MrLeadFoot
Silver Member
I have a Mapex Saturn kit, which many of you already know puts out a deep, rich tone. To ensure I capture that beautiful tone from the entire kit, I replaced the floor tom mic with a kick drum mic, because the floor tom tone seems to get lost in the mix. Sure enough, the kick drum mic captures the full tone of the floor tom, but it seems I have lost a bit of attack. It doesn't make sense to me, because frequency response range on both mics is exactly the same on the high end (which is where the attack would be picked up), and at the bottom end the kick mic picks an additional 10hz lower that the floor tom mic (which is why it captures the floor tom tone so well).
Interestingly, this same mic inside my kick picks up plenty of attack. I realize the dynamics inside the kick are a different animal, but could it be because the mic inside a kick is on the back side of the batter head, so the attack is pretty much directed right at the mic, whereas on a tom the attack is directed AWAY from the mic? I wouldn't think that would be the culprit, because otherwise attack wouldn't be very good on snares and toms, either.
Also, the mic in the kick is somewhere around 9" away from the batter head, while the kick mic mounted on the floor tom is only 1.5" away from the tom head. Would moving the mic farther away increase attack?
Thoughts, comments, opinions and suggestions from those that are running kick mics on their floor toms would be most welcome.
Interestingly, this same mic inside my kick picks up plenty of attack. I realize the dynamics inside the kick are a different animal, but could it be because the mic inside a kick is on the back side of the batter head, so the attack is pretty much directed right at the mic, whereas on a tom the attack is directed AWAY from the mic? I wouldn't think that would be the culprit, because otherwise attack wouldn't be very good on snares and toms, either.
Also, the mic in the kick is somewhere around 9" away from the batter head, while the kick mic mounted on the floor tom is only 1.5" away from the tom head. Would moving the mic farther away increase attack?
Thoughts, comments, opinions and suggestions from those that are running kick mics on their floor toms would be most welcome.