Of the mic's I have, which would serve as the best Kick Drum Mic??

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WERNER 1

WERNER 1

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Well over the course of the past three years and through the help of everyone here I've been able to compile a "decent" (IMO) set of mics to get started with.

I'm going to be doing some drum track recordings very soon, and I need to figure out which mic to use for my kick drum. (I ran out of cash :( my plan is to get a Beta 52 or the like when I get a bit more fundage :D )

I have the ability to record up to 6 tracks at a time - Delta 1010, 2 - DMP-3's, and 2- VTB-1's = 6 mic pre's.

I may just stick with a 3 or 4 mic set up though like the techniques that have been covered here on HRBB ;) :cool:

Here's my list of mic's

SP - C1
2 - SP - B1's
SP - B3
Beta 58
Beta 57 (Thinking this may be the best for the kick??)
2 - Senn e 609's (BLackface originals)
2 - sm57's
GLS Audio ES-58
GLS Audio ES-57

I guess if someone wanted to suggest which mic's to use for the other applications as well that would be nice as well ;)

I was thinking along the lines of something like this:

2 - B1's for overheads
Beta 57 for the kick
sm57 or e609 for snare

Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Rick
 
Last edited:
There is no beta 75, throw your 58 in there and see how it sounds
 
Try using your Beta '57' in conjunction with one of your LDCs...with decent mixing, probably won't be too bad.
 
I would throw the beta 58 in there. Its probably the closest element to any kick drum mic but with a boost in the mids. Youll probably have to pull them out. It will also handle the SPL fine. You could try the C1 if you have some way to pad it down about 20db
 
reverse wire an 8" speaker (or whatever size you have laying around near this size) and use it along with a 57 or 58 inside the kick pointing toward the beater. build a kick drum tunnel with a few blankets and a chair in front of the kick, about 3-4 feet deep, and place the homemade "subkick" at the end of the tunnel farthest away from the kick. good thick bass with the subkick, and some nice attack with the 57 or 58 at the beater. good luck!!!

Jacob
 
I guess I'll try out the Beta 57 and 58 and see which one I like the best :)

Thanks,
Rick
 
Do what jacobi1211 suggests. You won't even need to build a tunnel. You can use any speaker bigger than 6" reversewired, cheap or expensive, torn or dented even, and you'll be happy with such a big bottom end you can mix into your kick sound. I use a 12" homemade subkickmic along with various other instrument mics to get many different kick sounds, and I'm happy with the resultant broad palette of sounds that all have big bottom ends.

Of course, some people don't like sounds below 80hz, even in natural doses, but if you do, wiring up your own mic is super easy and adds great versatility to your palette. It will allow you to back off on the other mic without losing the bass end due to the proximity effect and you can use any mic with a high enough spl anywhere on the kick, front or back, at the shell even...

after all, reverse wiring a speaker only costs the price of an old speaker (you probably have one around) and a mic cable.

-e
 
Ok, can someone explain this whole Subkickmic / speaker thing??? I seems like I read a bit about this before on here a while back, but that was before I had a set of drums so I didn't really pay attention :o

Uh, I'm kind of slow too, so if you could... please explain it real slow in very simple terms :D (Or if there is already a thread that details this that would be even better.)

Thanks,
Rick
 
Sod that. Just do what I suggested. You'll get the beater impact from the 57 and the lows from the B3.
 
use the search engine at the top and search for "ideas tricks and magic." under recording techniques i explained this pretty fundamentally. hope this helps!!!

Jacob
 
Thanks guys for all of the replies........I knew I could count on you all to help me out!! :D

I plan on trying all of these suggestions starting with single mic'ing the kick, and then going from there. I'll probably post clips of my findings here in the near future.......gotta have them clips you know! ;)

Rick
 
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