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My drummer is a stubborn dumb dumb - how do mic his kick?

C

c2thej2theizzo

Mar 14, 2011
219
2
Milwaukee, WI
www.milwaukeejam.com
#1
I play reggae and dub and use a 15" quite often. Running Sound is my responsibility. My drummer insists on miking his drum at the sound port. He uses no dampening on either head and no pillow and insists on not putting anything in his kick drum. We often use 18" subs and when we play small to mid sized venues in which my bass and/or subs and monitors are closer than 10' ft away from his kick and all sorts of sound gets in his kick drum and causes low feedback like crazy. Scientific explanations of this simply do not register with him. He insists I am not doing something properly. Is there a process and or microphone that will filter everything but the attack of the kick for just a little $$ ?

:confused:
 
#4
I don't know why so many soundmen believes the Kick Drums sound hole is for inserting the mic. That's just bull..... It's like miking the bass box at the tuning port. You'll get much better results miking the attack of the kickdrum by placing the mic next to the point where kick drums beater head hits the kick drum. And to use a gate of course.
 
#6
TheBass said:
I don't know why so many soundmen believes the Kick Drums sound hole is for inserting the mic. That's just bull..... It's like miking the bass box at the tuning port. You'll get much better results miking the attack of the kickdrum by placing the mic next to the point where kick drums beater head hits the kick drum. And to use a gate of course.
Click to expand...

A bit like miking acoustic guitars; "it's a hole - it MUST be where the sound comes out".
 
#12
staindbass said:
who started porting drumheads anyways? they think its a speaker enclosure lol.
Click to expand...

I resisted putting holes in my audience side head for years and years. I like a big, round tone (think Led Zepplin) and I could get what I wanted that way.

I've switched over because what makes me happy acoustically doesn't work as well with a PA. I put a little damping in now, usually an Evans Kick Pad. I have a mic mounted in the kick (I use May mounts but last time I looked I couldn't get them anymore and the Kelly Shu is readily available). The hole is there primarily so I can get my hand in there and rearrange things that have moved during transit without having to take a head off.

I can get a tone I don't hate and the engineer can work without complaint. They'd usually like it deader and I'd usually like it more live, but there are fewer complaints on both sides and I can usually get sound check over with much quicker this way.

The bottom line, what works for my taste is a nightmare for the sound guy and we all get better results by cooperating.

FWIW, if I were regularly playing reggae my kick would be much more dampened. In general reggae drums don't have much sustain.

geddeeee said:
Use 2 mics... One at the batter head, and one at the port for 'ambience'...
Click to expand...

I tend to think the mic should be in the port, in the drum, not at the port, but perhaps that's what you meant.

KO
 
#13
Unless you guys use in ear monitoring exclusively, some dampening material is going to have to go into that bass drum. Don't get me wrong - I hate the thought of dampening my bass drums. I say let those suckers boom! But when when it comes time to mic into the PA, I have to put something in them (but not as much as a blanket or pillow). Otherwise it becomes a low frequency resonating box for nearby bass amps, monitors, side fills, and potentially the FOH speakers.

Like others have said - You don't have to mic the resonant head port. I like D-112's for the resonant sides and SM57's for the batters. It makes a nice combo for getting the sharp impact and the low thump. If only one mic is available per bass drum, I prefer D-112's at the resonant sides about 2/3'rd of the way to the center of the head. Experiment with mic placement until you find the sound you like best.

In addition to helping with feedback (as others have pointed out), a gate will also help with pedal noise (bearing/spring/chain squeaks) and unintentional beater-to-head bumps that usually go unnoticed during practice.

While on the subject of gating... A snare drum gate dialed up just above the snare buzzing point when playing toms/basses can also go a long way to deepening the sounds of the other drums and cleaning up the overall sound of the drum kit.
 
#16
I'd recommend giving "talk with him" another chance. I think that coming from fellow drummers, Dalahorse's and my post may carry some weight. Less time in sound check means more time to talk to girls.

KO

P.S. Long sound checks are my primary motivation for compromising the sound I prefer. I hate them. In addition, I've worked with a lot of crappy sound guys. I've put a fair amount of money, time and effort into giving the sound guy something he doesn't have to do very much to in order to get a good sound. It achieves both goals - less time mucking around is good for me and if it sounds good to him immediately he isn't likely to mess with it and do a bad job.
 
#17
Stick the usual mic in the port, connected to a bad cable. Put an "ambient" mic on the beater side with a working cable.....it's all in perception....

My drummer uses a dampener but he just doesn't grasp the concept of wedge monitors limited ability to reproduce bass drum. It's always "gimme a little more kick in the monitor"...until the HF horn blows. Then it's "OK! Right there!" LOL. We just give him the monitor with the blown horn now and he's happy as a clam.....
 
#19
With a big ringy kick the converters are likely to false trigger, but I suppose it's worth a try. It brings in a whole computer into the equation though. It's also worth me downloading because I do a reasonable amount of recording and sometimes it's nice to have that option. I've used a cowbell sound (mixed just low enough so you don't hear it as a cowbell) in order to help define a wooly kick sound. The converter I was using had options for which frequency range to trigger on. Messing with the level and frequency tamed it quite nicely, but you probably couldn't do it covertly.

KO
 
#20
Hey c2,

Maybe you should "dampen" hie kick drum!!! Toss it into the lake!!!!!

Seriously, I (and many of my bass playing brothers and sisters) have had issues with other musicoian and FOH people who just don't get the "seperation of frequencies" concept. Just try to tell your keyboardist that his left hand is a bit too heavy.

Usually, a quiet conversation with the person goes a long way to solving any sonic issues.

Later, Kirk

Later, Kirk
 

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