Kick Mic

[Chuck78]

Has anyone made something like the Yamaha SKRM-100 mic?? If so how did it turn out and sound.

 

[pucho812]

The sub kick? I made something like it. IMO It's basicly a speaker wired to an XLR. Yamaha just puts it in a nice box. People have been doing it for years with the NS-10. Anyway I took an old EV near field speaker box(Freebie from work) removed the blown tweek and woof and wired in a kevlar woof. The output is lil low but it sounds tight. I have been pleased with the sound.

 

[pucho812]

I wired up mine in a balanced(XLR) to un balanced.. Pin 2 of the XLR to the hot of the unblanced then combine pin 3 and 1 together to the ground.

 

[Chuck78]

Thanks puncho. My next question then is does the frequency pick up change with the size of the woofer? I would think to be yes but not sure.

 

[zebra50]

Yes - the frequency responce will be individual to the speaker you pick - not just size, although that will play a role.

Go do some experiments - you can use guitar speakers, bass cabs - pretty much anything!

 

[jensenmann]

Hey, nice idea!!!
I will check this with my Tannoy FSMs :grin:
cheers
Jens

 

[pucho812]

Go do some experiments - you can use guitar speakers, bass cabs - pretty much anything!

You can even do a guitar pickup. The STP song on their first album that goes "I am smelling like a rose..." In the begining vthe first vocal b4 the song was done through a guitar pickup. It was held in front of the singer and plug into a mic pre.

 

[Samuel Groner]

I just finished this "Woofer Mic" last week and tried it in the last session; pics and audio samples [removed].

I used an unbranded 12" guitar speaker I got for free. It spites out insane levels - peaks go to more than +20 dBu on bass drum.

I wired it between pin 2 and 3.

Samuel

 

[Ptownkid]

I used a 500w subwoofer and it sounds freaskin' amazing..

 

[zebra50]

[quote author="pucho812"]You can even do a guitar pickup. The STP song on their first album that goes "I am smelling like a rose..." In the begining vthe first vocal b4 the song was done through a guitar pickup. It was held in front of the singer and plug into a mic pre.[/quote]

Pucho, this is a great trick. I saw the singer from the Sigur Ros do this live with a les paul and marshall - totally amazing sound. I've used it a few times since for distorted vox and ambient 'verb sounds. Very cool indeed. Even used it to record another guitar....

:thumb:

Stewart

 

[aurt]

I've been doing this sort of thing for some time now. I was introduced to it by an engineer who toted an 18" folded horn sub with him session to session and butted it right up to the kick. Plenty of woof there. I've gone so far as to mic up an empty Rolling Rock longneck case with a beater in it using an Auratone. My current favorite is a 12" taken out of a JBL LSR32. Nice low fs, surprizingly light, works for me. I wire them to 1/4" and go into a DI.

 

[pucho812]

I have done the guitar thing alot, the headphone thing a few times and lately all I been doing with my kicks is a re 20 and my subkick. Nothing beats the look on the musicians face when they see the mic I pull out because it is in a speaker box :twisted: Very cool.. As for the speaker itself if my memory serves me correctly it is

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=297-445
looks right have to check the part number when I get in. It definately sounds tight and cool.

 

[Moby]

The output is lil low but it sounds tight

I wounded nice small transformer 50-250 ohm, with range of 2-4000hz +/- 0.5 db for that purpose. Do i have to tell you how sounds in front of ayotte bass drum :green: But have to experiment with speakers...

 

[aurt]

What I've been wanting to do for a while now is find a 22" or whatever speaker and kick drum, and use the speaker as the rear head. I would think you could get some push out of that.

 

[Moby]

22" or whatever speaker and kick drum

I'm not sure that 22inch speaker can do much in this "reverse mode". Think about membrane weight :roll: I made est results with some paper 8inch drivers. But, why not to try with something larger... :wink:

 

[tubejay]

I used to use a big 12" B&W woofer for that purpose at the studio I used to work at. I know that the tech put a transformer in line with it, which seemed to help with noise and levels. It spit out super low 200Hz and below stuff that was THICK and nice sounding. It actually sounded great with a DI, because it had the stuff most DI's are missing.

It's a good trick if you can get it to work right. I've never tried it with an NS10...

 

[strangeandbouncy]

A drummer i worked with last year had this thing that looked like a roto-tom and had an 8" speaker free-mounted in it. Now i can imagine that you could possibly get a reasonable response from a properly mounted driver in a well tuned appropriate chamber, but this thing was the worst thing i have ever heard! it just went "FFuuuGH" about 100 ms AFTER the impact! SOOO SLOOOOWWWWW!

I am still a believer in the staggering rise time of a Neumann fet U47 capsule(or Gefell UM70) Consider the mass of the diaphragm in a condensor to the fibre/kevlar/whatever cone of even a small bass driver. I like my Kick drum signal to arrive on time!

Having said that, i will be playing with an NS10 on my next drum session, since i can't believe that you guys could be that far off da mark! I love the concept - free drum mic!

Andy P

 

[Moby]

it just went "FFuuuGH" about 100 ms AFTER the impact! SOOO SLOOOOWWWWW!

That's what i'm talking about. You must experiment with lot of drivers. I found best result with lightweight membrane speakers. NS10? Why not :green:

 

[jho-audio]

I love the sound of a dictaphone playing through a guitar pickup. Gritty and lo-fi. Sample your favourite movies or record a peice of your song on cassette and away you go.

 

[pucho812]

I know that the tech put a transformer in line with it, which seemed to help with noise and levels

:thumb:

I never thought of a trafo inbetween. hmmmmmmm you know mine is not noisy just quit which I usually fix with lots of makeup gain and light compression. I also wired up a couple of 1 inch tweeters for S & G(tech term Ak.A. ***** and giggles) I have yet to use them.