"Airy" Kick Drum

[moelar2]

I use to think I was very good at miking the kick drum. I have suddenly, however, become dissatisfied with the sound when contextualized with music. Even when I solo the kick track alone, the sound is "muffy." I use a mackie cfx12 board as a submixer. I then take the kick and snare out through the auxilaries into channels 1+2 on my vs840. The rest of the mics, overheads and snare (occasionally individual tom mics as well), are sent out through the main stereo output into the remaining 2 inputs on my vs840. I have tried cutting out at 300-400hz and boosting at 3k-5k, but even then, it doesnt sound defined. I use a Beta52, about 4-6 inches away from front head (beater side)two inches off center. I have also tried miking right at the sound hole, but have not experimented too much there. What would you recommnd. I have considered trying to triange miking, two overheads and kick, and in addition adding the sm57 I usually put on the snare into the kick. What do you think??? The sound I'm aiming for is the beautiful kick sound on Deftones' White Pony. I'm not a huge fan of deftones, but one must admit that the drums sound beautiful! Great recording!! (in my opinion).

Thanks.

 

[Roel]

Experiment with mic positioning. Position it, record 5 hits, position it differently, record 5 hits, ... Listen to what you recorded, choose the best one and move on from there. Find the link between the position and the placement...

 

[Diragor]

I get the best results with the mic inside, close to the center of the drum, aimed directly at the point of impact. Move the mic closer to the front head to get more resonance, closer to the batter head for more impact. I boost somewhere around 3k to enhance the "click" and also around 100Hz for some oomph. I'm using a Beta 52 also, so you can definitely get the sound you're talking about with that mic.

You could also re-evaluate the heads and beaters you're using. I use a double-ply batter head with a kick pad and plastic beaters, which provides plenty of "click", and a front head with a small hole and a little bit of muffling built in (a thin felt ring adhered to the back side of the head - I think it's an Aquarian head of some kind). Despite the very defined click I can still get a pretty fat sound out of it with proper tuning and mic placement.

I don't have White Pony but I've used Deftones Around the Fur CD as a drum sound reference many times .

 

[moelar2]

I actually have the Aquarian Heads you're talking about. I'm going to try to mess around with the positioning. The problem is not getting the sound - the problem is consistency. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. If I have two kick tracks, one invidual and one mixed with the overheads, would you suggest I make the individual track "clicky" via EQ?

Also, I use to like to compress the shit out of the kick, however, lately I've noticing that I'm compressing much less - sometimes I don't even compress at all. What do you guys think? - Do you GENERALLY compress a lot, or do you just take it on a case by case basis?

Thanks!