KICK DRUM
There are three ways of setting up a kick drum
Front and rear skins on.
Front skin with rear skin with hole in it
Front skin only.
These three set-ups create three differing sounds. First you must tune the kick as per the
directions in the t u n i n g d r u m s page.
The first setup with both skins is a thick, solid, round sound with a decay as the drum decays. I
believe the best way to mike up this setup is to use two mikes. One over the pedal and one at
the other end like this.
This setup allows you to balance the attack sound of the beater with the decay of the front skin.
This miking setup also brings up and important factor in recording:
Microphone Phase Relationships
So which mike should you phase reverse??. If you look at the microphone over the beater it is
pointing downwards like all the other microphones on the kit will do whereas the microphone on
the front skin of the kick drum is facing the opposite way. Therefore the front skin mike should
have the phase reversal. As you can see it is a good idea to reverse the phase of your kick mike
even when you are not using two of them as the normal kick mike setup places the kick mike
out of phase to the rest of the kit mikes.
Similarly, when we get into miking toms and snares top and bottom the bottom mike will
require a phase reversal.
The next setup is where the kick drum has a front skin on with a hole in it. Because of the hole
you can access the front skin - thus the attack sound - without having to use a beater mike.
Here the mike is placed inside the drum pointing to where the beater hits so as to get the full
impact of the beater. Note that the mike is still out of phase to all the downward facing mikes
on the kit so a phase reversal is preferred. The mike is also placed off centre within the shell.
Another factor effecting the kick sound is the beater the drummer uses. Beaters vary from soft
to hard. Hard beaters (usually wood) have more impact sound than the softer beaters.
Experiment with each and you will hear the difference. How close to the centre of the skin the
beater is placed also varies the sound. Similarly the size of the drum sticks the drummer uses
will also effect the sound - thin sticks aren't going to go boof! no matter how much you EQ
them.