There are 2 ways i've got the really thud + click sound.

#1
> no outside head, use a blanket to make a "kick tunnel"
>kick mic (d112,beta52,d6) on the inside about 3-6" from where the beater hits.
>condenser mic at the end of the tunnel
>mix 2 tracks to taste

#2
>no outside head, use a blanket to make a kick tunnel
>dynamic mic (sm57,sm7,re-20) on the inside about 3-6" from the beater pointing towards the floor tom at about a 30-45 degree angle.
>speaker mic at the end of the tunnel (ns10 speaker or any 12" or smaller speaker wired for 1/4" or xlr...i've used a bass cabinet too)
>get the dynamic to sound good with a good amount of click, and bring in the speaker for the sub bass.

lastly, with both of these, when mixing do a boost at 80hz and 3-5khz, and a healthy cut at 400-500 hz

clicky

Well, there is the legend of putting a penny on your beater to get a high frequency 'tick'... this of course destroys the head but offers really potentially sweet and unique kick tones.

I had luck taking off the kick's rim (like mentioned before), putting in blankets to get the kick 'tight' sounding... and putting the classic AKG D112 on a 45 degree angle about 2 inches from the beater. then another mic around the outer rim of kick (much like you would on a snare... to catch the resonation of the wood). I have used an SM57 and a Sen 421.

you should also try putting a good condensor (i like the AKG C-3000) about 6 feet from your kick and about 2 feet off the ground. it picks up the whole kit pretty well... compress the crap out of that signal and mix it in tastefully for a heavy gritty and incredibly organic sound to your kits mix (helps bring out some good kick tone).

ok, one thing i've discovered about the "click" part of it all, is really in the gating. when i first got logic, i used to set the gate to allow for the whole course of the kick sound to play out before it shut again.. this obviously wasn't right, but i was afraid to lose the beef of the kick. later i found that if you get your stereo pair sounding nice, you can use less level off the kick and simply make the kick gate barely open and shut FAST! then you get a good click/punch. the rest of the sound (decay) will come through better(in my opinion) off the room mics. hope that helps some 8-)

Re: clicky

LeroyGodspeed wrote: Well, there is the legend of putting a penny on your beater to get a high frequency 'tick'... this of course destroys the head but offers really potentially sweet and unique kick tones.

It was a quarter or a half a dollar not a penny... and it works like a charm. You can get this sound with two headed drum by putting a Shure SM-91 inside the drum [running the wire through the air vent hole] and sealing it in there... then tune the drum with the beater side head rather loose [almost flappy] and the outside head fairly tight.

This is a realy easy fix...Have your drummer buy a metal click pad then switch to the plastic side of the beater....works like a charm..or spend some money and trigger the bass drum but I would just say metal pad works very good....Good luck

Personally, I just got a pillow in there, use the plastic part of the beater, on a coated head, EQ with a lot of high and a bit of low. You will be clicking away. I have a cheap kcik mic but it sounds pretty decent.

I only quickly skimmed over the thread, sorry if I'm repeating .....

Mic the kick from both inside the drum and from the "drummer" side of the beater head, pointing the mic away from the floor tom directly at the beater head where the beater hits it. Remember to reverse the phase on that mic. You can hi-pass filter it if you like just to get the click because you'll get the bottom end from the mic inside.

Justathot.

i've never had to mic the outside, and i've gotten everything from metal clickity clickity to nice round pop drum sound.

mic selection and compression are your allies when recording kick. using blankets will help you to get rid of bleed and give you a "thicker" sound when you compress. it's also much easier to get good click when you eq if you aren't bringing cymbal bleed up with the click.

steve

To get a modern style sound, compression and EQ must be heavily abused on the track IMO. Of course, the previous suggestons on kick tuning and "click-i-fying" are also very relevant. Replacing or Augmenting the acoustic sounds with samples is also something you hear everyday on the radio - but I have yet to experiment with this.

Please DON'T shreek at this "semi-pro" suggestion, but try a gate (if needed), followed by a Waves L1 or L2 on the kick track, and smack it pretty good. Then EQ away. Instant "Sampled" sound assuming the track was good. I like a narrow boost at the fundamental (40-55Hz or so - Q of 2.5-1.5), and a fairly narrow boost at 2K-6K for the "Tick". Depending on the mic - your mid scoop will vary drastically - from a gentle dip (on a Beta 52) to quite a bit of "scoop" on "flatter" mics.

I also experimented with using a resonant head mic. I used the inside mic for ~100Hz and above, and added a bandpass filter to the "resonant" head Mic, and set it to ~45-50Hz, and a fairly high Q to boost the fundamental. This essentially made my resonant mic act like the cool "Woofer Mic Trick" w/o a woofer! The Resonant head mic was just the "BOOM", and the batter mic is everything else to make the "Boom" cut through.

:cool:

haha, i've used the L1 from time to time. i treat it like a limiter and use it at the end of the chain, haven't tried eq after limiting with it.

i have the worst time with gates due to leakage, i usually end up hand editting out everything and "manually gating".

i also do a lot of sound replacing for speed, and mix it in with original to get a bigger sound, you have to do a lot of fixing to get phase aligned with SR too, but not as much as hand editing everything.

ok, peace.

steve