How to mic bass drum on a budget?

Hey all, I know I know "Quit buying stuff for your kit", but this is a pretty good issue for me. I need to mic my bass drum. I have tried ported, non-ported, pillow both ways, different beaters, and I still cannot hear my bass drum well. I have some hearing issues with certain frequencies and this is one of them. My wife's voice sometimes is another, but let's not discuss that one.

I have a bass drum mic already for some reason (brand new). I thought my stereo by my kit had a mic input and I could just try that, but no luck.

So what is my cheapest option to mic it? Do I need to get a mixer and a speaker? If so I know one of them must be powered. Can I try like a cheap bass guitar amp and hook it into there? Help me out here Drummerworld you know hearing your bass drum is important. Especially when just learning, because I have to know if I am even hitting it at the right times. I will get whatever I need (might take awhile) to be able to hear it. It does not have to blow me away, just a little amplification would help tremendously.

Thanks in advance for your advice on how to do this on a budget.
 
Re: How to mic bass drum on a budget???

Tune it higher and play everything else as softly as needed.

If it's just for learning, there is absolutely no need to amplify your bass drum. The only exception is if you're playing with backing tracks and high-level isolation from a pair of headphones. Then you'd need to mic up the whole kit.

If you're not sure where your bass drum hits are, I would suggest that tuning higher, with a slightly harder beater and playing everything else more softly is the best approach, not only from a budget point of view but also from a technique point of view.
 
I'm not exactly sure what the issue is. To what extent are you having difficulty hearing? Usually, when someone starts to experience hearing loss, you begin losing the upper frequencies first, which shouldn't affect your bass drum sound. Or is everything around you too loud? If you were playing on stage with a band, then in a way, you might need some sound reinforcement, but that's not the case, right? You're just practicing at home?
 
Re: How to mic bass drum on a budget???

Tune it higher and play everything else as softly as needed.
+1; If you have a ported resonant head then switch to a non-ported one. Do not use heavily muffled heads such as the Superkick series. Use a Remo Powerstroke 3, or Powerstroke 4 heads. PS3 should be the resonant and optional either PS3, or PS4 for batter. They are less dampened and louder than SKI and SKII heads.
Tune the front head higher than the batter.
 
While I appear to be out of step with the consensus so far, I don't see any problem with micing your bass drum...for certain styles of music (e.g. rock, metal, probably funk and gospel) it makes more sense as either live or on record you'll always hear a bass drum that's louder than it would really be acoustically, relative to the rest of the kit (certainly more low frequencies). Also, you really can't practice playing loudly by playing quietly, and if that's what you want to do then monitoring is an appropriate solution.

My suggestion would be to buy a cheap mixer (I use a little Behringer one that has one XLR input), and get some isolation headphones or in-ear monitors, and send the signal from the kick mic to your headphones. It's really transformed my practicing experience of late.
 
Thanks for the input so far everyone. You all seem to genuinely want to help and that is really awesome. Keep it coming.

As for the hearing loss, I have no idea why lows are a problem for me right now. Certain highs are as well. I have trouble having conversations with females even, and I have a really outgoing personality. The bass drum seems to be the only issue. When I kick it and hit pretty much anything else I cannot hear it at all. By itself I am fine though.

I did get a REALLY cheap low wattage powered speaker today. Wouldn't you know it, it's just not enough. This speaker is horrible! I can see the potential and I really like what I see. So I think I may take the speaker back and save for or put in layaway a better speaker.

The headphones idea is great. It is also a cheaper way to go, but I cannot stand headphones on and just in thinking about it only hearing the bass drum through it seems like it might throw me off a bit. I could be wrong though.

I am just practicing at home. No stage or anything load around.

As for the heads and beaters I have tried everything as stated in first post. Port no port, every tuning you can think of, and I have wooden beaters, and have also tried felt because someone old me that would be better. Not for this guy it wasn't. Maybe for others. I think I will stick with wood for now.

Thanks PQleyR for understanding my situation. You hit the nail on the head. Hitting softly just doe not do it for some things. Although, I do try to vary it a bit so that I don't get stuck in a "hit it as hard as you can" rut, and create another bad habit.

Thanks again everyone it does seem like you are looking out for my well being and it means a lot. But, I am pretty positive that this is something I have to do to help me out. I will let you all know how it turns out when I get something a little better. Trust me I don't want to spend the money for this, but I don't see another option I have tried it all.

Keep it coming though I am open to all suggestions.
 
How about one of them things that you attach to your seat that makes the seat rumble, so that you could feel the bass?
I can't remember the name but lots of people use them.
Throne thumper or something, was it?
 
....if you are practicing without headphones, IEMs or hearing protection you are doing a great deal of irreversible damage to your hearing health.

Hearing the kit in great resolution for practice is not necessary....nor is hearing the kick...you should feel the kick and get the tactile feedback from your foot.

Since my neighbors complain, I have a heavy down comforter inside my kick and touching both heads that all but renders it fully dead, and I wear IEMs that have a large amount of isolation....with an iPod set properly to play along to songs, I can still hear everything just fine and get the tactile feedback from the kick pedal....no micing. I can hear the attack and tone of the kit ambiently even with the isolation of the IEMs...

I would recommend not agonizing over sonic issues like this if possible; I understand my input may not map to your situation due to your unfortunate hearing loss....even a set of less expensive universal fit IEMs will work and attenuate all the nasty unhealthy mids, upper mids and highs...and you will feel your kick. Trust me.

Btw, I also have hearing loss...that seems suspiciously centered around my wife's voice band and appears selectively? ;)
 
Hey shemp, This might be a dumb question, but what is an IEM?
 
PDPSabianGuy,
I would suggest going to your local Lowe's or Home Depot and buying a pair of 3M Peltor hearing protector earmuffs. I use them for home practice as well as band rehearsals. When wearing them, the low end frequencies are emphasized, making the bass drum and toms more prominent. And, they protect your hearing at the same time. For play-along, you can wear those with some earbuds on underneath. I can practice quite loudly, and after I take those earmuffs off, everything sounds crystal clear and I don't have any ringing in my ears.

I've also tried the Vic Firth isolation headphones. I use those for play-along practice, since to me they are more comfortable than using the 3M's + earbuds, but they don't fit me very well. I am a tall guy with a big head, and they just barely cover up my ears. If I yawn or wiggle my jaw, they lose the seal around my ears and let the sound in.

Finally, I've recently gotten a relatively inexpensive set of IEM's, the Shure SE215's. My intention is to use them for monitoring during live performance. I tried them in practice, with just a click going into the IEM's, and I hated the way my drums sounded coming through from outside. The snare sounded very loud, and I couldn't hear my bass drum at all. So, I don't think I would use those unless my kit was mic'd and I had a monitor feed.
 
How about one of them things that you attach to your seat that makes the seat rumble, so that you could feel the bass?
I can't remember the name but lots of people use them.
Throne thumper or something, was it?

Butt Kicker (not cheap unfortunately - $250ish)

DV020_Jpg_Jumbo_482251_mounted_below.jpg
 
Unfortunately, good bass live does not come cheap. A small mixer, mic, and a used bass guitar amp is about the only way to mic a bass drum live on a small budget. Good luck.
 
Ok I would really like to do this cheap as possible. I just re - read everything you all have posted. I appreciate it all. I have not tried a different bass drum head as of yet. Right now I have a Powerstroke Pro on there with a patch. Could the head be part of my problem? As someone eluded too previously in thread.

Should I try a different head? If it won't make much difference I would rather not waste the $40-$50. But, if it would make a noticeable difference I am all for it.

Let me know if this could be a possible solution to my issue. Also what head would be best for me. It is a 22" maple bass drum.

Thanks everyone.
 
Oh...the winner is bobdadruma!!! Thank you thank you again! I tried everything with the heads that I had yes, but I did not try a different head. Actually I am lying I did not try ALL the heads I had.

I went to a local drum shop after reading a lot of stuff about the Powerstroke 3 (good stuff). I asked them about it (they know my issue as well) and they said that it very well could help. So I asked to see one and it looked exactly like the stock head from my kit (the heads are made by Remo) so instead of possibly wasting $35-$40 bucks I decided to go home and try the stock head.

I already had the ported PDP head on and a small pillow inside due to a failed attempt at miking. I kept it like it was and replaced the heads with about medium tuning set.

On the first kick of the foot...WOW!!! What a difference. I had my wife mess with the pillow forward, backward, not touching anything. Then I adjusted tuning down just a bit. I don't know what to say, but I can hear it even when playing the toms!

I thought I had tried everything that was possible. But, a head that I already had and some playing around is all it took. I can seriously hear it and even feel it more. It's not firecracker loud, but just enough to hear if I am hitting on time or not.

So thanks to everyone for your help, thoughts, opinions, and ideas. All of them taught me something (and this ol' boy can use some teaching). I do truly appreciate it from all of you.

Special thanks to bobdadruma for the Powerstroke 3 idea! This head is about on it's last leg so I will probably snag a new powerstroke 3 up soon. Is there much difference between clear, coated, and black? For some reason I just feel like trying a coated. I heard they have a little more warmth and tone to them. Anyone know if this is true?

Thanks again
 
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