Clicky Bass Drum Sound

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SteveCPerrino

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I'm having a very very difficult time figuring out how to get that clicky, almost watery-wet sounding bass drum sound commonly used in metal and punk. Boosting high frequencies makes it sound almost worse so I'm wondering if its something to do with the tuning of the bass drum or anything else, please help, thanks!
 
Tuning is important, as well as the beater type. Mic placement too.
 
Try taking out some muck at 250Hz-ish and look to add some around 4-5K....
 
Tune the batter head very loose, just enough to get rid of the wrinkles, and use a plastic beater, like the back side of a DW beater. Place the mic inside of the drum as close to where the beater hits as possible (probably about 2-3 inches), pointing it at the beater sort of off-axis. You should be able to boost the highs and lows, and cut some mids to get the sound you're looking for.
 
alright thanks! and should I just take off the resonant head then in order to get the mic in that far?
 
SteveCPerrino said:
I'm having a very very difficult time figuring out how to get that clicky, almost watery-wet sounding bass drum sound commonly used in metal and punk. Boosting high frequencies makes it sound almost worse so I'm wondering if its something to do with the tuning of the bass drum or anything else, please help, thanks!
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try using you kick mic and a condenser I have never tried this but I have read about people doing it I don't which postion to go about it I think I seen one where to kick mic was inside the drum and the condenser was outside of the batter head pointed at where to beaters hit but if you do try this please post a ciip of it
 
Jammer429 said:
try using you kick mic and a condenser I have never tried this but I have read about people doing it I don't which postion to go about it I think I seen one where to kick mic was inside the drum and the condenser was outside of the batter head pointed at where to beaters hit but if you do try this please post a ciip of it
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Actually, it's a WHOLE lot easier to get the drum sounding clicky to begin with.......
 
Jammer429 said:
if someone were to do it like that how do you think it would turn out?
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Depends on how the drum sounds.....

I don't know why people have such an easy time believing a certain piece of recording gear, or studio "trick" will make something sound good, but have a hard time believing that 90% of the battle is as simple as getting it right at the source.

I will say this - I have worked with tons of drummers, and VERY few know how to tune their drums. Especially the kick. Also, I bet about half the metal drummers I've worked with had felt beaters, but want a modern metal sound. Go figure.
 
NL5 said:
Depends on how the drum sounds.....

I don't know why people have such an easy time believing a certain piece of recording gear, or studio "trick" will make something sound good, but have a hard time believing that 90% of the battle is as simple as getting it right at the source.

I will say this - I have worked with tons of drummers, and VERY few know how to tune their drums. Especially the kick. Also, I bet about half the metal drummers I've worked with had felt beaters, but want a modern metal sound. Go figure.
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yea that would be true I was just throwing stuff out there like I said I have never actually tried it
 
I read a technique in the Recording Engineer's Handbook that said to tape a large coin to the head of the drum where the beater hits it. Of course, you would want to use a plastic beater head to strike it. I haven't tried this, but if you do...let me know!
 
royalt213 said:
I read a technique in the Recording Engineer's Handbook that said to tape a large coin to the head of the drum where the beater hits it. Of course, you would want to use a plastic beater head to strike it. I haven't tried this, but if you do...let me know!
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I have a metal click pad on my kick and it sucks for recording
 
i'd say mic placement is the key here....lose the outer head...point the mic directly @ the spot the beater makes contact w/ the head..straight on & level.. about half the depth of the shell(season to taste)..and that should be a good starting point. plectorum plates and/or coins may work for live sound, personally i dont think theyre worth their face value in the studio...
 
Metal Mikes got it. I use a d112 inside the drum pointed right at where the beater hits the skin. I angle mine about 30 degrees off axis. Takes out some of the boom. Also, stick a pillow or something in the drum to rest on the skin to dampen it. OR.....you could use the recorded track to trigger a sound that you want. More fun my way though....
 
1) Tune the drum so that it sounds as close to what you want when you're listening to it in the room.

2) Place a dynamic mic inside the kick, about 3-4" from the beater. Play with moving it off-axis until it sounds right.

3) Once optimum tuning & mic placement have been achieve, EQ the shit out of it - you'll want a nice tight boost in the 5-8kHz region depending on the song/drum/beater combo, and you'll want to scoop out most of the mids 400-700Hz. Cut below that to taste - you'll probably find you can get rid of a lot in the sub 300Hz region as well.

4) compression: slow attack (30-40ms), medium release (250-300ms), 4:1 or 5:1 so that you're compressing by around 6dB

5) or, you could do like most metal engineers do these days and put a trigger on the whole kit, buy some nice samples and replace the lot :mad:


note: all numbers are quote with a +-30% tolerance ;) YMMV
 
Jammer429 said:
yea that would be true I was just throwing stuff out there like I said I have never actually tried it
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Maybe you shouldn't be throwing out crazy info that you've never actually tried.

Messianic said it best. It's not hard. Tuning, placement, and EQ. Simple.
 
Greg_L said:
Maybe you shouldn't be throwing out crazy info that you've never actually tried.

Messianic said it best. It's not hard. Tuning, placement, and EQ. Simple.
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it was just something I read and besides it don't hurt to experiment
 
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