Suggestions for mic'ng bass drum

[natureboy]

I've been having this on and off problem with my bass drum mic howling and causing my PA to make a high pitched screech and go into clipping. Months ago, my friend stuffed two pillows in there and it has stopped considerably, but I was wondering if there was a "less tacky" way of doing this. I am assuming the howling was caused by the resonance; because the sustain would continue to play in the speakers forever. Don't get me wrong, the bass drum sounds great now, but I want my gear handled properly, if there is such a way. The mic is not a bass drum mic, I don't know if that really matters.

[spirit]

I've been having this on and off problem with my bass drum mic howling and causing my PA to make a high pitched screech and go into clipping. Months ago, my friend stuffed two pillows in there and it has stopped considerably, but I was wondering if there was a "less tacky" way of doing this. I am assuming the howling was caused by the resonance; because the sustain would continue to play in the speakers forever. Don't get me wrong, the bass drum sounds great now, but I want my gear handled properly, if there is such a way. The mic is not a bass drum mic, I don't know if that really matters.

I think it really is may be a combination of mike position and damping- start with the damping- 2 pillows may be overkill! try using an Eq pillow, Evans make a good one- when you hit the head it moves off the head and returns very fast to kill any overtones- I use two, one on my front head and one on the back. This way the volume is not really decreased and you have a full thump sound that is not killed.
Maybe also the mike- better to check that it is designed for drums- more so a bass drum!
Use of standard vocal mikes can give this noise that is infact- feedback I suspect.
Be shure that the main speakers are not pointing at the mikes or they will more likely feedback more- as the sound goes round and round till it decays-this is more true with overtones as they can be higher freq!

[fromyesterday]

What's the EQ like? What mic is it? Tried turning the gain down some?

[larryace]

You need a mic designed for the kick, I NEVER had a problem with the kick mic feeding. That shouldn't happen, especially if the BD is ported