Kick sound distorted

  • Thread starter Thread starter TamaSabian
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TamaSabian

TamaSabian

Peruvian skin beater
Hi, I´m having some troubles with kick micing, don´t know why but the sound is distorted. Do you think it could be the batter head??. It is a Powerstroke 3, it came with the kit when I bought it (mid 98' :eek: ), never replaced it.
Maybe is my "homemade" XLR cable, don´t know. I´ve placed the mic inside the kick close to batter head, 2" inside the hole, over the pillow, and the only thing I get is a distorted sound. But when I place the mic (PRO25) 2-3" far from the hole everything goes well, no distorted sound.

Please help me!
 
sounds like youre overdriving the mic to me, whats wrong with leaving it 2-3" from the hole? maybe try half way in between the distorted spot and the clean spot, unless your drum distorts on its own, (not mic'ed) i doubt its the drumhead...maybe switch to a softer beater...
hope this helps
 
If you're recording in digital, you could be clipping. Try some compression maybe or turning the gain on your mic pre's down a bit.

May want to make sure that the mic head isn't actually touching the inside of the drum also.

Just some suggestions. Hope it helps.

God Bless!
 
Thanxs Jesus and Rythm. I´m sure there´s no clipping, maybe I need more mileage and know how to use my new Delta1010lt, I´ve had some problems with the input signal, but I´m learning how to avoid it. Believe me no clipping at all, the input signal is under control in this case.
If I mention something about my XLR cable is because I´ve used it twice with different mics trying to mic the kick and I get a distorted sound. But the first time I recorded my kit with 3 mics using a standard Shure mic for the kick and a different cable things worked out, I didn´t like the kick sound either but I was sure that things should change using a kick mic. Right now I don´t know exactly how to solve this problem.

Rythm: the wrong thing about the 2-3" far from the hole is that I get less definition, I like this kinda "thud" sound. I have pulled out the third pillow.....yeah I placed 3 pillows inside my kick. Looks a lot of muffling, don´t you think??.
 
well, thats a tough one...
I would just experiment with placement then...try a different cable, cant hurt...if you like the sound of the kick alone i would leave the pillows...try to get as close as you can to the "thud" you want with out distorting, you can always EQ later, but you cant remove distortion later...just takes time and patience :-)
let us know how it goes
 
If you're really looking for a "thud" sound, you could always just take the mic out of the kit, hold it in your hand and hit the screen on the mic... :)

Good luck figureing it out.
 
Still sounds like you are are overdriving the mic. Try moving farther back in the kick. Try a different mic. You may be exceeding the low end of the mics spectrum.
 
try using another cable.....it sounds like u think that's the problem.

and take the pillows out and learn to tune the drum so it sounds good.......you shouldn't need a pillow in there....if tuned right, the drum will sound better without the pillow........but one small pillow in the middle of the drum not touching either head can be all right.

by putting all those pillows in there, ur losing a lot of sound and making the bass drum harder to hear in the song.

try tuning the beater head looser.......i think that's the side that will make the drum more dead or more resonant but i don't remember for sure........but you should be able to get a better sound that you like more by learning how to tune.

i realise i answered a question you didn't ask and i apologize for that, but it really makes me sad when a drummer brings in a set of drums and the bass drum is packed with pillows......it's impossible to get a good sound from that.
 
Ouch. The last one hurts, cause I´m a drummer.
I think you´re right donkeystyle, need to try another cable, tune my BD the best I can, taking off the remaining pillows. Gotta a lot work to do tonight.
Try, try and try until I get it.

Thanxs for all your tips
 
You said you were sure there's no clipping. Are you using a mixer, or the two mic pre-amps on the 1010lt?

For drums I would think you'd be using more than two channels.
 
No mixer for snare and kick. Both mics are plugged to the Delta1010lt XLR ins. The mixer is reserved for two OH.
 
TamaSabian said:
Ouch. The last one hurts, cause I´m a drummer.
I think you´re right donkeystyle, need to try another cable, tune my BD the best I can, taking off the remaining pillows. Gotta a lot work to do tonight.
Try, try and try until I get it.

Thanxs for all your tips
Click to expand...

Don't take it personally - most drummer's don't have too much experience tuning for the mic's....most drummers can't tune their drums anyway. (and I'm a drummer....I can't stand it when I go see my friends play out, and their toms sound like cardboard boxes! Ugh!!)


In the studio, you can do things that wouldn't work live. For example-you could leave wrinkles in the head, pull the pillows, and mic the kick and see what that sounds like.
If you want that death metal sound, it will sound somewhat like that, but with a huge boom along with the slap of the mallet. (that is, if you have a front head and tune it to resonate with the batter)
I love that sound - but can't use it, because when I'm recording-it's always the whole band in 1 room, and the amps cause the resonant head to "rattle"/vibrate.

I would definitely look at the cable - I have pro25's for my toms, and have had no problems with mine....and I have used them in the kicks as well.


Tim
 
Well it´s 2:00 am in the and I have finished all the tests I could do. First of all, it wasn´t the cable. I´d tune my kick again, pull off 1 pillow and place the PRO25 2" far from the resonant head. I have to find the better place and put the mic over there. Can´t wait to do the "match test", I mean light a match put it in front of the resonant head while somebody play quarters on the kick, I have to move the match and find the zone where the air that comes out from de BD light it out. I´ll perform that test tomorrow I´m so tired now :o

Oops I almost forget, I have to set the Delta jumpers again, this attenuates +30db gain by 11 db. Now I realize why I was having troubles with the 1&2 inputs. Kick and snare are very hot signals, I finally controlled them without using my mixer. I don´t have too many inputs you now.
 
Oops I almost forget, I have to set the Delta jumpers again, this attenuates +30db gain by 11 db.
Click to expand...

Yay!

That was going to be my next bit of advice, but you tried it yourself!
 
i had that very problem with a pro25

i had to deal with a pro25 for a while as a kick mic and hated it--it was/is the only rental available in town, so it was that or an sm58, and you take what you can get......

.....what i got was that i couldn't get the pro25 close enough to the batter head of the kick (in order to get that nice beater slap) and not have it distort (clip) on me. you could watch the levels on the board and while the levels on the board stayed happily in the green, you could hear it clip in the phones. the closer i got to the beater head, there it went.....further away from the beater, and it went away. it was the mic that was overdriving in this case--could be the case for you too, as you sound certain all of your levels are ok.

there's no simple answer to this question (well, there is....see #3 below).....but there are a couple simple suggestions/fixes you could try:

1. even though you're sure it's not clipping your input, use a pad and attenuate the signal buy 10 or 20dB. if you don't have one on your mixer or 1010LT, try an inline pad instead (shure makes one for around $40). see what that gets you.

2. don't put the mic so close to the beater head and learn to live with the sound you get with it backed off some.

3. use a different mic.

i went with option #3. i really didn't like the sound of the pro25 when backed away--i prefered it clipping and nasty to what supposedly "sounded good" when backed off the head--sounded like a really dead basketball (and sounded that way on both my late 80's pearl export w/2 heads and mid 60's ludwig with a single coated). i picked up an EV RE38 for cheap used and am glad i don't ever have to worry about using that pro25 ever again.

if you dig the pro25 or it's all you've got (or all you can get), then either employ a pad or be happy with the sound you get with it backed off a bit. for a cheap $50 alternative, you might want to check into the CAD kick mic they have over at musician's fiend--that mic has gotten good marks from some around here (as has the pro25, as surprising as that is to me). and for $150, i really like the sennheiser e602.


wade
 
It's probably clipping. If you don't have one of those beater stickers on the kick drum head, you'll get a nasty click, that might be it too.
 
Oops I almost forget, I have to set the Delta jumpers again, this attenuates +30db gain by 11 db. Now I realize why I was having troubles with the 1&2 inputs. Kick and snare are very hot signals, I finally controlled them without using my mixer. I don´t have too many inputs you now.
Click to expand...

As you can see everything is fine now.
FattMusiek I have one of those "beater stickers" but I didn´t use it. Do you mean that if paste it to the drumhead I´ll get a better click from my kick??. Or I never get a clicking BD sound with a PRO25??
 
That mutes the clickiness somewhat, I think it's a good thing. I have one sticker on my bass head and a double pedal. The left beater sounds so damn clicky, this is my reference.
 
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