My extremely cheap internal bass drum mic

CBPEAVEY

Member
Hello!
After seeing a lot of people on this frankly excellent forum mount a mic inside their bass drum, I decided to give it a go myself.
I used some string I had laying around, some old broken bits of Meccano from when I were a young 'un, and a few microphones I bought from a pound shop a year or two ago that I haven't ever used. It took me about 20 minutes to fit and once I had done it to one of my bass drums, I decided it sounded so good and was much neater than having a stand and a load of cables lying around, that I did it to my second bass drum aswell. It is completely reversible and no drilling or damage of any sort was done to the drums.
I know the mics I used aren't exactly meant for bass drums, or any drums at all, and I know this is a bit of a cheap and tacky way to do it, but seeing as it cost me absolutely nothing (well possibly £2 at the very most!), I think it is well worth it!

I shall try to get some sound clips up soon, but for now I'll leave you with some pictures
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Thanks for looking and any comments/questions welcome
 
Ha ha ha ha. Only in Wales! Seriously, that's probably as good as any suspension mount you're likely to buy. Just doesn't look great that's all. The mic is very close to the batter head. You'll get a lot of head click & attack but not as much of the drum tone. The mic's you're using will give an OK sound but you'll soon kill them with the SPL from your kicks. I'm guessing, but most double kick players play pretty hard. Dedicated kick drum mic's (e.g. AKG D112, etc) are designed to take the high SPL's delivered by your kick.

Much more impressive are the drum coverings. Fantastic!! I love it. Post some sound clips soon.
 
now thats what I call an awesome DIY project. Oh and killer finish!
 
If it works, there is not a thing wrong with it. lol. I am currently the percussion director for a marching band that is located in the inner city. The band gets no funding or support. I have learned to rig stuff that you wouldn't have imagined. They couldn't afford a rack system for the gridiron for the mallets...I found an old shower curtain and drilled it into the cart. It works and it was free.
 
Dynamic mics can take the SPL from a kick drum...that is, if they're decent ones. I think I have one like that one you've used, and it's not the best mic, but it'll probably do for now!
Good on you for doing this, very enterprising!
 
Thanks for all the comments :)
As promised here is a sound clip. Not very impressive playing but give an idea of what it sounds like. Recorded with two Yoga overhead mics and the two bass drum mics, no eq or compression or anything like that. The sound clip is very stereo, if that makes sense, the right bass drum is on the right channel, and left bass drum on left channel. Enjoy!
 

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This might work very well, although I could see it breaking down after a while. But it is easy to repair and replace. Very resourceful. I would also point the mic at the batter head to get richer sound but that's just me.

The finish is really trippy, I would like to see you do a thread on your kit in the My Kit page.
 
What on earth have you covered those drums in? :p

That's some rather attractive sticky back plastic ;)
A year or two ago I bought loads of sheets of the stuff and decided I'd make my drums a bit more "individual", seeing as the original wrap was covered in scratches and the like. It's just as hard wearing as the original wrap, and it does make my drums stand out from most others too :)
 
Here is my cheap internal mic holder for my cheap (but decent) internal mic. It's just a bolt going through the vent hole with the brass adapter for the mic.

Very nice job you've done there. I was thinking of doing something like this originally, but didn't have the parts or money, hence why I did it like I did. Eventually I do plan on buying proper bass drum mics and internal mounts.
 
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