Kelly Shu Kick Drum Mic Mount Review

MrLeadFoot

Silver Member
About a year ago, I bought a Kelly Shu kick drum mount because I move my kit a lot and liked the concept of a permanently mounted kick drum mic. The Kelly Shu is designed much better than the May Mounting system, in that The Kelly Shu isolates the mic from the drum, thus the mic only picks up what it's supposed to pick up, whereas the May system picks up shell vibration by virtue of the mount being attached directly to the drum shell.

Because I move my kit a lot, I opted for the aluminum model, figuring that would be the safest bet, even at twice the price, it was a hard pill to swallow. After MANY setups and teardowns, the Kelly Shu has not failed me yet, with each setup resulting in perfect kick mic placement.

Recently, I needed to fit a church kit with a kick mic. Of course, I recommended to them the Kelly Shu. But, because the church kit isn't moved around, we figured the composite mount would be fine. While the composite model does indeed work just like my aluminum one does, I am disappointed with the construction of the composite model. The mount actually flexes when the shock cord is connected. Not that the flex affects function of the mount, but I can't help but wonder if the mount will fail because of the torque on the mount. I looked at the warranty for the mount, and lo and behold the composite model comes with a 1 year warranty, while the aluminum one I got is warrantied for life. That is a HUGE difference, and confirms for me that the composite models have a tendency to break, and likely due to the torque from the mounting shock cords.

So, while I love this system, if you're considering one, I would highly recommend you spend double the price, and get the aluminum model.
 
Just for the record, I have been using the composite model for about two years now with no trouble. I was careful while mounting, and it has not given the slightest indication of failure, knock on composite!! I'm sure the aluminum one is more rigid, so if this one ever does break I'll move up to the metal version, but so far so good.
 
Am I safe to assume that you see the flex in your mount from the shock cord, too? It would be comforting to know if you do, and if you were a hard-rockin', double-kickin', speed metal player using hard beaters, and gig all the time, that would give me more confidence in the composite model being used in a church! :) . Right now, I feel like we have to have a stand nearby in preparation for the mount cracking, mid-set. We'd probably need a pit crew to quickly open that front head to remove all the pieces, just to be able to get a boom stand up mand running in a reasonable amount of time, you know what I mean? :)
 
Yeah, there was a little flex when I mounted it, when the shock cords are pulling unevenly, but it is fine once mounted. I'm not a metal player, but I AM a heavy hitter and the mount has survived two years of two to three gigs almost every weekend, so I would not worry about it at all in a church set that is staying put.
 
I think the drawback to a metal Shue would be the increased tendency to conduct sound and color the mic with vibrations. A plastic Shue seems like it would be much more sonically dead. If you are bending the plastic Shue, that suggests you have it bound too tightly.
 
There are no vibrations, even on the metal one, because there's no transference of it via the shock cords. You're probably right about the shock cords being too short. I do have it in the right position, but I now probably don't have enough cord to re-do it. FWIW, I like the the Shues installed off-center to one side, which requires a little more stretch be put on the cords than installing dead center. I basically installed the composite using the same method as I used when installing my own metal Shue, without even thinking about it, because the metal one can't flex, you know what I mean? I guess as long as "composite" means it's really made with a composite material with a flexible agent in the mix, and it's not just plastic, it probably won't just snap. But, I guess only time will tell.

When I first got the metal one, I spoke to Kelly, who gave me the exact lengths I needed to install it in my specific kick drum, which has the same dimensions as the one at the church. The cords are pretty taut on my kick, which I like, because it reduces the bouncing during transit. If I had known the composite model was so "soft" I would've cut the cord lengths longer. I guess the nice thing is that this is a church kit, where sets are short, and we have the luxury of having a stand available in case something goes awry. It sure would suck to have a Shue break in the middle of a set when you're out gigging or touring, like in my band does. I mean, who wants to carry a spare stand. We drummers are already always loaded for bear to begin with! That's why I posted my review; so that anyone interested in getting one, pop for the metal one, just to be on the safe side. Now that I think about it, the cords would likely give out before a composite Shue would, but having a metal one at least removed one part of the failure equation, you know what I mean?

But, thanks for the words of reassurance, guys. ;-)
 
While that may be true, I can tell you that there is NO vibration picked up my the mic using an aluminum Kelly Shue. Have you tried one yourself?
 
While that may be true, I can tell you that there is NO vibration picked up my the mic using an aluminum Kelly Shue. Have you tried one yourself?

No, I have not tried a Shue, and I believe the mic picks up no detectable vibration. In fact, I think that concern is overrated. I used to mount a bass drum mic internally by affixing it directly to the inside of a shell with a lug mount and I detected no shell vibration entering the mic, even though the mic was mounted to the shell.
 
Without exception, mounting a mic directly to a drum shell WILL result in the mic picking up vibration. Most people don't realize that this type of vibration typically manifests itself in the mix as a ringing sound, not a buzzing sound like you would think. It often sounds something like a tuning fork, and it's not very loud, and often gets lost in the mix once everyone starts playing.

When first detected, to eliminate the weird noise shell vibration produces people tend to look at tuning, mic placement, and other factors, without realizing it really is shell vibration. I've actually experienced shell vibration contributing to feedback, presumably because of the pitch created by the vibration. We are live at the time, and no matter what we tried, we couldn't get it to go away. We started taking mics out of the mix one by one. Of course, we started with vocal mics, then other instrument mics, to no avail. We then though it HAD to be the overhead drum mics, but, nope. Then we took the snare out, followed by the toms. We were shocked that it ended up being the hard-mounted kick mic, because it's enclosed in the drum, but when we had a chance to experiment later (not at the show), that's when we realized that the "undetectable" vibration from the shell was indeed the culprit.
 
Of course there's vibration, but when a mic is literally suspended, it doesn't get picked up. When it's hard mounted, it does. FWIW, the mic that was hard-mounted and picked up the vibration/ringing was a Shure Beta 52. ;-)
 
If you think about it, if there was no vibrations, there wouldn't be any sound. You only want those vibrations picked-up by the microphone, or ears for that matter, that are meaningful to the production. Everything else in my opinion is just noise.

Dennis
 
Of course there's vibration, but when a mic is literally suspended, it doesn't get picked up. When it's hard mounted, it does. FWIW, the mic that was hard-mounted and picked up the vibration/ringing was a Shure Beta 52. ;-)

I'm sure the vibration was there, but I just couldn't hear it - ringing or otherwise. I mounted a Shure Beta 52 and an ATm 25 like this. It actually sounded very good with shell mounting. Again, I'm sure the vibration was going through the mount, through the mic housing and into the mic electronics. But I couldn't hear any of it coming out of the electronics with either mic.
 
I'm sure the vibration was there, but I just couldn't hear it - ringing or otherwise. I mounted a Shure Beta 52 and an ATm 25 like this. It actually sounded very good with shell mounting. Again, I'm sure the vibration was going through the mount, through the mic housing and into the mic electronics. But I couldn't hear any of it coming out of the electronics with either mic.
It is possible that you were hearing it, but the frequency of that vibration happened to be a good one, and mixed well with your kick's sound. After all, a drum does put out a "ringing" type sound, and maybe it just worked out in your case. I mean, every drum is different, even if it is the same make and model with the same heads, you know what I mean? Not to mention mic positioning, tuning, type and height of beaters used, even how the kick is positioned on the ground, etc. In my particular case, the ringing ended up causing feedback, no matter what I did. I even moved the mount to the top of the kick where it was hanging down. That's why I went to the Shue to begin with. I'll not use any other mount again, if I can help it. ;-)

BTW, are you still mounting your mic with the May mount, or...? Did you mount mics inside your toms, too?
 
I've used the original may set up for years now with a D112 and have never had a problem. I mount the arm in the lower quarter section and attached to a front of the drum lug. I even use the short arm coming off the attaching bracket that I think was from a floor tom internal set up. A caution to beware of is the kick getting a bleed from the floor tom. The first thing I look at when that happens is the fl.tm. channel on the board and the low & mid low settings. I think alot drummers forget to roll off the lows and remember what your kick hates your toms most likely love. The toms sound great with abit of 400/440 and thats not what the kick enjoys so play with that if your bleeding in between those drums. Just like playing with the 100/125 from room to room to get a kick drum robust. Some times you have to get that 125 out of there and the next room wants it. Its tuff to mix drums in the same mix with vocals thats for sure. I used to carry a 31 band and pop it in the kick channel and get a little help that way but you can't totally eliminate the number one EQ.
My secret for getting a good drum sound was simple, I EQ for the drums FIRST!!! Then I mixed the vocals hahahaha!!! Thats what happens when the pay out man is the drummer man too, and he owns the gear hahaha!!! Guitar is flat (and turned down) the bassman startes flat and I work with him cause we're a team. HA! Doc
 
It is possible that you were hearing it, but the frequency of that vibration happened to be a good one, and mixed well with your kick's sound. After all, a drum does put out a "ringing" type sound, and maybe it just worked out in your case. I mean, every drum is different, even if it is the same make and model with the same heads, you know what I mean? Not to mention mic positioning, tuning, type and height of beaters used, even how the kick is positioned on the ground, etc. In my particular case, the ringing ended up causing feedback, no matter what I did. I even moved the mount to the top of the kick where it was hanging down. That's why I went to the Shue to begin with. I'll not use any other mount again, if I can help it. ;-)

BTW, are you still mounting your mic with the May mount, or...? Did you mount mics inside your toms, too?

That may be true about the sound mixing well.

I manufactured my own mounting system. See the system at http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18719&page=2 on 11-10-06

It used a quarter-inch plug, so you'd plug in the bass drum just like you'd plug in a guitar.
 
Back
Top