Yamaha now marketing the 'speaker-as-kick-mic'

[EasyGo]

Holy crap. After reading posts by djslayerissick and others espousing the benefits of using a speaker as a kick drum mic, I find this. The author of the report even mentions that the speaker used in the Yamaha product looks like an NS-10 woofer.

Go figure.

[inverseroom]

Five hundred bucks?!!? You could build one for fifty!

Cool idea, though.

[scotsman]

This product sounds amazing. I checked it out. It's not just that it's a speaker, like an NS10, it's that in combination with the snare-shell. It will sell for less that $499. It was NAMMs biggest hit, I think.

[Professor]

Sure, as if it wasn't hard enough already to keep the drummers from hitting the microphones with their sticks.
But hell, for the price I will take a look at one. It would certainly be easier than trying to rig my own, and I bet it would be cool on bass amps too.

-Jeremy

[trashy]

By "easier than trying to rig my own" I hope that you mean rigging one that has a drum shell attached, because as far as rigging your own speaker-as-mic, nothing could be easier. Especially for five hundred bucks. Hell, I bet rigging one with a drum shell is easier than it seems. But five hundred bucks comes easier to some than others.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, you can check out my crappy speaker-as-mic experiments here:
http://radiofreeredbluff.tripod.com/speakerasmic/

[djslayerissick]

it figures.

it was gonna happen sooner or later. its just common sense.

you want your recording to push a 15" speaker?
use a 15" diaphragm! simple as that.

this so-called "NEW" product should have been made decades ago.

oooo but the shell.... thats worth the $500 right there!!!! gimme a break. my PA speaker/woofer works just fine. i'm really not willing to put out half-a-grand for something i already have.

[Auxillary]

Why not just gte a thick PVC pipe shell, stick a tom mount bracket on there and throw the speaker in?

What is the "proper" way to wire a speaker to run into a preamp guys? Assume the load variable, so I could figure it out based on the speaker of my choice.

[Professor]

Wow, I didn't mean to incite such venom. At $500 that would give it a street price between $350 and $400 which places it in the competitive range with a Beta 52 or an RE-20, and I'm not sure but I think the Audio Technica dual dynamic & condenser combo mic lists at $500. It's easier to rig because they have taken care of the box around it and the mounting hardware, and I would hope they have dropped in an output transformer of some variety, though obviously we are only seeing pictures of the trade show mock up and no cut sheets are out yet. Certainly a home made speaker would give the option of using different sizes and driver materials, and could be useful to illustrate to students how they are contructed, and yes, even the drum shell isn't a tall order at home, but that one is already done and built.
In the end, it will come down to whether or not it sounds like it is worth the money. An RE-20 definitely sounds good and can be used on much more than kick drums. That's why it would be worth checking out the Yamaha to see how it performs in the studio, on a live stage, and on other instruments. And yes, $500 is alot for a specialty microphone, just like the PZM mics that cost me around $500 each and the shotgun mics that cost around 700 each - and that's why those are added to the collection last.


-J

[carlos de la garza]

not that i'm trying to defend yamaha or anything, but i think its kind of a hip package. I think this product is the synthesis of a few ideas : 1. a"subwoofer", a product that drum companies like dw have been making over the last few years to increase low end in their kick drums, which is basically another kick drum (with or without the heads) in front of the kick drum. i've found this technique to be pretty awesome for certain things. although these "subwoofers" are usually alot bigger than the yamaha thingy, they probably made it smaller for practical reasons (ie, it would be hard to mic a snare with a mic the size of a kick drum) 2. the speaker as mic, something that i've never learned how to construct because it seemed like it would be just a litle too hard for me to construct, hence this product. Maybe its just for us lazy folk. i think the mic includes the mount too, which is a snare stand. ALOT bigger (probably translated into greater cost) than most clips/mounts. from the speaker-as-mics that i've seen, this mounting system is alot more flexible and certainly prettier.

[thunderboy]

So this "Drum Artist" figures that a snare drum shell will "focus" frequencies below 100Hz?

DO TELL.

jt

[leigh]

I get the feeling that Designer and Yamaha Drum Artist Russ Miller doesn't really know what he's talking about. Those sub-100 Hz freqs are not going to be affected much by a 8" long cylander made of thin 7-ply maple. Even a 100 Hz signal has a wavelength of, what, over 11 feet? And a 50 Hz has twice that.

Looks cool and all, but I don't know who's gonna spring that $ for just looks.

Leigh

[thunderboy]

That's just it - they'll probably sell really well, especially to drummers.

jt

[kRza.]

anyone know somewhere online to print out how to make a mic from a speaker,....i.e. what wires to connect, etc?
thanks - kRza.

[MintFieldMan]

KRza,
I use a mic cable with the female end cut off and aligator clips attached to the wires. I don't connect pin one (ground) to anything and I connect pins 2 and three to the positive and negative of the speaker cone. I'll then switch 2 and 3 to see which way is more in phase with the rest of the kit. Hope that helps.

[cassembler]

Well, at least it's not just another kick mic. Kudos for going out on a limb a bit.