Make your own Bass drum mic?!

[Deege]

I am going to purchase a bass drum mic soon, probably a Shure PG52 (is that a good mic for recording? I use Cool Edit Pro and have a Terratec EWS88MT soundcard that I will be plugging mics/instruments into...)....
but I came across this on the internet.
http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/cheapmic.html
I seriously wonder how this sounds. I'm assuming it's probably not great, but has anyone seriously tried this? Any sound samples? I'm seriously interested on how this sounds...LOL

 

[Deege]

....

Also, how big of a difference is there between the Shure Beta 52 and the Shure PG52? I am leaning to get the PG52 because it's much less expensive...

 

[knowdoubt]

It can be done. I've been using a bass drum mic for a couple of years that I made from a headphone driver. Total cost was about $13. It competes well with kick drum mics in the $100 to $200 range but to achieve this took a bit of understanding of the physics involved in how a dynamic mic works. Achieving a good sounding cardioid response was a bit of a chalenge & took some know how. Good driver with a proper impedance was also important. I keep meaning to get around to writing up a detailed how to on this & posting it for others but just never seem to get around to it. The devil is always in the details. There are several weaknesses in the simple construction article you linked to that would likely lead to less than impressive results but in basic concept it would yield a working mic.

 

[chessrock]

I remember all those ads in the back of comic books that said "Build Your Own Space Shuttle" for $13 plus tax.

Never did try it though, so I guess I can't knock it.

 

[Whoopysnorp]

I actually made one of these, but I haven't tried it since I got my kick sounding good. Maybe I'll whip it out one of these days and do a test.

 

[knowdoubt]

Hey Whoop.. how's it goin'? Kinda like dejavu huh?

 

[knowdoubt]

I remember all those ads in the back of comic books that said "Build Your Own Space Shuttle" for $13 plus tax.

Never did try it though, so I guess I can't knock it.

'X-RAY GLASSESS' ... Yeh baby! That's the one that always tempted me.

 

[Whoopysnorp]

Hey Whoop.. how's it goin'? Kinda like dejavu huh?

You got it, man. For the benefit of the audience, let me point out that knowdoubt was the guy who told me how to make this mic.