Secondary kick mic ....

B

Brad Harris

Sophomore
Mar 1, 2011
142
0
0
Stage Left
Well I bought a D6, and hated it. Too woofy in the wrong freq, no real definition, and the diaphram breaks if there is too much spl .... great design criteria for a kick drum right there. Phenominal on guitars when it fits the mix or have a wierd muddy guitar player.

Looking for a secondary mic to reinforce the low end woof and serve as a backup to a Beta 91A for FOH, and carry the kick woof low end in monitors for a song or two until a 57 can be added/issue resolved or repositioned).

I like the Beta 52, have no problems with it aside from having FOH/MON placement issues to what sound to get out of it), but looking for other suggestions (D112s need not apply, D12 can but haven't seen a working one up for grabs in years)

Genres are typically Rock, Country and Pop with most of the weight carried by the 91 (but needs unph in the wedge department without killing drivers and putting amps in clip, while still usable at FOH in the same department)

So what's your suggestion and how do you use it?
 
Re: Secondary kick mic ....

I second the EV 868 I carry two of them and a D6 with the ban im doing now. One 868 goes on Kick, the D6 on the kit floor tom and the 2n 868 on the floor tom down stage.
 
Re: Secondary kick mic ....

Yep, the old D112 is like the 57 for low frequency instruments. Everyone should have at least one in their pack. You may like your D6 better, but if it breaks tell me you couldn't get by with a D112.

Plus they work on so many other sources like bass cabs, gtr cabs, toms, djembe, etc, etc....



And like Milt, I find that the B52 sounds great some of the time, passable most of the time, but horrible about 10-15% of the time. The D112 is the only mic that I've been consistently able to get something good out of it every time. It usually takes more work than "stick it in the hole" though.
 
Re: Secondary kick mic ....

Milt Hathaway said:
Why all of the D112 hate? I've always gotten what I need from the D112. I do greatly dislike the B52 though. A mic designed specifically for low frequencies should never have such a severe 'handling noise' issue.
Click to expand...

D112 inside kick drum=Basketball "sproing" sound in many cases. You see them many places but like a 58, i always find a better choice. Will depend on the drum. This last week was the first time a D6 didn't thrill me, but drum tuning overall was an issue.
 
Re: Secondary kick mic ....

Brad Harris said:
Well I bought a D6, and hated it. Too woofy in the wrong freq, no real definition, and the diaphram breaks if there is too much spl .... great design criteria for a kick drum right there. Phenominal on guitars when it fits the mix or have a wierd muddy guitar player.

Looking for a secondary mic to reinforce the low end woof and serve as a backup to a Beta 91A for FOH, and carry the kick woof low end in monitors for a song or two until a 57 can be added/issue resolved or repositioned).

I like the Beta 52, have no problems with it aside from having FOH/MON placement issues to what sound to get out of it), but looking for other suggestions (D112s need not apply, D12 can but haven't seen a working one up for grabs in years)

Genres are typically Rock, Country and Pop with most of the weight carried by the 91 (but needs unph in the wedge department without killing drivers and putting amps in clip, while still usable at FOH in the same department)

So what's your suggestion and how do you use it?
Click to expand...

This is going to sound weird, but if you replace that B91 with a SM91 and stick whatever in the front hole, 75% of the time you're going to end up JUST using the SM91, and just keeping whatever's up front as a backup.

The idea of "using the hole for lows and the inside for click" turns out to not be such a great approach anyway!
 
Re: Secondary kick mic ....

Evan Kirkendall said:
Sennheiser e902 is a well rounded kick mic. I do like the D6 though. Never had a problem with it being "wooly" and I've only broken 1 in the past 5 years of non stop touring
Evan
Click to expand...

+1 on the e902 .... I've been carrying one since the year they came out, hundreds of gigs and it's still treating me well. At the time I bought it, the D6 was becoming super popular, but never really grew on me quite as much (compared to the 902). Over the years it's been a great mic to carry for me, as most walk-on's I go to will have one or more of the usual suspects on hand (D6, B52, 91, RE20)... so it's nice to have another option in my bag.

I've never had any reason to dislike the D112, it's a useable mic for sure. I also carried a D3400 by AKG until recently, which is a great kick or floor-tom mic that can be had for very little money used. The issue I do have with both of these mics though, is the crap-tastic mounting designs. The D112 is a clumsy mic to get positioned, especially in a (small hole) ported drum, it's just too awkward to get into place with the mounting end and cable exit extending so far out the bottom. The D3400 has an integrated mount, but if you're mounting it on a typical stand, the mount allows the mic to angle from 0deg (horizontal) to 90deg (vertical) pointing towards the ceiling. I used to keep a 6" black gooseneck screwed into mine permanently, just to be able to get it into position.

I do believe that they are re-issuing the original square D12 (AKG) ... which should be interesting to try, if it's not already out there. The e902 won't be leaving my bag anytime soon though.

Steve.
 
Re: Secondary kick mic ....

Brad Harris said:
Well I bought a D6, and hated it. Too woofy in the wrong freq, no real definition, and the diaphram breaks if there is too much spl .... great design criteria for a kick drum right there. Phenominal on guitars when it fits the mix or have a wierd muddy guitar player.

Looking for a secondary mic to reinforce the low end woof and serve as a backup to a Beta 91A for FOH, and carry the kick woof low end in monitors for a song or two until a 57 can be added/issue resolved or repositioned).

I like the Beta 52, have no problems with it aside from having FOH/MON placement issues to what sound to get out of it), but looking for other suggestions (D112s need not apply, D12 can but haven't seen a working one up for grabs in years)

Genres are typically Rock, Country and Pop with most of the weight carried by the 91 (but needs unph in the wedge department without killing drivers and putting amps in clip, while still usable at FOH in the same department)

So what's your suggestion and how do you use it?
Click to expand...


Wow. I really really like the D6. I wonder if you got a bad unit. Was it new or used and have you ever used another one besides that one? I have always been able to get a good sound quickly with a D6 and honestly never needed the Shure 91 that always seems to come with most of the metal bands I have mixed over the last few years. With a good board there has usually been enough EQ to make the "click" into an ice pick if you wanted to without an additional mic.

As far as using it I usually pull out 12+db (most of the time a full counterclockwise 15db+ cut) of the low mid centered somewhere around 240hz and sometimes as high as 400hz depending on the sound and tuning of the drum, EQ, and PA. If you center to low you will pull out some of the meat and if you center too high you won't get all of the mud and flop out. Maybe a little boost on the low shelf but usually not. If a little more click is needed a boost centered between 6-8k and/or some high shelf as needed usually does the trick. Try adding the high shelf first for the type of music you are doing. Sometimes I will pull out most of the high mid EQ with the center turned as far left as it will go (usually down around 500hz) as well as the low mid cut and some high shelf boost if the drum sounds particularly bad. What you are listening for with the cuts as you move the center frequencys around is getting rid of that mud in the 200hz range and getting rid of that paper sound in the 500hz+ range that clouds up the midrange of your mix. The EQ cuts are pretty extreme but that might be why I have never noticed a "woofy" or "wooly" sound.

Coming from the recording studio I am a "Put the right mic in the right place and use no or very very little EQ" kind of guy. The exception to this is the drum kit. With live sound there is so much garbage coming from the drum mics that I would venture to say over half of the clarity of your mix will come from what is taken out of those inputs. I always pull out ALL of the low mid EQ centered 400-450hz on the toms and usually some 400hz on the snare. There is nothing coming through those mics in that range that is your friend in IMHO.
 
Top Bottom