Kick / Bass Drum recording techniques

[dejacky]

I tried a positioning that sounds quiet good. Hopefully, it's not only because of my insane diligence to tuning my bass drum to sound "acceptable" . Using my AT3035 mic about 3inches away from the kick drum hole but pointed towards the center of the resonant head. The -10dB pad is engaged without lowcut . Overall, it really adds some "meat" to the sound whereas before it didn't capture those nice rich overtones and lower mids. It sounds better than the Shure SM57 3inches directly in front of the sound too! .

What else do you all do?

I'm using a Pacific FS (birch) drumset with Aquarian Superkick I batter head and resonant head. Also use an Evans kevlar falam patch on the batter side. I decided to use my AT3035 mic because it was the only mic that could capture those low frequencies better..that's also why I didn't use the lowcut filter.

 

[Bulls Hit]

I get a pretty crappy dry kick sound, so I tend to eq & compress the bejesus out of it, run a subtle reverb on an aux, copy the track & trigger a sample to get the beater attack I'm missing, then blend all three together to get something 1/2 decent.

It has also improved since I removed the phase issues I had with the OHead

 

[CGibson]

Tune It Up!

My best advice is to start at the source.
If the kick isn't tuned up to record, then all the gear in the world won't bring it back from the dead.
Listen to some of your local studio's recording and find the kick sound your looking for. Hire the guy that set up the kit to show you how He got that sound from the kick, or the entire kit for that matter. A hundred bucks and a six pack later and you'll know things He spent most of His life perfecting.

C

 

[TexRoadkill]

One very handy trick is to build a tunnel in front of the kick. You can use another kick drum, couch cushions, heavy blankets etc. Just stick the mic at the end of the tunnel. It gives you a lot more low end if that is needed.

Be sure to invert the phase on your kick mic. Since it is on the other side of the skins it will be out of phase with the overheads. Invert it (if it's inside the kick) and any other mics that are the bottom of the drums.

 

[dejacky]

if it's outside the kick, is it more proper to invert the phase on the kick drum mic? I've found I had to do this sometimes, but it sounded great without it and this new micing method i tried ... great advice on the hiring a pro to show you how it's done .

 

[Bulls Hit]

My kick mic is outside. For me, I had to reverse the phase on the Ohead, as the kick and snare mics were in phase happily together