Speaker as a mic

[dintymoore]

Years ago in Mix magazine I read that people were using speakers for mics. One guy had a NS-10M woofer mounted in a snare drum stand that he was using as a mic. You just run the 2 wires from the speaker into a mic pre.

I don't know if you've ever plugged headphones into the input of a guitar amp and talked through them, but they work as a mic... not a good one mind you. And when I was a kid I plugged the mic of a cassette deck into the headphone out and that worked as a speaker.

The Mix article wasn't bozos talking, it was serious track record engineers. They were using woofer speakers to mic low stuff like bass amps and kick drums; they said it picked up the low end that mics couldn't.

Just wondering if anybody had tried this.

 

[dastrick]

I haven't tried it, but it's pretty common on kick drums. Yamaha makes one called a SubKick. http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-SubKick-LowFrequency-Capture-Device?sku=444623

 

[1sttake studio]

i have never done this my self, but when i was studying live sound, one of my lecturers showed us that it can be done! He is a top ranked live engineer in South Africa, being the first South African to be qualified with pro tools V210, which is a certified opperator of the digi design venue consol.

 

[Dani Pace]

I've used a 12" speaker on kick drum, reversed the leads and it worked pretty good. Haven't tried it for anything else.

 

[TeyshaBlue]

Never tried it, but I would expect the sensitivity to be a real problem. A woofer represents alot of mass that would need to be moved to create a signal at the posts. There's a reason mic diaphragms are thin and low mass.

 

[Seafroggys]

I'm gonna try it with my 12" home brewed cab. I'll have to make a new cable though, with an XLR end. I'm pretty sure I'd have to reverse the ends.

Anyway, its designed to pick up really low end stuff.

 

[dintymoore]

Seafroggys and Dani Pace: what's the deal with reversing the leads?

You could just try a speaker and hook it up with alligator clip jumpers. And you don't need a speaker cabinet, just mount a woofer in a snare drum stand and tilt it 90˚.

 

[mattdee1]

I played a live show recently where the sound was being handled by a crew of college kids as a practical exercise for some club or course. They started setting up some goofy looking thing in front of the kick drum, and I had no idea what it was at the time, but it turned out to be a SubKick. I thought it sounded very cool, both through the PA and on the recording that was made through the board. Definitely fattened up the bottom end.

 

[dodgeaspen]

Check this link starting at post #7 I've asked Dogbreath to explain some things to me and he replied with more info. I have all the items needed except a attenuator that is about $20.00
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=277728

 

[Dani Pace]

Seafroggys and Dani Pace: what's the deal with reversing the leads?

You could just try a speaker and hook it up with alligator clip jumpers. And you don't need a speaker cabinet, just mount a woofer in a snare drum stand and tilt it 90˚.

It seemed like I was getting some sort of out of phase thing, kinda like i had some tremelo or something going. After I reversed the leads the wavering went away and I got a clean deep bottom end signal, which is what I wanted.

 

[I Got Riffs]

I've also played around with headphones and other speakers this way since I was a kid. Definately something to play around with.

Also, it would make for a great "hidden" mic if you wanted to record something in a sneaky way. Nobody would suspect the stereo speakers were recording them.

 

[Victory Pete]

I tried that out of curiosity 15 years ago. I put a marshall 4x12 cabinet wired to an XLR cable in front of an Ampeg Bass cabinet. It did work but didnt sound as good as other methods.
VP

 

[dintymoore]

That post by Dogbreath is exactly it! I'm not sure you'd need the $20 attenuator, I imagine it would depend on your system. The dog seemed to like it tho.

My take on this is that it would be used to augment a regular mic, not replace it. I wouldn't expect a woofer's output to be anything but low, low end, and I'd imagine you'd want a regular mic on a kick or bass cab as well to capture the rest of the sound.

 

[michaelst]

Geoff Emrick did that with some Beatles recordings back in 1967-68. It worked well for them.

 

[Dogbreath]

Yup...you got it.

I use the sub kick with a beta 52. I (usually) bring the 52 in a little closer to get a bit more click and have the subkick round out the bottom.

And yeah...the wire reversal is for the phase issues. The inline attenuator (pad) is a must. The signal coming from the movement of the speaker is HOT. Ya gotta tame it before it gets to your pre.

It doesn't always get used in a song but it's nice to have it there if I want it.


Peace...Kel

 

[Seafroggys]

o rly?

I was under the impression that a speaker's output would be lower than a mic's.

 

[koppelalex]

I was interested in the yamaha subkick so I made one of my own. Turns out it was a pretty awesome microphone for the kick drum. It really adds a lot of beef to it without having to really EQ more bass out of it.

I used a 12" speaker (from an old PA system I had no use for any more).

I initially just soldered a cable with a XLR male on the other end straight to the speaker. I tried resting it on sandbags and blankets, but soon realized I couldn't get the speaker to point directly at the kick's skin (since its so back heavy from the magnet). I ended up using an old snare shell that was dented, and mounted it inside of that using a long strip of foam that held it in place. I could then use a snare stand, set up at a 90 degree angle (you have to weigh it down on the other side with a substantial amount of weight so it doesn't tip). I went one step further and drilled a hole out of the shell so I could mount a male XLR jack onto the outside of the shell to make it look neat, and so I can now use any XLR in my studio and don't have dangling cables.

One problem I ran into is that the signal coming out of it is EXTREMELY hot. If you have a pad on your pre's then use that. If not, any audio store will sell pads that are about 3 inches long, and plug straight into the male XLR, with a female XLR on the other end. Super easy.

One more thing to think about is that seeing the microphones "diaphragm" is so large, no high end really gets captured. Just beef. So if you are going to use this system, you really need to think about getting another mic for the inside of the kick drum. PZM mic's are popular for their higher frequency range, and they do a great job of capturing fast transients. But honestly any mic will be better at capturing high end than one with a 12" diaphragm.


In all I probably spent about $30 on this, but I had a lot of the parts already. Building one from scratch will probably run you around $100 (depending on the quality of speaker you buy).

 

[partonkevin]

I once used a pair of headphones as a stereo mic above a drum kit. It worked. And I hooked up a 15" bass cab as a room mic. No high end. I think the original use was to take a similar bass cab and place it face to face with the amp. An old school bass sound without all the highs.