Sonitus Acoustics The Kicker 22"x16" BD Pillow

The reason I bought the Sonitus Pillow was mainly that I didn't have any extra pillows or sheets laying around in my apartment when I was building my last drum set.

So instead of buying a regular pillow or sheet and using it as a damper for my kick drum, I decided to buy this one.

And so far I'm pretty happy with it. I don't use any extra dampening in my 22"x16" kick drum, and I don't feel the need to.
The kick sounds damp enough, but also it has a very powerful thump.
Of course, it also depends a lot of the kind of kick you have.
But from the dampening perspective, you couldn't really go wrong with this one.

Having mainly used self-created bass drum damping over the years, as well as a great deal of searching, I found the Sonitus Kicker and bought one for my 22" bass drum. Very competitively priced, the clever curved design flanged on both sides, sits perfectly flush with the well of the drum and anchors nicely between the batter and the resonant heads, baffling the sound to allow the drum to resonate naturally whilst removing the dull thud over -damping can often cause.
I found one trick once installation is complete, which is to try and find what works for you in terms of your preference for beater, head tension and a power pad of some kind may help increase the attack on the front end for studio work for example, but this again will be a personal choice. Having used the Kicker for the first time at a big event recently, I would say that if you want your bass drum to sound huge, and you're prepared to spend a little time making adjustments to suit the way you play, this really is impressive.
Highly recommended, I look forward to seeing more originally designed acoustic developments from Sonitus.

Justin shefford