How do you mix/use that FOK mic?

[Chris.]

In a 'show us your drums miced up' thread I was reading pretty much everybody had a FOK mic set up. I've always just gone with the while mic in the kick or mic on the soundhole so I don't have any experience with micing the kick inside as well as a (usual) LDC a foot or two away from the head.

Just curious as to how people usually use the sound. Is it the mic inside for the click and the FOK mic for the bottom end?

 

[zzfdvz]

there's about 10,000 ways to mic a kick. generally, the mic inside the kick is supposed to capture an overall sound of attack and low end. placement depends on where you want it. a lot of people also mic at the sound hole, a foot in front of the kick (arbitrary number of footage btw), have made speakers into mics for capturing just low, etc. the general idea is to get more low end since low freq waves take longer to develop, they need time and space. in an ideal world the mic outside the kick also have a very heavy and dense blanket to help isolate from everything else. you can also mic where the beater makes contact with the head to capture more attack. also keep in mind that these very general methods are for a modern pop/rock kick. if you're doing jazz or something like that, it completely changes. there's tons of threads and books that can go into specifics with all of that.

 

[mrface2112]

Is it the mic inside for the click and the FOK mic for the bottom end?

In the simplest sense, yeah, more or less.

typically, i tend to use the inside mic for more of the smack and the FOK for more of the oomph/whomp, if that makes any sense. often i'll add in a old yamaha home stereo speaker (wired in reverse) as a really low budget homemade version of a yamaha subkick (which itself is a specialized take on the practice of using an ns10 driver), which sometimes adds an interesting texture. i'll cover the whole mess with a comforter, which helps keep the cymbals out.

then i'll put another mic about 4-6ft out in front of the kit, about even with the top of the kick. positioned right, it gets a great mix of kick and snare (distort and compress to taste! ).

with all of these mics, be careful with your phase relationships.


cheers,
wade