Kick drum tuning. Never happy. Help?!

batter loose and something like ps3, resonant way higher and apply some sort of dampening if u play faster stuff (as it seems) often, a t-shirt touching both the batter and the resonant head a tad is enough, to reduce the boominess. theres no better way to get attack than tuning the batter very loose imho. a pzm mic like the beta91a can work wonders too, for attack
 
greyskull said:
Yup... that's what a Beta 52 sounds like...
Click to expand...

Was going to say this.
It hasn't worked too great for me in a metal context so far...similar thing with the d112.

D6 in the whole, and a e602 at the batter has been working quite nice for me!
Lasse does awesome stuff with a sm91 and a D6 too.

Maybe you also want to damp the kick a bit...but don't but too much stuff in it and watch where you place it.
Sometimes sticking a towel to the reso head can work nice to keep it a bit from flubbing around (lower half, where the shell meets the head)
 
Mago said:
Was going to say this.
It hasn't worked too great for me in a metal context so far...similar thing with the d112.

D6 in the whole, and a e602 at the batter has been working quite nice for me!
Lasse does awesome stuff with a sm91 and a D6 too.

Maybe you also want to damp the kick a bit...but don't but too much stuff in it and watch where you place it.
Sometimes sticking a towel to the reso head can work nice to keep it a bit from flubbing around (lower half, where the shell meets the head)
Click to expand...

I've tried 2 mics with the 52 in the hole and a 57 on the batter facing where the beaters hit the skin. Does get a bit more attack but also has a very cardboard-type tone to it.

Thanks to everyone who has and will chime in. We've spent probably between 9-12 hours just dicking around with drum tunings and dampening and as tedious as it is, I'm very glad we are going through this.
 
You are gonna be hard pressed to get Click Spanky metal kicks with a Beta 52. I actually HATE that mic for anything other then sub Lows. I prefer the D112 over it for sub lows honestly.

The D6 is the SHIT! If I was closer I would surely let you borrow a D6 and all your problems would be gone away. Your just gonna have to settle for a ton of Post EQ to get it to sound like a quality Metal kick.

Maybe sample replacements is your options.

Your doing things right at this point and if its not sounding like you want its definitely the mics you are using. No way around that other then new mics.

Its been a GREAT learning experience for you though! Thats a GREAT thing!

I went through about 8 or 9 kick mics before I found the sound I was looking for. Beta 52, D112, SM91, Beta 91, Audix Fseries, Sennheisers.... finally bought a D6 and went OH MU FUCKING GOD THERE IT IS! ....LOL It was a learning experience for sure though :)
 
Anyone else finding the D6 to be overly shaped to them? Lately I've been finding it just "too metal" so to speak. Hyped would be a good word.

I really want to pick up an SM91 and an E602 to try out.
 
I'm on the wagon for proper drum tuning. My gretsch catalina club kick is 24 x 24, lowest clear fundamental I can get is the low C. Does wonders for tom fills, having your kit tuned to specific wide intervals.

Jeff: I have always found that the D6 has literally NO 1k. Like at all. Good for the sub impulse, of course but the high end seems to suffer from lack of harmonic content. Used in pair with a 91 is definitely a good idea though, I have heard excellent tones from this in particular.
 
powerstrokes, superkicks, and emads are all heads ive had good results with, i have the d112, and the d6. never used a b52. i always tune the batter at the lowest possible tone i can get out of it without having wrinkles. the resonant head ive done different just about every time. somtimes i tune it the same way as the batter then have a towel folded up inside barely touching the resonant head, sometimes i have the resonant head tuned up a bit more which makes it have some punch sound and just have the towel in the middle of the drum, sometimesthe towel will be barely touching the batter head... try all of those things
 
RedDog said:
Jeff: I have always found that the D6 has literally NO 1k. Like at all. Good for the sub impulse, of course but the high end seems to suffer from lack of harmonic content. Used in pair with a 91 is definitely a good idea though, I have heard excellent tones from this in particular.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I definitely need to give that a shot. I know the Metal Machine kicks were SM91+D6+Subkick and those rule, seems to be a standard Sneap setup these days.
 
I totally find the D6 too "metal" for my taste most of the times. I've combined it with a D112 with great success.

D6 goes half way in and D122 is either in front of the hole or just merely picking the reso head.

I've yet to try my AKG CBL99 (pzm) in this application too.

I've been increasly interested by the Heil PR-48. Seems like a great compromise between modern and natural sound.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I pretty much always use 2 mics, if not 2 and a sub kick. I find it hard to get those sub lows and great click from one mic.
 
D6 for me is all about where I place it in the hole.
Too much into the shell and to the beater and it becomes too much click only, really stiffy, which I don't really dig.
Maybe it didn't work out with the kicks I tried it on so far though

e602 is certainly more a fit for metal than the 112 or 52, but the 91 seems to be perfect for those kind of sounds, especially with a D6.
That one mic in the kick drum shootout posted around here seemed to be pretty awesome too...miktek something? not sure anymore

edit: ah, well, video posted 2 posts above this :lol:
yeah, was the miktek that seemed to "nail" pretty nicely, altho maybe a bit too much for some stuff. the mxl was my fav back then I think.
and from that clip I think I always had the d6 too close to the beater so far, and backed off a bit much for the last few tries...
 
Sounds like the 52. Throw a sm91 or E901 in the drum. I've been using these style of mics more in Live sound now simply for that punch that you might be looking for. Paired with a 52 or a d6 and you get the nice amount of low end to pair with it which is great.
 
JeffTD said:
Joel, any preference between the SM91 and E901? the older SM91, non beta versions, are way harder to find than an E901.
Click to expand...

To be honest, not yet. You are also correct non beta sm91's being few and far between(or atleast in my case as well) and so I haven't had enough time to pass judgement between those either.

Boundary mics just became a "holy shit, that's what I wanted a kick to sound like" the first moment I put one in a kick live and keeps making my need to buy one even higher. The high end attack is just there and with some nice punch about it too. The gigs I've done without a 52 or d6 to back it up though I have wanted a bit of extra low end.
 
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