Use-it/Love-it on kick drum for rock/metal applications. Very 'modern' sounding EQ curve with great attack, huge low-end and not much in between. As such, it's a bit of a one-trick-pony, although i've had some luck using it on bass-cabs as well. For the price, it's a good buy.

It's amazing, look at ANY live concert vid most likely you'll see the outside of the beta 52. It's the norm for live concerts and great for studio mic'ing. I've seen it on Bass cabs but it's tailored for kick drums

If I had to, could I get away with using a SM57 on the kick drum? Has anyone used a 57 on a kick and got good results?

Yeah you could do that, but if you really want to put the money into it I would buy the 52. The 52 has a larger diaphragm and can pick up better bass frequencies and the 57 isn't really tailored for a kick but it could work and has worked....though i've only seen it in small studios and on an old cradle of filth album thing

On the matter of the bass kick, and sorry ive im stealing this thread. I just started using me akg d112 which seems to be the main competition with the beta 52. I havn't experimented with it too much but in the short time I had to fool around with it i found that i had better sound facing it backwards into the bass drum. So the silver grill was facing away, it almost looks like you can use it both ways and maybe its supposed to be used both ways. Has anyone tried this and what are their thoughts on this? Or am I just not using this mic right.

YOu're not using this microphone correctly

Haha alright

If it sounds good then you are using the microphone "correctly"

that is no such thing as correctly when playing around with a mic :D

52

I recommend this mic and have had good results in my home studio by using it as follows: fold up a towel and put it in the bass drum just touching the batter head, lay the 52 on top and put it into a compressor, make the drum heads fairly loose...

Music_Junky wrote: If it sounds good then you are using the microphone "correctly"

that is no such thing as correctly when playing around with a mic :D

well he was talking about using the reverse end of the microphone and not getting much sound and he said "maybe he's not using this microphone right"and i agreed

I really don't see how you can put a microphone into a bass drum, regardless of orientation and not get enough sound?? I really don't think that's possible? Actually I like quadrivium's take on what he suggests.

I have often used and mostly use SM57/58's in the bass drum. They sound great! You don't need a large diaphragm for bass drum. Frequently you have to drop a little of the low-end anyhow.

I have all the popular bass drum microphones and I keep going back to the SM57 or, the Sennheiser MD421, which I think blows away most of those crappy large diaphragm dynamics like the AKG D112, including the Electro Voice RE20. Actually, I don't have a Audix D6 nor a Beta 52 but I've used them. They're OK but I like the 421 best.

And I don't like 24 inch bass drums
Ms. Remy Ann David

I stuck a big ol' CAD Equatek E-200 in a kick a few years ago and have been using it ever since. It's a little crazy with the 2 rechargable 9 volt batteries inside but it works well w/My drum.

Kick Drum Recording...

I have many of the mics mentioned for recording kick. The Audix D6, D4, Beta 52, AKG D112, and the 421. I prefer the D112 over the Beta 52 anyday. Not a huge difference in sound, but the presence peak seems to be more accurate for kick. I would also take issue with the fact that the Beta 52 is considered a large diaphram dynamic. Take the grill off of it sometime. You won't find a large diaphram anything! I can understand why there have been comparisons to the 57. The Beta 52's diaphram/capsule look almost identical except that the 52 incorporates some kind of plastic baffle over it. I will say that the 52 is great on floor toms. I usually run the D112 on kick, 52 on floor, 421's on toms, 57 on snare top, 58 on snare bottom (the 1kHz of extended hi freq compared to the 57 helps smooth out the snares), and 2 X SM81's for overheads. I think that the best method for recording kick is the double shell technique. Mic the front of the kick with mic of choice (Beta 52, D112), place an empty kick shell of the same size in front of that, then place a D112 in front of the empty shell. Cover all, especially the seperation between kick and kick shell with soundproofing blankets, and then mix the two mics to taste. The mics can also be repositioned to taste at any point within the kick and shell. As a side note, the Audix mic's seem better suited for live work plus they're rugged as hell. As for the 421, one of the best dynamics ever made. It's hard to go wrong using a 421 on just about anything. But, that one anything may just be kick. The 421's excell at tom's and so many other things that every studio should have at least two!

multoc wrote: [quote=Music_Junky]If it sounds good then you are using the microphone "correctly"

that is no such thing as correctly when playing around with a mic :D

well he was talking about using the reverse end of the microphone and not getting much sound and he said "maybe he's not using this microphone right"and i agreed

I don't recall saying I didn't get much sound, but chances are I could be utilizing my mic much better. However, in the short time I did fool around with the mic I did two things. First, I had someone slowly move the mic towards the sound hole while recording. I then flipped the mic around and repeated the process. With eq flat the most pleasing sound to me was with the mic backwards. Given the fact that I'm facing the diaphram away from the impact tells me that I'm steering away from what actually makes the d112 a good kick mic. So without a doubt I don't plan on keeping this recording method until Ive done much more experimenting.

Ataraxia wrote:

I did fool around with the mic I did two things. First, I had someone slowly move the mic towards the sound hole while recording. I then flipped the mic around and repeated the process. With eq flat the most pleasing sound to me was with the mic backwards. Given the fact that I'm facing the diaphram away from the impact tells me that I'm steering away from what actually makes the d112 a good kick mic. So without a doubt I don't plan on keeping this recording method until Ive done much more experimenting.

Next time you have someone to move the mic, instead of flipping the mic around try to reverse the phase.

In my experience Kick drums can be drastically different. I own and use my B52 a lot, but I've also gotten good results from 57s, my Earthworks omnis, and other mics in my collection...
My advice would be give it a few chances on different Kicks before you give it the heave-ho. (Same for any other mic on any other application!)

The D112 like all mics, has a front and a back. To the first-time user, it can be confusing to determine which way the mic should be pointed, at least it was for me my first time. Reversing the polarity ("phase") does not remedy this anymore than singing into the back of a 58 and reversing the polarity.