A kick with a little more "kick"

[Broken_Hal0]

Ive been just starting my producing work on some of my own material , working in a quite untreated room , in a basement .Everything is going ok to be honest , the tracking and all that and even getting a pretty good snare sound out of my mapex brass piccollo or my 76 ludwig silver snare. the only problem is getting that "sound" out of my kick , you know, that unmistakable sound that has an honest amount of depth and intensity but with out killing my overall mix.Ive been close micing about 4 inches from where it hits the skin and have been getting "ok" sound , but am looking for some advice on the maybe some trickz to get it a little better. I was gonna reverse wire an old practise amp and just make a low frequency speaker mic .Theres a bit that I dont know but any information is welcome .

Thanks
Broken
"The Little Studio"

Gear

2 x Behringer autocom pro compressor (4 channels of compression)
1-behringer ada 8000 autoclock/ada unit
event tr-6 studio monitors
Soundcraft spirit fx-8

comp side (the big brains )
antec sonata 2 quiet case
asus p5rd1-v mobo
pentium 4 3.0 ghz 800mhz fsb
CREAMWARE SCOPE PROJECT 6 DSP (The best soundcard in the world)
Cubase sx 3.0
Sonar Cakewalk producer edition version 5
tonnes of ik media
waves diamond bundle eq mixing mastering package
dual monitor vertical setup
geforce 7300 gts 2

euipment side (yeah it keeps going)
Marshall advanced valve tech 2 x10
gibson les paul studio edition
yamaha psr 273 - midi controller
1976 ludwig ringo star signature set .
toms 13" . , 14" . 18" , 24"
Evans hydralics , tops and bottoms
Vintage ludwig 14" x 6" silver snare , evans tops/bottoms
Mapex 13" x 4"' brass piccollo snare
Ludwig vintage speedball pedal / hi hat

Mics
1 - shure sm57 (top snare)
1 - Studio projects c1 condensor (vocals)
7 piece samson drum mic set (minus kick mic)
1 - senheiser e-604 close mic (bottom snare)
1 - behringer b-5 pencil condensor (hi hat)
1 - AKG D112 - BEST KICK DRUM MIC EVER
1 - rapco pre -amps

 

[Tim Brown]

Kick Drum Tunnel.

It helps "contain" the kick sound, so you wind up with a thicker/cleaner kick drum sound. Normally if I use the tunnel - I use two mic's - one at the mallet spot - I mean literally like an inch away (this can be a 57 or a 58 as it's sole purpose is to capture the attack of the mallet strike) and the second mic - say a D112 out in the end of the Tunnel. The Speaker-Mic works great for this application as well. Just rmember to flip the phase on these tracks - because they are out of phase with the rest of the mic's on the kit - and you lose -3db of low end on these two tracks.

Don't compress until after it's recorded, and I would suggest gating before compressing, and you can gate the mallet strike track a lot more aggressively since you are literally just after the actual "smack" of the mallet against the drum.

Also, you may even want to roll off a little of the low end on the Kick mic in the tunnel, because after a certain point - it can make the kick sound more "rounded" and less.....what' the term I'm looking for...it makes it sound less in your face when ythere's too much low end on it.

Do a search on the Tunnel. It's been discussed quite a bit.



Tim

 

[The Flame]

An idea

ya dude, i usually keep the kick drum mic inside the drum.i also work in my untreated basement. First of all, geta decent drum rug, it helped me alot. if you want a bassy sound, and i think a more full sound, move the mic towards the resonate head of the drum. the farther away you are from the pedal the more thumpy its gonna be. i play thrash, so i usually keep my kick drum on the high end side with some click, but i still keep the mic pointing at the beater far away from it. also, i used a lot of eq to get the sound i like. i also like what the BBE SONIC MAXIMIZER plug in did for my kick. its make it thump and get that Vinnie Paul/ Pantera "ballsy" sound. i am using an old drumset, and the bass drum didnt have that power until i eqed it. try messing around man, that always works. also, make sure that your heads are in tune and actually a little tight, a floppy skin can make your tone lower, but your volume lower, as well as decrease the "round" sound. i keep my batter head so that there are no creases in it and very little shake. same goes for my resonator.If you want so spend some money, they have that "subkick" thing, which might be the solution of all your problems if the simple stuff doesnt work. try different things dude.good luck!
Josh

 

[LIMiT]

To capture the subharmonics of the kick drum (the stuff thats 'felt' more than heard), try wiring an old sub speaker (I use an NS10) with an XLR mic cable - essentially turning the speaker into a mic.

**keep your pre fully attenuated to start (as you always should) as this new 'mic' is quite hott**

I used to put it quite close to the mic hole...and this adds the 'boom' to compliment the 'thwack' from your 'close to the beater mic'.
(after experimenting, I actually like it more now somewhere out front of the kit to capture the low end of the entire kit)

Hope this helps,

-LIMiT

 

[SMC Productions]

Ive been just starting my producing work on some of my own material , working in a quite untreated room , in a basement .Everything is going ok to be honest , the tracking and all that and even getting a pretty good snare sound out of my mapex brass piccollo or my 76 ludwig silver snare. the only problem is getting that "sound" out of my kick , you know, that unmistakable sound that has an honest amount of depth and intensity but with out killing my overall mix.

Try using a Yamaha SubKick, it works WONDERS for this kind of thing. It sits just outside the kick, you get that nice thump, WITHOUT having to use EQ!

Yamaha SubKick