Subkick style mike on a bass cab?

[Deluge Of Sound]

Anyone have any experience with it?

For those of you not in the know, this style of micing involves using a 6-8" subwoofer as a microphone. Reportedly, you can get really great lowend response out of 'em, and as I have a couple of those kind of subs sitting around collecting dust, I thought I'd build one or two up, as its a stupidly easy project (connect XLR cable to + and -, add an attenuator, done.)

Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near my home or my rig until midway through next week, and then its just a pit stop before heading back out on the road, so I won't have the time to build one before February.

So has anyone used one of these mics on a bass cab? If so, how'd you feel about it?

 

[sonic assassin]

i made one. works quite well. however, its really useless in a mix. your bass is going to be high passed so the low end doesnt decimate the track. it sounds pretty wild solo'd, just tearing away down to 20hz.. but its not practical.

 

[fokof]

Use a DI + a normal mike instead.

 

[Charling]

I'll sometimes use one, especially in dub, or live drum and bass etc. Anything where the bass dominates the low-low end.

They can sometimes have a use even when low passing in the mix, the can add a smooth shape to the low end of the bass (as in the bass thats let on the track after the high pass) that CAN help if you've got a fairly empty track and that 'area' is going to be noticable.

also I'll keep the low lows in for some hip hop/new rnb or pop tracks, choosing to duck the bass under the kick rather than just carving a space for it with eq's, that can be good.

But really I'll only use one once in a blue moon on bass, and maybe 4 times in a blue moon on kick.

However I REALLY like a crappier speaker (old car speaker or anything really bad) as a crunch mic for drums, they have REAL characters and you can collect a few different ones for next to NO money. You can get just the pole bit of a mic stand (probably a short one) and attach four or more to it, then you have a ready to go crunch box! I'll normally just go through all four and choose one. Crunch mics are an imperfect science, but sometimes one will have a great nasty high mid and one a good sub so then you can use two and have theme relatively phase aligned with no fuss!

Or even a slightly nicer one like a subkick quite far back can get a perspective of the low end of the kit as a whole which you don't get from overheads or close mics. Its is of course a bit tricky to get it perfectly in phase, but with some trial and error and masking tape to mark the floor with positional notes its not too bad! It can really pump up the drums!

 

[basslinejam]

I saw a picture of Phish's Mike Gordon using one to mic his Meyer Sound Cabs. That's all I've got.

 

[sonic assassin]

i can dig up some clips if you're really interested..

 

[Deluge Of Sound]

If its not too much of a pain, that'd be really helpful.

 

[sonic assassin]

here are a couple tracks from a bass session. the amp is a hartke vx3500. bass was a peavey grind 6 string

DI: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8668793

subkick: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8668794

and here are a couple more on its intended purpose, kick drum

sennheiser md421: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8668790

subkick: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8668791

 

[Deluge Of Sound]

Cool, I won't get a chance to listen to them until tomorrow (nothing but laptop speakers 'til I get home), but thanks for putting them up.

 

[Elmo Oxygen]

I did!
Going MXR m-80 > Hartke HA5500 > Hartke aluminum cone 4x10

Recordings here: Link Removed ... I am no longer playing with this project so the pictured (and credited) bassist is not me, but that is me on the recording. If you look at the t-shirts, I also designed those.

 

[Hoover]

I've used the Yamaha SubKick mic on a bass cab a couple times. Yeah it works, it won't kill your children.

 

[lowfreq33]

I've done it. It does give a nice bottom end, but you'll need something else to catch the rest of the spectrum.

 

[pathdoc2]

I don't generally mic bass cabinets rather I usally run the bass direct. I have however used a Yamaha subkick with an upright bass with good results.

 

[fruit&herb man]

(connect XLR cable to + and -, add an attenuator, done.)

What do you mean by attenuator?

I've been thinking about th same lately. My band is going to do some studiowork soon, and want to experiment with this to get a bigger bassdrum sound, and maybe for the bass also.

 

[sonic assassin]

sometimes a home made subkick will put out a signal that is too hot for most preamps. even with the pre all the way down, the signal could be so strong it clips. some preamps have a -20dB switch.

just in case, just like deluge said, i made a -20db adapter. easy build. didnt actually need it. i suppose the speaker i used isnt as sensitive or something.

 

[fruit&herb man]

Can I use a regular DI for this? Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions, but my knowldede of impedance and such is a bit lacking...

 

[MrTAteMyBalls]

i've read of paul mccartney rolling a 2nd bass cab into the front of the "live" bass cab with the 2 facing each other speaker to speaker. then wiring up a cable to plug the 2nd cab direct into the board. anyone else heard of that???

 

[Charling]

Can I use a regular DI for this? Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions, but my knowldede of impedance and such is a bit lacking...

Yeah... probably. Wire a jack to the end of the cable coming off your speaker, into the DI (pad in) and out of the XLR output into a mic pre. I think a speaker used in this context is still considered low impedance so the function of the DI is not really necessary, but it allows you to pad it, and balances it as well.

Shouldn't cause any trouble.

If not you can buy attenuators for peanuts or make one yourself for even less.

 

[sonic assassin]

treat it as a speaker. dont put it through a DI box. put it through the preamp as usual. a attenuator pad will only be needed if the signal is too hot

 

[rty5150]

i have a diy subkick, but it stays on my kick drum. the sub kick i have found, competes too much with the kick drum. a nice DI signal blended with a nice mic'd up cab typically fits well in a mix. if you need more oomph, move the mic around or change the mic pre.

rich