The sound of the kick drum is critical to the overall sound of the drums. Today, you'll learn how you can get a great sound from a kick drum without a hole in the resonance head.
Kick drums usually have two heads; the beater head and the resonance head. The beater head is the drum head that's whacked by the foot pedal beater. The resonance head is the head on the opposite side of the drum (and it might have the name of the band in huge letters).
The problem with using a microphone to capture the sound of the kick drum with a resonance head is when a sound hole is not present.
This hole, typically off-center and about the size of your hand, is where you'd put a kick drum microphone. There are a couple of ways you can use a kick drum microphone inside of the drum but in this case, you're looking at mic'ing the drum without that hole.
The most obvious method is to place the microphone just up to the resonance head as close as possible without getting touched by the drum head when it's played. This method works, but from what I've experienced, it's not enough. You can do better.
So it was this weekend when I was mic'ing a kick drum without the hole in the resonance head. I tried it on the outside, like I just mentioned, but I couldn't get the punch that I liked.
A key to drum mic'ing is using microphone placement before using EQ to get the best sound to start.
Looking for that punch and not finding it on the resonance head, I looked towards the beater head.
By placing a dynamic microphone on a small stand and pointing it towards the beater impact zone, on the side of the drummer, I was able to get the sound off the beater head to get the punch I wanted. Using this method, I knew I had to make sure the drummer didn't kick the mic stand with his foot. Therefore, I tucked it to the inside of the kit just out from where he might whack it with his pedal foot.
Over the weekend, when I mentioned the issue of the resonance head without the sound hole, on twitter, the responses were to the effect of "remove the head" and "cut a hole." Images of a cordless drill with a hole bit did dance in my head, however, I found it better to simply look at the problem, the tools I had available, and see what could be accomplished.
Question(s): What drum mic'ing issues have you had? How did you overcome them?
Jason Gutierrez says
January 8, 2020 at 3:14 pmThx for the info! I recently got a drum kit with the kick drum that sounds absolutely fantastic with no hole so I am extremely reluctant to cut a hole in the head but I have a session in a few days and I’ve been concerned about mic’ing it. However, mic’ing from the batter side makes a lot of sense as we tend to close mic all the other drums from the batter side so why not the kick drum? Let the overheads and room mics capture the rest of the sound. We’ll give it a shot!
Sean Morse says
July 29, 2019 at 10:56 amProblem with micing the beater side is snare bleed into the kick mic. You can probably get away with it live, but in the studio, it usually requires some ugly surgery.
Jason Gutierrez says
January 8, 2020 at 3:17 pmI don’t see how that would really be an issue. The snare bleeds into all mics regardless. All the other close mics are on the batter side. It’s just a matter of balance.
Sean Morse says
January 8, 2020 at 10:20 pmIf you’re going for a more organic feel – jazz, full-range overheads, or heavy room mics, your probably fine. But if you’re looking for a more produced, compressed kick, you’ll struggle with gating the snare out of the kick mic, or high-passing it and losing the beater. You could use a frequency-triggered gate if the drum part is sparse enough, but I like to avoid all that whenever possible.
Tiffany Fahy says
May 3, 2014 at 1:54 amI have to deal with this tomorrow for a teen retreat. My favorite suggestion was from our teen drummer for tomorrow night’s band: duct tape the mic to the drum head.
Praise Drum Charts says
September 11, 2012 at 1:24 pmYou can’t cut the resonant head of a bass drum with a drill and a hole cutter! You’ll shred the head!
Instead, use an Exacto knife or similar razor blade type box cutter and carefully trace around a cylindrical object that’s about 4″ or 5″ inches in diameter. If you put the hole in the center of the head too much air will escape and you’ll defeat the purpose of the reso head (i.e. resonance and tone). Instead, cut if off-center midway up the drum (so the head will vibrate and add tone) for use with a microphone stand or perhaps at the bottom of the head in the center for use with a PZM boundary microphone with the cord running out the hole you just cut. Also, consider reinforcing the head with a plastic ring made for the purpose so that if someone trips over the mic stand they won’t tear the head.
Some resonant heads cost $50 or more so always get the drummer’s permission first. Incidentally, if the drummer is young and inexperienced they may not care about their resonant head though an experienced professional with an unported reso head probably prefers it that way and will not want it ported simply for the sound man’s convenience.
For drummers who want to use a portless head and please their sound man – the May internal miking system for your kick drum with the AVC-1 connector. That’s a clever microphone mount to put a mic inside the drum and has a jack that attaches at the drum’s vent hole allowing you to plug microphone in from outside the shell. This of course also works if the drum has a port and you’re tired of people tearing your resonant head!
PDC