One thing that wasn't mentioned that can play just as big of a role in mic choice/placement is playing with or without burying the beater. Burying the beater cuts the note short and more free of sustain (like palm muting a guitar), while not burying the beater yields a much more solid, "thunderous" low end. So definitely pay attention to how the player is using his pedals and ask yourself "is this person burying the beater? and which mic should I use to compensate for whether they are or are not". For instance, if they bury the beater, you may want the beta 52 or D6 because it'll help make up for the lack of low end. But if they don't bury the beater, you'll already have plenty of low end and the beta 91 will retain that while adding that clicky attack. Maybe pair it with something with less click like a D112 or RE20 as an out mic for a kick that sounds thick, full and has plenty of top end click with low end punch that hits your chest.
I have AKG D112s built in to both of my bass drums (via the old Randall May internal miking system) and in both cases I have them in the lower center of the the drum, just barely above the dampening pillow and with the back of the mic almost touching the front (resonant) head. That mic has a reputation of being rather "clicky" and I don't really like that sound for what I do musically. But dropping the mic position down a little from where the beater strikes lessened that effect just enough while still giving me a ton of low end. Ironically the reason that I mounted them this way was because I was randomly reading the book that came with the D112 and there is an illustration that shows that exact placement. I'm glad I read the instructions for once!
Great video - can't wait for the rest of the series! It would have been nice to see you hit the bass drum harder but, all in all, it demonstrates each microphone nicely.
After years of chasing tone I found placing the mic on the outside of the beater head facing where the kick impacts the bass drum, great tone! but thanks for the vid! they are informative and easy to interpret!
Are you keeping the front skin off during tracking or just positioning the mic through the port hole? Also, what mic stand do you find is the easiest adjust when going through the hole? Would be cool to include this in a future video. Keep up the great work.
Hey abel, what's your mic setup (especially for kick)? Any particular mixing plugin you guys are using? We are witnessing and hearing one of the best drum sound without even us realizing.
I use 4 mics on my kick, but my mounted Beta 91 is about 70% of my kick sound. And it's so convenient for live playing because when you have it mounted in the shell, you get repeatable, great results.
Although I don't disagree with your suggestions, it might be helpful to demonstrate how you'd mic a bass drum with both heads intact. There's a reason that drums have two heads, and I prefer this Bonham type boom. I used to get get pretty tired of sound engineers muting the crap out of my kit. I want the clang in my snare drum and the boom in my bass drum. Just saying.
2 года назад
Great comparison, thanks! Do you think leaving the resonant head off makes a great difference? Glad to see Josh using hearing protection during the test, it's hugely important but unfortunately overlooked most of the time.
B52 was my favourite, wasn't so keen on the RE20. What do you recommend for live mic placement when the kick doesn't have a hole and the drummer wont take the skin off? Mostly work with rock/indie bands
If it's less aggressive rock/indie music where you don't NEED a ton of attack from the kick, then you'll usually be fine just putting a mic on the reso head. Making sure to roll off the low end around 50/60hz, cut out around 300 - 500 depending on need. If you want to add attack, then put a light bump in the 4-5k. Don't go too aggressive with this or you risk getting too much bleed from the rest of the kit. If you have the mics/inputs available, you can mic the batter side of the kick drum as well. You can sneak a 57 (or something similar) around the kick and point it toward the beater, then blend the 2. Make sure to check for phase alignment with that of course. If you can't add the mic to the front of the batter side of the kick, but still need more attack, try having the drummer tune the reso head up a little bit, this'll give the you more usable frequencies to work with to find one that cuts through. Again, the typical roll off of sub frequencies below 50 or 60 is helpful, and a cut around 300 - 500 to taste, but with the reso head tuned up that cut of the mids will almost feel like there's a boost to the attack by focusing out unpleasant sounds. Still need more attack, then just mic the batter side of the kick, and don't bother putting a mic on the reso side. It's uncommon, but dangit, it works. You'll need to get creative with the EQ through, because you'll have A LOT of attack to work with. haha.
@@patrickfouhy9102 legend, thanks for this. I did try this once with great results then every time I've tried since it hasn't been as successful. Could have been phase cancellation or just bad mic placement but I'll definitely give it another go. Cheers
@@Furoraband Okay, so I got to thinking about this even more and I went to my studio and started messing around with exploring new ways to mic a kick. My main kick has a non ported reso head because I have a D6 mounted inside. So I did some experimenting, and I think this'll help you. For this, I didn't use the internal mic, just mics on the outside of the drum. First thing, forget about putting a mic on the head of the drum, it sounds crazy I know, instead put the mic pointing directly at the hoop. To understand what I'm saying, imagine you're standing in front of the kick drum, you point the mic directly down toward the floor, but position it so it's essentially pointing at the hoop of the drum about an inch away. Rotate the mic around the drum as needed to fit around the other drums, I found that putting it at 12:00, or 9:00 or 3:00 tended to help the most with bleed, but keep the mic facing the hoop and about an inch away. To put it another way, make the mic perpendicular to the drum, and pointed toward the hoop. Do a mid scoop around 350 - 500 hz, and bingo, you got a full kick sound with plenty of attack, no "basketball" sound of an internal mic to worry about, no papery "woof" of a reso head mic. If you need more low end, put a bump around 60hz or so. I tried this with a large diaphragm condenser (AKG 214) and Audix D6, and an SM57. All sounded great. The D6 required the least amount of EQ, for obvious reasons. Now here's the fun part, if you want more attack, mic the batter side hoop. If you want more body, mic the reso side hoop. If you have the means, mic them both, it sounds fantastic. (You will need to flip the phase of one of the them if you use 2 mics) I've got a drummer coming in for a session this weekend, I'm going to give it a try and see how it works in a "real" setting.
I actually think uncut reso heads have more punch. Hopefully the drum is dampened properly for the genre. I feel like the uncut reso is moving just like the diaphragm of a dynamic mic and translates a nice sound pressure wave directly into it.
Clutch. Just got my first set of mics for my drums. Oktava MK 12 for overhead and two Shure 57s, one for bass drum and one for snare. How are 57s for the bass drum? One day I’ll prob upgrade to a more kick specific mic but for now hopefully it works
great video and content. but i cant help but laugh. these videos give me the vibes of the science vids we’d watch in elementary school on vhs. educational but also very 90s. 😂
I don't understand how he can say he uses an RE20 for country bass drum. In my 40 years of life I've never thought "wow, that sounds like a country music bass drum". Nor have I ever heard a bass drum and said, "I don't think I would use this bass drum for country music". And the same holds true with microphones. I think this guy is all lip service. I can make every one of those mics sound identical at the desk.
For making samples this is great! For a realistic application though....probably not so much. Some of these mic's don't play well with bleed or with other mics in the way that they're used. Also, let's be honest. If you're using these mics direct into an interface you're probably sample replacing anyways
I always make samples from the session. But I never replace the tracks, I only augment them. Just gate your close mics and blend with the samples. I usually use the samples to boost high end when the real one has too much bleed.
No man... I'm not into this style of mic placement. Bass drums are really difficult to mic, and conventional techniques have never done it for me. These days I get all the low end out of the overheads and room mics, a close mic is just there as insurance / a trigger gate / source of some midrange thump.
