which mic to buy for kick drum / shure beta 52 or AKG D 112?

[Andy Peters]

which should i get? pros? cons? will be used primarily for kick drum... maybe some bass guitar too...

Anything but the Beta52 ...

-a (charter member, He-Man Beta52 Hater's Club)

[trodden]

i did have fun with the beta 52 on the floor between the kick and the snare, facing up, ran into a RAT pedal.

[JASIII]

re20 and 421 get used when not going for the "modern" or doesn't have to cut through 6 guitar tracks turned up to 11.

Pssht. When don't you have 6 guitars turned up to 11? Damn crusty punks and your loud guitars! Why, in my day amps only used negative numbers and you had to SING all your guitar parts. Kids...

[C_R_J]

i am tryin to keep the price under 200 bucks for now. i can find all 3 (52, 112, and the 602) for under 200...

i have a tama starclassic kit. coated single remo emperor on snare and kick batter. clear emperor on toms. clear resonant side heads on all. i dont muffle anything. big open resonant sounds for the most part, but i play with lots of dynamics so it has a good amount of variance. chad smith snare (yeah. i know. its a good snare though!)

i think i might check out the sennheiser one you guys recommend. sounds like a good all around mic. i play with a wood beater, so click is easy to make, and im in the process of redoing the way i muffle my kick to make it a little more boomy. the sennheiser sounds like a good mic for this from what you guys said. thanks for your input so far...

[ter]

I own the D112, Beta52, D6, etc. I have one client that likes the B52 on his kick. 90% of the time I have a Beta91 in the kick and a Beyer TGX50 outside. I have 100 mics kickng around here but that TGX keeps coming back for outside the kick. Every "kick" mic just sounds tweezed and screwed up in comparison. If you have plenty of click, and can find a TGX (very likely cheap), give it a shot!

tom

[farview]

The beta 52 placed in the vent hole will get you that scooped mid boom and click sound. It is excelent for that, not so much for bass and other things.

The D112 will get you more midrange (which you can EQ out to get something like the Beta 52 sound) which makes it more usefull for other applications like bass guitar, etc... The D112 likes to be placed inside the kick a couple inches from the batter head.

[farview]

Here is a comparison of a single kick hit recorded with a 421, D112, Beta 52.


http://www.farviewrecording.com/audio/kicktest.wav

The 421 is the first hit and it was inside the drum a couple inches from the batter head

The D112 is the second hit it was also inside the drum a couple inches from the batter head

The Beta 52 was placed in the vent hole


This is all the same drum hit.

[japmn]

M-88 > D112 > Beta 52

[ChrisNW]

I've been very pleased with the Audix D6 for rock--giving super low end and high attack, aggressively scooped mids. For any style of drumming, I love broadcast dynamics (i.e. Shure sm7 and EVre20).

[C_R_J]

i just dont know anymore. lol. would you all say the sennheiser is about the most versatile? like i can get a good bassy high end bass sorta boomy kick? and if i need too, i can eq it and get a nice clicky kick? and the sennheiser would be ok if i needed to record bass guitar?

thanks all so far. you rock...

[ceilingcat84]

For a general-purpose kick mic I'd go with an audix D6. I find the D112 to be somewhat lifeless; this gets exaggerated if you're working with a dead-sounding kick in the first place. I know everyone loves to hate the Beta 52 but I've gotten decent stuff with it if I cut the boxy midrange.

I'm also a fan of the 421 on kick if you're not looking for a huge sound. Last project i did I used this, gently compressed to fatten it ever so slightly.

[I'm Painting Again]

Here is a comparison of a single kick hit recorded with a 421, D112, Beta 52.


http://www.farviewrecording.com/audio/kicktest.wav

The 421 is the first hit and it was inside the drum a couple inches from the batter head

The D112 is the second hit it was also inside the drum a couple inches from the batter head

The Beta 52 was placed in the vent hole


This is all the same drum hit.

crazy that the d112 has a totally different pitch than the other two..

in this shootout with no context I like the way the d112 sounds best..

I do use the d112 and like it on kick..some people pick that mic for kick when they have EVERYTHING else to choose from..

a mic is a mic and you just make it work..thats it..it's what is in front of the mic and how that kick track serves the song in the end that is important..


I always wonder if the people who say "yeah this mic ALWAYS wins" are micing the same kick in the same spot every time..I'm sure that is not the case but I wonder sometimes..

[the riff]

Ditto on the e602. I have a D112 and a D12 and the e602 always wins..

[EasyGo]

Not a big fan of the D112 on kick, just sounds like a weird representation of a kick drum. I do like it on bass, however.

I borrowed an e602 and it was okay, better than the D112. I borrowed an RE20 and it sounded like a KICK DRUM. Plus it's just an overall kickass mic.

YMMV

[joel hamilton]

e602 for every type of music I record... the rest is up to the foot, the beater, and the drum.

I have recorded incredibly round, NOT modern or rock sounding kick drums with he 602 and it worked really, really well.

on everything I have recorded since getting a 602 years ago, it has been the kick drum mic, and the only variable mic wise will be whether or not to use the FET47 in front or not, or maybe a lomo 19A19 in front if I am feeling really wild in the streets...