Gavin Harrison
DRUMMERWORLD PRO DRUMMER
Hi Jeff
For the last few years I have been using an AKG D12VR and a Shure Beta 91A both mounted inside the bass drum on suspension mounts like this:
They are exactly in the middle of the drum. The AKG is the one at the top and has an EQ setting on the mic itself (indicated by the little blue light).
They are 'phase aligned' with an audio plug-in (inside Logic) called "Auto-Align". Basically it moves the Shure microphone seven samples nearer to the AKG mic. This is the VERY slight difference of distance they are from the batter head. To cut a long story short - it means they just blend the sound together a bit better. I do add additional EQ to both the mics inside the Logic software.
Getting a bass drum to sound good in a mix is a really challenging thing. You can have the best sounding bass drum in the world - and then you add the other instruments into the mix and it just disappears. So hearing the bass drum cut through the mix is absolutely relative to the other instruments around it. Distorted guitars and heavy low bass notes really eat up the frequencies of your bass drum. Many times I will add a sample (with the Steven Slate "Trigger" plug in). That's pretty much the only way those fast notes on your bass drum are going to come through in the mix. Otherwise you have to EQ your natural bass drum sound SO much - it will sound really crappy. If you're playing a style music that requires some fast double bass drum action alongside distorted guitars you'll need a sample that has a really noticeable high frequency 'click' to it. Then you just need to 'blend' it in with the really bass drum mix until it pokes through the music.
best of luck
Gavin
So, my questions:
Where do you put each of these mics, and
Are there any other techniques you use to make your double/triple hits work within a mix?
For the last few years I have been using an AKG D12VR and a Shure Beta 91A both mounted inside the bass drum on suspension mounts like this:
They are exactly in the middle of the drum. The AKG is the one at the top and has an EQ setting on the mic itself (indicated by the little blue light).
They are 'phase aligned' with an audio plug-in (inside Logic) called "Auto-Align". Basically it moves the Shure microphone seven samples nearer to the AKG mic. This is the VERY slight difference of distance they are from the batter head. To cut a long story short - it means they just blend the sound together a bit better. I do add additional EQ to both the mics inside the Logic software.
Getting a bass drum to sound good in a mix is a really challenging thing. You can have the best sounding bass drum in the world - and then you add the other instruments into the mix and it just disappears. So hearing the bass drum cut through the mix is absolutely relative to the other instruments around it. Distorted guitars and heavy low bass notes really eat up the frequencies of your bass drum. Many times I will add a sample (with the Steven Slate "Trigger" plug in). That's pretty much the only way those fast notes on your bass drum are going to come through in the mix. Otherwise you have to EQ your natural bass drum sound SO much - it will sound really crappy. If you're playing a style music that requires some fast double bass drum action alongside distorted guitars you'll need a sample that has a really noticeable high frequency 'click' to it. Then you just need to 'blend' it in with the really bass drum mix until it pokes through the music.
best of luck
Gavin