How to build a kick mic out of a 10" speaker?

V

visa

New member
dear everybody,

you know the subkick from yamaha, right? i've seen and heard of many recording engineers building additional kick mics out of speakers for even more low and and authentic bass reproduction.

eg: http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/images/bandinaboxnewcrop.jpg

looks like even radiohead (new album in 5 days!!!) used it for their new album.

can anyone direct me to a site that explains this technique?
 
VERY easy. Take the two terminals on the speaker. Solder them to a cable, and a connector to the other end of the cable. Plug the connector into your preamp. Point and shoot. voila.

You can solder them to pins 1 and 2 of an XLR or tip and sleeve of a TS connector, which you would then plug into a DI box...the upside is that it will balance the signal; the downside is that it will have a very low impedance. It's worked fine for me when I've done it though.
 
true. that would physically function. but when I built mine. I went overboard... I used an impedance compensation network inside a qtc .707 phase aligned chamber with a sowter output transformer.. HAHAHA!!! I'm insane. but boy does it add warmth to the kick track.

but for all practice purposes all you really need to capture is the very bottom octaves up to maybe 100hz. I would recommend the transformer mostly, something to convert the 8 ohm speaker to 50-250 ohm mic level, but if you have a preamp with selectable input impedance or one made for ribbon mics. that you could get away with hooking it strait up to the jack.

SOMETHING THAT I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY WAS USING A PLANAR OR RIBBON SPEAKER AS A MIC!!! woopie!
 
You learn something everyday......if you want to.

That's a great idea, so basic some people would never think of it.
 
I made mine from an 8" and have been using it for over a year.

Only use it in conjunction with a main mic. It's only for adding those artificial lows.
 
I've tried it with several woofers and indeed it can give you a lot of low end, but when one uses an old AKG D12(E) there's no need for a woofer since the D12 will give you plenty of lows.
 
so i tried this yesterday.

simply amazing.

i used a 10" rack tom, fit it in there and put it on a stand infront of the kick. it looks almost exactly like the yamaha subkick......just bigger. i sent the whole thing to a DI and then to the pre.

the highs are pretty much useless and produce an annoying pop so i used a low pass filter at around 250Hz and added it to the punchy D6 that is inside the kick. love it.
 
Instead of soldering cables and burning your finger tips you can maybe save yourself some experimenting trouble.

If you got a PA speaker laying around at your access ... use it like a microphone. Plug the output of your PA speaker into your mic input and viola.

I wanna try my vocals on my 10 inch PA speaker ... they always say many people prefer a large diaphragm for vocals. beat my large diaphragm.

Sorry if someone already said this. I just got upstairs from my basement from trying this out to see if it works. Cant wait to mike up my kick with it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top