DIY Subkick

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GDeHavenIV

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Hey all,

I'm trying to throw together a subkick for recording drums. I've got the sub, the mount and the XLR cable. I want to wire the XLR directly to the speaker but which wire is which?

I clipped the end off of the cable and there is a red wire, a white wire and what looks to be copper shielding that is braided around the red and white.

Any help is appreciated!
 
The shield is pin 1 / Ground.
1+3 would be bridged so it's unbalanced.

As to which way round you wire at the speaker, don't worry about it.
The worst you can do is being 180 degrees out from any other mics in use, and then all you do is flip polarity in your software.
I guess the speaker terminal marked + should go to 2, and the other to 1/3.

I wired mine unbalanced with a jack connector (into DI).

I've read about people just ignoring pin 1 and wiring the speaker to 2+3. I've also read about some who run them directly into line inputs.
I guess it depends on your speaker.

If your mic preamp doesn't have an input pad, you might need to solder one up.
 
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I used an old tom, and drilled out the old vent hole and popped in a 1/4" jack, to go to a DI box with the two wires. Simple, and it works great. The whole project was an unused 8" tom, an 8" woofer, and a Pearl mesh head protects everything. Use the tom mount to go to a mic stand, or make something up.


Oh, you could make up a small wooden ring to go inside, like the old reinforcement ring on cheap import drums, to hold a woofer a little more securely. Glue it in, but lower then flush to the top of the shell. I think I went 1/2" down or so. Maybe it is a little work, but well worth it.
 
You've got plenty of options but it's encouraging to see someone else using a TS jack into DI.
Keeps it simple, I think.

You can just mount an open driver on a stand, use a drum shell like ranjam, use an old hifi speaker as-is (I've done that before), or use a car audio subwoofer and enclosure.
Mine is a sub+enclosure just because I had one spare.
 
Hi guys, I'm really fascinated by this concept, I've never heard of it before. Do you use this SubKick microphone instead of a kick mic or do you use both? What does it sound like? Can you post some examples?
 
Usually you'd combine it with another kick mic.
That's why polarity can be important.

The one I had just sounded like a really beefy kick recording with a LPF at about 100-200hz.
Absolutely no definition or click whatsoever, but that's kinda the point.
 
Keep in mind that I am a bit of a wingnut, and not afraid to try anything. Before I made my sub-kick, what I did was this; I had a signal generator set to 40-50Hz (whatever I think felt right later was used next time, but the exact frequency changed). Next, the kick drum mic was sent to a compressor/gate and side chained to the generator. I think I said it right. Anyway, it worked super cool, but was a bit of work. The DIY sub-kick is easier to set up, and on its own track can be brought in and out as needed for effect.
 
I've used that before. It's a pretty cool technique sometimes. :)
Nice one ranjam.
 
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