Getting that bass drum click

  • Thread starter Thread starter MessiahNet
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MessiahNet

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When I go to shows at my local venue, this happens every time. I'm sitting there watching the band set up their equipment. The drummer/drum tech will sit there and kick on the bass drum while some guy in the back mixes it to sound good. At first, the kicks always sound like crap. They usually just have a dead thump sound. But as the mixer guy does his thing, the kick turns out to have an awesome sounding "click" to it. It's like I'm not even hearing a bass drum. It's sounds like a very powerful tap. I have got to know how to get this sound for live and/or recording. My guess would be that they are using a trigger on the kick. Maybe it's just mixing???? Maybe good micing?????
 
well, it's a little more complicated than that. A round felt beater on a one ply head isn't going to give you ANY click at all. Try switching your kick beater to a hard plastic or wood beater and on the head try putting one of those slugg percussion head saver pads. The combination of the hard suface beater hitting the hard plastic kick pad will create that clicking sound you're talking about. NOW you can point the mic at the beater and EQ.
 
Or try one of those Evans Arbiter Fiber [Kevlar-type] bass drum patches, in conjunction with a wooden/plastic beater.
And point the mic about 6" from the batter head, pointed at the point of impact.
 
they're raising somewhere from 3 to 6khz and then either they are adding low end (50 hz or so), or the subs are being turned up.

miking the drum inside as close as you can get it to the head without the mic getting hit when the drummer hits his bass drum and pointing the mic at the beater will help give you more click also. i doubt they are doing that live though.
 
with the bass drum, they usually dip out 400-800 Hz to eliminate that crappy cardboard sound (VERY important). Depending on the drum they would search for the frequency between 2.5-10K that provides attack, and boost it. That click is usually found somewhere above 5K (boost it). Like someone else said, the closer you get the mic to the beater the less you have to boost the highs to get the click... however you sacrafice low end the farther you go in, so you're probably best off just stickin the mic through the hole a few inches and boosting the highs with the EQ. Or you can have a kick out mic pointing at the head and mix the in and out mics to get a full sound.
 
Evans EQ2 with the supplied patch/plasic beater..

OR try a Remo Powerstroke3 with the supplied patch and plastic beater. The Remo heads are a bit harder to tune up IMO, but tend to have more low end response.
 
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