Kick Drum Chain

HI All I have been doing a ton if drums lately, realized that maybe someone out there is doing something differently to get that nice kick sound. I have done the following in an insert gate EQ Comp or EQ Gate comp but recently, I did comp gate; and whoa, no need to eq it for some reason. Any thoughts or different routines? thanks

I have battled getting a good kick drum sound... the best solution I have found is to use multiple mics. Right now I have a D112 just inside and just off center of the drum, a Rode NT1 (old one) outside and in front and a rewired 12" speaker in front as well... The most important thing is placement. If it doesn't sound good dry, try moving the mic around first.

So no EQ or gate? I find that I get a lot of leakage with the d112 inside. The drummer is not hitting the kick hard enough to get above the noise floor of all drum kit noise. That's why I use a gate, but sometimes I get some ride cymbal opening the gate and that's totally annoying.

Try triggering your kick gate like this: Send the kick to an aux track. EQ the aux track so it is only low frequencies getting through... boost the crap out of them. Send this aux track back to the gate as a key input and make sure the key is turned on (orange). This should effectively trigger just the bass drum regardless of EQ pre/post the gate on your kick audio track. EQ and gate as much as you like, but I've found that the biggest difference is having another mic to deepen the sound. Good luck.

Arrrrgghhhh! It always frustrates me when someone asks about drum sounds, and only uses the words "good" and "bad"! If you'd be more descriptive, we'd be of more help to you! But I digress. I was recently in a studio as a drummer and not an engineer, and they used a D112 inside a 20 inch DW bass drum. The mic was positioned very close to the batter head, tilted up and slightly sideways, but aimed right at the beater's contact point. The kick drum was stuffed halfway full of pillows and foam, which laid up against the insides of both drum heads. The batter head was a clear Remo "Powerstroke 3", and the front head was a single-ply Remo with a 5 inch mic hole at the 4 o'clock position. Both heads were tuned rather loosely, but without wrinkles. A Remo "falam slam" patch was used on the batter head. The bass drum beater was hard felt. I played the drum a hard as I could, burying the beater into the head. When I asked the engineer how he EQ'd it, he said: "the usual dip around 400 Hz and boost around 6 kHz. Small boost on the low end." No gate or comp. He later compressed the kick and snare together lightly with an 1176, and then again with an LA-3A. Hope this helps.

i use beyerdynamics opus65 for a kick and then strip silence function for gating. after that, i usually don't comp at all and only have to bell-boost 4kHz and shelf-boost 50Hz.

[QUOTE] I have battled getting a good kick drum sound... the best solution I have found is to use multiple mics. Right now I have a D112 just inside and just off center of the drum, a Rode NT1 (old one) outside and in front and a rewired 12" speaker in front as well... How exactly do you use the 12 inch speaker ? Thanks Ray

[QUOTE] [QUOTE] I have battled getting a good kick drum sound... the best solution I have found is to use multiple mics. Right now I have a D112 just inside and just off center of the drum, a Rode NT1 (old one) outside and in front and a rewired 12" speaker in front as well... How exactly do you use the 12 inch speaker ? Thanks Ray [/quote Anybody know how to do this with the speaker, and is it worth it? Ray