Kick mic placement...

AdamWathan

AdamWathan

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Apr 12, 2002
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Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
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Just curious as to where you guys usually place your kick mic...? When I was first experimenting with it I would put the mic quite close to the batter skin hoping I would get more click that way but it was a muddy mess... Now I stick it in the hole on the front head so that the very front of the mic is maybe 2 inches inside the drum MAX, angled slightly toward the center of the batter skin and I get a much clickier "metal" kick drum sound... Here's a horribly sloppy drum track I tracked a couple of weeks ago with pretty much no processing on it aside from some snare verb... I think the kick sound is definitely usable with some tweaking... What do you guys normally do?

http://www.ashesofthefallen.net/cold.mp3
 
i actually use 2 mics and blend them usually a d6 about 2-3 inches away from the beater skin and a akg solidtube infront of the hole on the front head. Of course then i also have to fuck arround for a bit to get them both in phase but it usually produces a prety killer kick tone.
 
If doing rock I'll have it just inside the port, angled towards the beater. For metal it's usually further in, more towards the center of the drum, angled up towards the beater. It really depends on where you get the best tone for which particular drum. You can bet near the port you tend to get more woof, whereas in the center of the drum it's more attack.
 
Some of the best kick sounds I've gotten were from putting the kick mic as close to the middle of the drum as I could pointing slightly "off-axis" at the beater. I've been using that method for about 4 years now
 
good thread!!!
i usually mic the port hole about half and inch inside with an atm 450, then the outside of the batter head with an sm57 for the click. i like the sound of the outside of the batter head cause you really feel the beater hitting the skin
 
I usually use the two mic approach. The D112 3-4 inches from the beater off-axis gets a nice clicky tone, just gotta watch out for the dead spot in the center of the bass drum
 
d6 - a few inches back, angled and pointed directly at where the beater's hitting. btw - a recent big improvement came with the addition of a 'flamslam' on the front...

the question i've always had is ... how many people believe the batter with a hole is better than having the batter off altogether??
 
schust said:
d6 - a few inches back, angled and pointed directly at where the beater's hitting. btw - a recent big improvement came with the addition of a 'flamslam' on the front...

the question i've always had is ... how many people believe the batter with a hole is better than having the batter off altogether??
Click to expand...
HUH?
Read that again

No batter head, no sound homie
 
I think he means resonant head. And the hole thing depends on the size of the port. If it's beyond a certain size you basically get the same tone as having the resonant head removed altogether. However, I think it was Oz who mentioned that he used to record for ages without a resonant head until he tried with one and found the kick sound was fuller overall.
 
I HATE the sound of kickdrums with the resonant skin taken off. There's absoluteley no pressure building up inside the drum that way and you will always lack the "OEMP" in your stomach in the mix.
I usually start off with a 902 1 inch into the hole, aimed at the beater. Usually it gives me a nice balance between attack and punch. If it lacks some attack i move further inwards but that doesn't happen too often
 
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