Has anyone used this to mic their kicks,,,, or anything else

[Sayer]

Hey all,

I saw this thing on the friend and im wondering if anyone has used it,, it makes sense to me, but it would be cool to get some info on your results with it...

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=040117125310066041008075008454/g=rec/s=mics/search/detail/base_pid/444623/[/url]

let me know
thanks all

sayer
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two bpms & three dudes away from a hit.

[ggddcc]

Hi Sayer- Haven't used that specific item, but have used the idea- using a 12" speaker wired with an XLR into a mic input. I'll put it at the end of the drum tunnel- use this method a lot. Adds "balls" to the kick. I think that thing's a little expensive though. The cost of a crappy speaker and some wiring/connectors- a lot less than $279!!
_________________
Greg DiCrosta
www.gregdicrosta.com
greg@gregdicrosta.com

[chetatkinsdiet]

a cheaper option is to go to radio shack and get a bare woofer and an older mic cable. Cut one end off and wire it to the speaker and make your own for about $40 tops. Then tape or strap it to a mic stand yourself.
Or send me the nearly $300 and I'll do it for you.
later,
m

[Slider]

I've been using it like mad lately. It's really great. a mic inside with this on the outside is a great combination. I thought it would be useless, and i was very wrong. People have been using an NS-10 woofer on kick for a long time. this works even better for me. you can use it on bass guitar too for a beatles Rain, Paperback Writer, kind of sound.

[NewYorkDave]

I've known about that trick for 20 years, but I've never actually tried it. What kind of level are you guys getting at your preamp inputs? Is it healthy, or do you need to crank up the gain?

[ggddcc]

We built ours with a UTC output transformer, I believe. We actually have to pad it -20dB before the PRE, or we distort right off the bat. Not sure how it would work without the transformer though.
_________________
Greg DiCrosta
www.gregdicrosta.com
greg@gregdicrosta.com

[wing]

i'm confused about the science of it though... what exactly does the speaker do?

[NewYorkDave]

Basically, it works as a big moving-coil microphone. The soundwaves impinge on the speaker cone, causing the voice coil to move through the magnet gap, and this induces a voltage at the speaker's terminals.

[assfortress]

I use a plain old ns 10. I did it just today with a 57 inside. Sounds great. I can also get this weird synthy sounding kick when I crank the gain too much. can the subkick do that?

Matt.
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"It’s the consequence you’ll pay, as long as you got the sound of it blowing up on tape."

[wing]

but does it actually pick up the sound like a mic? like, what would the speaker sound like without any mic on the kick?

[NewYorkDave]

Yeah, the speaker IS the mic... a very large diaphragm dynamic mic.

[Slider]

yeah it's pretty hot, and there's no pad. i'm using it through an API pre.
it's very usable. i first thought "why would i want more low end on kick?"
but you have to hear it. it's very useful low end. hard to explain.

[stapes]

Yeah, that's way too much money for what that is. What I do, is just take a guitar cable and run it from the 15" PA speaker into the DI on a mic pre. Seems to work for me. I'll use the DI on a drawmer 1960 if I want it distorted because that tube stage sounds great overloaded, or I'll run it into an API with the pad engaged for a cleaner sound. It really is a very useful sound in filling out the bottom end of the kit. The punch in the kick drum, and overtone decays from the toms make this a really cool addition to a drum kit. Phase is pretty important with this setup, as is just about any drum mic, but especially with all this low end. I also have trouble with the speaker keeping up with really fast kick drum hits. But I usually don't record really fast drummers.

Erik Wofford
Stapes Audio

[steve3b1]

I haven't tried it, but it seems that an easy way to do this trick is to use the speaker of a combo amp (the kind where you can unplug the speaker from the back of the amp) since there's already a plug, and plug that into a preamp/DI. Or come to think of it, any guitar or bass cab would work. But would you use an instrument cable rather than a speaker cable, since it's not powered?
It also seems that this wouldn't do any damage to the speaker at all, right? Since it's doing the same thing it's supposed to, just backwards. In other words, I could use my good amp for this without worrying about anything?

[assfortress]

i just kind of guessed on how to wire mine up. i just used a normal instrument cable and connected to an xlr end. I just left one pin empty. I dont even remember which one. But it works great. I even used it on guitar once and it sounded good.

Matt.
_________________
"It’s the consequence you’ll pay, as long as you got the sound of it blowing up on tape."