine sounding loudspeakers, BTW and IMO) were - famously - crafted from Sonotube and a coupla pieces of MDF (or similar) to achieve their distinctive footprint.

Just sayin'.



(borrowed image)

mhardy6647

ericerik wrote: »

WOW!! now thats pretty wild. were is the rest of the organ?? thats a audio system for a person who has everything.
im thinking a sub... but i think i will pass on the giant tubes . also have a pair of tom toms. thinking of using those for pair full range.

That would be Nelson Pass
He's rather well known for his amplifiers and preamplifiers but he's also dabbled in loudspeakers during his long and storied career. He, famously, once ended up hospitalized from ozone toxicity during development of a wide-range plasma loudspeaker That little issue with ozone formation is why Hill Plasmatronics used helium rather than room air for their wide-range plasma loudspeakers
https://www.stereophile.com/content/hill-plasmatronics-type-1-loudspeaker

Nelson then:




Nelson now (-ish):



ahem, back on topic ...
Speaking of tom toms, there was a briefly fashionable fullrange driver from a Thai company called Norh (heh, that's horn spelled backwards ) that used some sort of hollowed out gourd style drum design ("Thai long drum", http://www.norh.com/Norh_Loudspeakers/About_Us.html) as its enclosure. I guess they're still around and still making speakers and electronics...

http://www.norh.com/Norh_Loudspeakers/Products.html

Polkaguy58

I think what would be a fun experiment, is to leave the top head on the drum and add a tranducer (exciter) to the underside of the head, then stick some Dynamat along the inside of the shell and cap off the back.
I imagine that if you played around with the lug tension on the head, you could "tune" it.

ericerik

Yes very similar. But shorter in length. Was planin on keeping the apperence of a drum . With legs on the sides etc .

ericerik

So basically, Im not the first person to try this. And it seems fun to try. If and when I can get started I post some pics. And more advise will be needed .

FestYboy

Driver selection and isobaric design will be your focus. If it's a standard 24x20 kick drum design, you'll want a larger driver to work well in that volume. First things first, work to make the shell acoustically inert, then measure for internal volume and chose a driver based on that new number.

I'm invisioning a 4th order bandpass configuration, and using the front drone head port hole as the outlet.

WLDock

ericerik wrote: »

And more advise will be needed

Just search google for DIY Sonotube subwoofer for help. Many projects are out there.

mhardy6647

WLDock wrote: »

ericerik wrote: »

And more advise will be needed

Just search google for DIY Sonotube subwoofer for help. Many projects are out there.

El-Pipe-O, baby

http://www.firstwatt.com/pdf/art_elpipeo.pdf



El-pipe-os providing the bass foundation for a small pair of full-range, single driver back-loaded horns (the Kleinhorns) at, presumably, Mr. Pass's abode.





(ok, looks like he added some planar 'supertweeters', too...)

ericerik

WOW!! now thats pretty wild. were is the rest of the organ?? thats a audio system for a person who has everything.
im thinking a sub... but i think i will pass on the giant tubes . also have a pair of tom toms. thinking of using those for pair full range.

WLDock

ericerik wrote: »

. also have a pair of tom toms. thinking of using those for pair full range.

Its interesting that you are considering turning drums into speakers as some use speakers to mic their kick drum. It can be hard to get the natural low end kick from a regular mic. Some use subkick mics, regular mics with a speakers mic, etc.

mhardy6647

^^^ Good, and interesting, points.

Yeah, the trick with percussive bass is to get both the boom and the thwack.

A famous, rather extreme example was the recording of real field artillery in the (in)famous early digital recording by Telarc of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture (Kunzel/Cincinnati SO).



I remember reading in one of the hifi rags at the time that the recording engineers struggled to get "believable" sounding cannon. Close miking resulted in an unimaginably loud "pop" -- so they ended up mixing the output of a (relatively) near-field mic and another mic placed a good distance away from the artillery. Mixed together, these resulted in the infamously hard to track LP recording much beloved of audiophiles then and still today

skrol

Cool 1812 album history

ericerik

i agree. that was one the things i miss from back in the day. the album cover. artwork, pics etc. all for $5.99!

ericerik

thats some great info , thnx to "mhardy" i believe referring to nelson pass "s research of a protoplasmic tweeter in the sixties? seems a few audiophiles made good use of the psychedelics back in the day! surely there was more being inhaled other than helium.. lmao! seriously tho, thats some great stuff. i appreciate everybody input and knowledge. maybe my "motionless speaker" still has a chance.

mhardy6647

plasma, not protoplasm

Not to lead the OP further astray -- but there are also the famous bucket subs.
Consider this as a design concept for your drumspeakers

https://www.transcendentsound.com/bucket-sub.html

WLDock

mhardy6647 wrote: »

^^^ Good, and interesting, points.

Yeah, the trick with percussive bass is to get both the boom and the thwack.

A famous, rather extreme example was the recording of real field artillery in the (in)famous early digital recording by Telarc of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture (Kunzel/Cincinnati SO).



I remember reading in one of the hifi rags at the time that the recording engineers struggled to get "believable" sounding cannon. Close miking resulted in an unimaginably loud "pop" -- so they ended up mixing the output of a (relatively) near-field mic and another mic placed a good distance away from the artillery. Mixed together, these resulted in the infamously hard to track LP recording much beloved of audiophiles then and still today

I've played it in concerts band but the most fun was playing it in college in Mich State Univ. Spartan marching band. The bells at the end were broadcast through the stadium PA but the cannons and fireworks were blocks away done by a military unit and fireworks crew. It was boombastic! I remember the guy that carried the large bass drum aquired a large large wood head mallet just for the piece. He was hitting it so hard that he put major dents in the heads...almost busting them. Waay back in '84, my freshman year.... fun times.

The 1812 Overture starts at 14:09 via this link - https://youtu.be/TVLlz_0bfxk?t=849

Full pregame, halftime performance
https://youtu.be/TVLlz_0bfxk?t=849

ericerik

Wow. We have a lot in comon . i too was a freshman in colloge. But in 1985! I went to small liberal arts colloge in ohio called colloge of wooster. Decent music dept consideriing.. And plenty of memories of various events . . .

ericerik

Wow. We have a lot in comon . i too was a freshman in colloge. But in 1985! I went to small liberal arts colloge in ohio called colloge of wooster. Decent music dept consideriing.. And plenty of memories of various events . . .