Electro-Voice Kick Dum Mic?

heatmiser

heatmiser

mr. green christmas
Hi,

Anyone ever used an Electro-Voice PL33 Kick Drum Mic before?

Amazon.com: Electro-Voice PL33 Kick Drum Microphone: GPS & Navigation

I'm reduced to using an SM~57 on the kick currently and am not too happy with the results. My guess is that buying another $100 mic isn't going to make too much of a difference. They probably just roll off the high end which I guess I can just do myself with EQ using the 57?

I hear a lot about the AKG D112 and the Audix D6, but they're a little too pricey for me right now. I happen to have a $75 Amazon gift card and saw this as a possibility...anyone? Thanks.
 
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In my limited experience, most of those cheap "kick" mics are essentially the same thing. Not great and need a lot of EQ. Save up a little more and get you the D112, Beta52, or D6 if you want a dedicated kick mic. The D6 is especially nice.
 
That's what I figured....:(

Thanks Greg. At $199, the D6 certainly isn't too far out of reach. I'm almost halfway there with the gift card. I guess I could use it for bass too if I wanted to try that.
 
Yes, generally I agree with that philosophy. It's just that, at the rate at which I save, I wind up buying very little :o.
 
heatmiser said:
That's what I figured....:(

Thanks Greg. At $199, the D6 certainly isn't too far out of reach. I'm almost halfway there with the gift card. I guess I could use it for bass too if I wanted to try that.
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I see a lot go for less than $150 on eBay. Sometimes as low as 120 or around there.
 
I'd try it. You won't spend much of your own money, and you just never know until you try it with the rest of your gear. Unless you want exactly the same kick sound for every one of your songs, you should have more than one kick mic anyway. Add a home-made subkick, and away you go with a myriad of options. One sound for classic rock, one for prog, whatever. If you Google the PL33, apparently it's not a typical Chinese mic. That just makes it even more tempting. On the cheap I've rented any mic from my local music store, out of their PA and Rental department. If I feel like keeping it, I get it for sometimes 50% of retail. Just another suggestion, but one where you can't use your gift card. Still, it helps build a collection. Maybe rent a PL33 for a weekend first?
 
ranjam said:
I'd try it. You won't spend much of your own money, and you just never know until you try it with the rest of your gear. Unless you want exactly the same kick sound for every one of your songs, you should have more than one kick mic anyway. Add a home-made subkick, and away you go with a myriad of options. One sound for classic rock, one for prog, whatever. If you Google the PL33, apparently it's not a typical Chinese mic. That just makes it even more tempting. On the cheap I've rented any mic from my local music store, out of their PA and Rental department. If I feel like keeping it, I get it for sometimes 50% of retail. Just another suggestion, but one where you can't use your gift card. Still, it helps build a collection. Maybe rent a PL33 for a weekend first?
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I would be curious to know how a PL33 sounds. I've been considering one before, still am looking though.
ranjam has a very good point.
Good luck!
 
DrumRookie said:
I would be curious to know how a PL33 sounds. I've been considering one before, still am looking though.
ranjam has a very good point.
Good luck!
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Yes, he's right that I'd basically be spending very little (~ $25) to buy this mic and unless I'm certain it won't do any better than an SM 57, it might be worth a try...?
I absolutely would rather spend more at a later time for a proven commodity though...
I've just never heard of this PL33 mic, and thought it might turn out to be a hidden gem or something, like people always seem to say the v67 is a great cheap LDC (I don't have one of those either). But, it seems like no one has used one...

moresound said:
My favorite kick drum microphone is the Sennheiser e602. Check for that used.
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I hadn't really looked at those too much...I am now...thanks. Seem to be running around $150.
 
Y'know, I may be putting the cart before the horse here, as it may be that the limiting factor here is tuning.

These drums are on long-term loan to me (had 'em a year so far), and came with both heads on and tuned so that it reverberated for ever. There is no hole cut in the outer head to put a mic inside, so I'm placing the mic just in front of the outer head (I tried putting it near the beater, but that sounded really bad). I also added a pillow inside to deaden it a little (not ideal - I know) as it still had too much sustain or whatever.

So, this is not a traditional set up and may not sound great mic'ed with any mic, although I think it sounds pretty good live, so I'm thinking a dedicated kick mic of some kind may better capture what I'm hearing in the room.
 
You know, without a hole in the front head, it can be tough to get a dry clean punch from the kick with one mic. If you don't wanna cut a hole in the reso head, just take it off. Go old school. It's not my ideal situation, but tens of thousands of albums have been recorded that way. Take the reso head off, but put the hoop back on if you can so nothing rattles. Tune the batter head to sound however you want and then you can stick the mic anywhere.
 
The only EV mic that I like for kick drum is the RE 20 and that is a spectacular mic that has a whole lot of other uses. It will cost you over $400 though.
 
Rimshot said:
The only EV mic that I like for kick drum is the RE 20 and that is a spectacular mic that has a whole lot of other uses. It will cost you over $400 though.
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Or you can get it's little brother the EV re320!! It's prettymuch the same (minus the legacy :D) for about $100 cheaper! $300 new.
 
Or just use a good sample and save your money. I learned a while back, that it was just not worth the time to try to get tone from most drummers crap in my studio. SS Trigger is cheaper and easier. Though, I must say, I get great tone with a D112 and my 'tuned' kick. Teaching idiots how to tune their drums became a time waster for me. I gave up on kicks. Toms are another thing however......
 
Greg_L said:
You know, without a hole in the front head, it can be tough to get a dry clean punch from the kick with one mic. If you don't wanna cut a hole in the reso head, just take it off. Go old school. It's not my ideal situation, but tens of thousands of albums have been recorded that way.
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That's a great old school approach. Don't use any reverb, and get a dry sound that reeks of 70's rock. If there's too much 'sustain', Levon Helm said that he would only tighten two lugs on a drum, and leave the others really slack. Apparently this was to try and mimic the calf skin heads he was so fond of. It's up to the sound you want.

If you want to leave the head on, with no hole, you still have options. While Ringo often had 'The Beatles' logos on his reso heads, here he clearly has a felt strip;


..... and even in white marine pearl!


Mic'd up to record;


Now figure out those mics! Just for me, if money is no object, the D12 is miles ahead of the D112. But again, that's me.
 
It's funny how some of those 60's drummers played with their thrones having them nearly standing up. Keith Moon played the same way.
 
So many options! - thanks everyone.

What the heck did they mic Ringo's kick with in that last photo? Looks like a big LDC?

What effect does removing the front head altogether have?...a much drier sound?

I have heard of triggers and from what little I know of them, I'd prefer not to go in that direction. I have a little of that annoying purist sort of thing in me that makes me want to keep things simple and resort to as little trickery as possible.

The kick sound I get is ok, no one seems to think it's terrible or anything, just a little boxy and not enough low end for me. An SM~57 supposedly goes down to 40hz, which seems adequate, but that probably doesn't tell the whole story. Dedicated kick mics all seem to be much larger. Must be something about the bigger surface being able to harness lower frequencies somehow?

I do have a Studio Projects B1 LDC that does produce low end nicely, but I imagine it isn't generally advisable to put that kind of mic close to a kick drum, right? Lately I've used it as a single room mic and I EQ a lot of highs out of it and it actually adds some fullness to the kick.

Drums are so freakin' complicated - so many variables. As much of a pain as it can be trying to figure all this out, it's really mostly fun.
 
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