Kick Drum Experiments?

[Chris_Meck]

I think you've nailed it right there.

Get a good drum. Tune it well. Put a mic in front of it.

next.

[jgimbel]

I'd use the D6 for the back mic, because in the catalog it says you can put it anywhere and it sounds great.

Boy that gave me a laugh.

+1 on moving the mic back though. This thread is oddly relevant to me as I spent today messing around with some drum mic setups. I've got a D112, and normally I stick it right outside where the res head would be (I usually don't keep one on) aimed toward the beater, and that's it. It's not the best, but it's worked in the past.

I've been recording for years and realized I've never actually tried the "recorderman" setup. I was playing with that and adding a close mic on kick for some added low end. I stuck the D112 in the normal place, and as usual it sounded okay, but not amazing. An okay "thud". Then I backed the mic up about 3'. Definitely the best bass drum sound I've gotten so far (though I finally tried a condenser on kick recently and I liked that a bit too). Anyway the mic still picked up good low end and some click like it does close up, but with that added bit of room sound it really pushed it over the top. Just my 2 cents!

[Snarl 12/8]

I'd use the D6 for the back mic, because in the catalog it says you can put it anywhere and it sounds great.

Boy that gave me a laugh.

+1 on moving the mic back though. This thread is oddly relevant to me as I spent today messing around with some drum mic setups. I've got a D112, and normally I stick it right outside where the res head would be (I usually don't keep one on) aimed toward the beater, and that's it. It's not the best, but it's worked in the past.

I've been recording for years and realized I've never actually tried the "recorderman" setup. I was playing with that and adding a close mic on kick for some added low end. I stuck the D112 in the normal place, and as usual it sounded okay, but not amazing. An okay "thud". Then I backed the mic up about 3'. Definitely the best bass drum sound I've gotten so far (though I finally tried a condenser on kick recently and I liked that a bit too). Anyway the mic still picked up good low end and some click like it does close up, but with that added bit of room sound it really pushed it over the top. Just my 2 cents!

Yeah, I was shocked when I backed my D112 up. I'd been putting it as absolutely close to the beater (on the beater side even) as I could for years. When I had an intact resonant head. I'd put something else on the other side for the boom. When I backed it off the reso head I finally liked that mic and I'd been using it for a decade.

[firesine]

I would put a 414 out in front of the kick. A foot or three in front of the kick and a foot off the ground. Not only does it tend to sound pretty huge and capture a good amount of attack from the kick, it will probably be a great mono room sound.

[litepipe]

I tend to like the RE20 or Sennheiser 421 on the rim or inside. A LDC or Ribbon out in front is cool.A subkick can work too.

I was recently struggling with a bass drum track. I recorded it with a 414 on the front head. Initially I really liked the tone. As the song arrangement progressed I started to not like it as much.

I decided to try sending the bass drum out to a speaker cabinet. I then miked it with another speaker (my version of a subkick) and blended the 414 and "sub" together. I would have rather tracked it that way, but it sounds good.

[snoopy23]

Dude, if you can get ahold of another bass drum try emptying it out and placing it right in front of your set kick, then mic it. I have tried this and gotten a huge kick sound before. Just a thought.

[woodhenge]

I'm a long-time reader but new poster, for the record (pardon the pun!)


My favorite miking technique for getting a big, fat, natural, yet articulate kick sound is as follows:

Start with a good-sounding, well-tuned kick drum, of course! Make sure there's a hole in the front head, too. I start with the 'standard' D112 setup, inside the drum about 9" off the head, facing the beater impact area. On the hole in the front head, I'll use either a EV 868 or RE 20. And, in addition to those, I'll use an AT4033 or 4050 on the front head about 2' out. (the packing-blanket-tunnel trick helps cut out bleed if it bugs you too much...)

Of course, you want to align all the tracks so they're in phase. After doing so, the D112 is the "attack" mic, the EV is the "woof" mic, and the AT is the "meat" mic. I've found that this setup gives me about any sound I want without having to add eq just by blending the mics.

Works for me, anyway!