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Best Kick Drum Mic?
Ken Udell:
I am surprised that people are listing such cheap mics as "The Best" kick drum mic. I mean, the D112 is quick and dirty and all but... the best?!
Personally, If I had to choose just one I'd have to go with the Lewitt DTP640-REX. It has two phase-aligned mic elements: a dynamic and a condenser.
"The dynamic side ensures accurate attack reproduction of the kick drum, while the condenser element captures the drum's low end. Each element has a dedicated output."
So it takes up two channels and also costs over $300, but then quality usually comes at a higher expense.
(Lewitt's cheaper mic, the DTP340-REX, is just a dynamic and not nearly as good but priced appropriately)
Alex Cheng:
--- Quote from: Ken Udell on March 30, 2021, 12:16:46 AM ---I am surprised that people are listing such cheap mics as "The Best" kick drum mic. I mean, the D112 is quick and dirty and all but... the best?!
--- End quote ---
"Best" does not necessarily imply "best sound" - often, durability, reliability, practicality, and rider-friendliness are also at play. The universal "best" mic would fulfill all of them at once, but I'm not sure that mic exists...yet :)
Personally, if I've only got one mic to work with and no time to prepare, it's an Audix D6: rugged, consistent, predictable, and sounds good. I've heard drum/mic combos I've liked better, but the D6 is a safe bet in most situations. It'll make a good kick sound good and a crappy kick sound...workable, usually. Quick it may be, but dirty it is not.
Debbie Dunkley:
--- Quote from: Alex Cheng on March 30, 2021, 04:38:39 PM ---
Personally, if I've only got one mic to work with and no time to prepare, it's an Audix D6: rugged, consistent, predictable, and sounds good. I've heard drum/mic combos I've liked better, but the D6 is a safe bet in most situations. It'll make a good kick sound good and a crappy kick sound...workable, usually. Quick it may be, but dirty it is not.
--- End quote ---
I agree 100%. I too can probably get better results from other kk drum mics - the B52 for example - given time to tweak both EQ, drum tuning etc. But for fast and almost guaranteed good results - I choose the D6 too.
Chris Grimshaw:
I usually put a competent neutral LDC at the port and go to the desk to tweak the sound. The pre-EQ'd mics are often one-trick ponies in my experience - kinda like having a sampling machine with only one sample.
Since I work(ed) with a large range of musical styles, I need a mic that'll make sure a jazz kick sounds like jazz, and a metal kick sounds like metal. The pre-contoured mics rarely achieve that in my experience, so I prefer to roll my own EQ as/when I think it's needed.
Chris
Debbie Dunkley:
--- Quote from: Chris Grimshaw on April 01, 2021, 02:43:36 AM ---I usually put a competent neutral LDC at the port and go to the desk to tweak the sound. The pre-EQ'd mics are often one-trick ponies in my experience - kinda like having a sampling machine with only one sample.
Since I work(ed) with a large range of musical styles, I need a mic that'll make sure a jazz kick sounds like jazz, and a metal kick sounds like metal. The pre-contoured mics rarely achieve that in my experience, so I prefer to roll my own EQ as/when I think it's needed.
Chris
--- End quote ---
I should have added.....
Sadly in my experience, there are not enough drummers who can tune a kick drum on the 'weekend Warrior' circuit. With a decent sounding drum to start with, it is pretty quick and straightforward to get any mic dialed in but when dealing with an inferior tone along with being given very little time to tweak to help matters, sometimes short cuts can be very handy and I'd suppose I'd call the D6 a short cut.
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