Noise when recording/playing kick drum

halley

halley

Junior Member
Hello folks,

I have a problem that I can't find the solution to, maybe someone can help.

When I am playing/recording though my mixer the kick has a vibration/crackle noise whenever I play. The louder I kick, the more noise appears

Any ideas are welcome
Thanks
Halley


What I have already tried (none seem to make any difference)
- Tighten the XLR connector, it helps a little, but soon after a few "kicks" it starts again
- Replace the cable(3 times, no changes)
- Ensure that the cable does NOT touch the porthole/skin
- Ensure that the cable does NOT touch the drum shell once it's outside
- Replaced the t.bone BD300 mic with a Shure PG52
- The t.bone mic is now used on the 16 floor tom without any noise
- Changed the channel on the mixer
- Tried to remove all FX from the channel (reverb from the mixer and disconnected the insert/compressor)

-------
A little bit about my gear
Mic Mount: Gibraltar SC-GBDIMM Bass Drum Internal Mic Mount
Microphones: t.bone BD300 mic and Shure PG52
Mixer: Behringer X2442USB
Recording Interface: Tascam 16x08
Effects: Behringer MDX4600 Multicom Pro XL (The kick channel is set to a compressor)
Drum: Mapex Meridian Birch, Kick is 22x20
 
Have you tried eliminating the mic mount and laying the mic on a pillow inside the drum to see if the mount is the issue. That seems like the only thing that you haven't tried. You may have to go with a Kelly style mic mount. Also check the tension on every screw inside the bass drum if placing the mic on a pillow doesn't work.
 
Is there something like a lug screw or lug mounting screw loose inside the kick drum. A tom mount or cymbal mount loose. Are you sure it's from the sound system and not the drum itself.
 
Is your mic peaking? This sounds like a mixing problem. I would try messing with your settings and lowering the bass frequencies you're pushing through. Also, are you playing with speakers or headphones? Sometimes depending on age and conditions speakers can begin to fail starting in the lower frequencies.
 
Is the signal clipping? I've had monitor feeds where the kick was too hot and I had to get the sound man (AKA the guy in the band running the board, lol) to reduce the gain or I got a sound like you are describing. Just a thought.
 
I think you're either overloading the mic, or have an issue with the interface, or maybe more likely, the computer interface your interface is plugged into.

Are we doing firewire, or what?
 
Pro recordist guy - drum rattles are the bane of my existence.

Most recently banished? Flipping Evans emad head.

Swapped for a powerstroke 3, much better!

Check the drum acoustically, be ruthless.

Double check signal chain etc for clipping and overloaded channels.

Behringer gear is scary. So are cheap mics. Sure it isn't a capsule that sounds like a baby rattle?? Really really sure??!

Good luck!
 
Try "Not pointing the mic at the beater", and instead, point it to about 3" from the shell.

See if that fixes ya.
 
jmoose said:
Pro recordist guy - drum rattles are the bane of my existence.

Most recently banished? Flipping Evans emad head.

Swapped for a powerstroke 3, much better!

Check the drum acoustically, be ruthless.

Double check signal chain etc for clipping and overloaded channels.

Behringer gear is scary. So are cheap mics. Sure it isn't a capsule that sounds like a baby rattle?? Really really sure??!

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Some Behringer gear can be really good. I've been using an X32 recently (we're also getting it hooked up to a RedNet 5 in the studio) and it's been superb. Not sure what the older USB desks are like but they're probably competent at least...

Like you say, it's probably the Emad head. Sometimes it's something you don't even think about. I had one the other day where I spent half an hour trying to work out why an ADAT channel wasn't working and it turned out that it was a broken microphone, which is the last thing you'd expect these days...

OP: To check the capsule, unscrew the top and have a look inside. If it's wobbling around excessively that's probably the problem.
 
Try putting the whole setup you have on the kick mic on the snare. Leave everything plugged up and move the beta 52 on the snare and record. You'll figure out if the noise is coming from the kick drum itself or from the mic/cable/mixer/interface.
 
Btw, I had latency/noise problem when recording and the kick was shaking the laptop too much and causing problems. The laptop was on a chair on my left. Like put a pillow underneath the laptop and that took care of it.
 
drum4fun27302 said:
Btw, I had latency/noise problem when recording and the kick was shaking the laptop too much and causing problems. The laptop was on a chair on my left. Like put a pillow underneath the laptop and that took care of it.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming that was because of a spinning hard drive. I've had that happen before. Not an issue with a solid state drive but with a spinning hard drive, it can cause I/O problems (causing pops and latency) or in extreme cases make the heads crash - which can cause long term damage.
 
Check to make sure that the screen on the mic is tight.
 
Thanks for the help!

I just came back from the drum room where I got the mic out of the Gibraltar mount, and placed it on a short boom stand on the porthole.

The result is absolute lack of crackle, so for some reason it only happens with the internal Mic Mount. So, this is the main suspect. I will try to find out WHY, next.

I like having the mic mounted internally, as it save a little on setup times, and makes the stage cleaner(without a little stand around), so the clumsy bassist don't trip over during the gigs

bobdadruma said:
Have you tried eliminating the mic mount and laying the mic on a pillow inside the drum to see if the mount is the issue. That seems like the only thing that you haven't tried. You may have to go with a Kelly style mic mount. Also check the tension on every screw inside the bass drum if placing the mic on a pillow doesn't work.
Click to expand...
 
I will check inside the shell, this is a good shout really!
I know that the rack(Pearl Icon) everything is tight(but not too tight), as nothing else is making noise apart from the kick.

Not sure what the source, not I removed the mic from the internal mic mount, the noise is gone, which points to the the mount, which was tight, but I will double check, tighten everything again, then test with the mic on the internal mount to see if it could be some loose screw

GRUNTERSDAD said:
Is there something like a lug screw or lug mounting screw loose inside the kick drum. A tom mount or cymbal mount loose. Are you sure it's from the sound system and not the drum itself.
Click to expand...
 
No, there was no peaking, I tried different channels, gains and how much fader/volume on the main mix, and in all cases the noise was there.

Currently playing though Shure earphone SE215, as I am doing some -test runs- before recording for a youtube channel.

Jhostetler said:
Is your mic peaking? This sounds like a mixing problem. I would try messing with your settings and lowering the bass frequencies you're pushing through. Also, are you playing with speakers or headphones? Sometimes depending on age and conditions speakers can begin to fail starting in the lower frequencies.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, but no, it's not clipping. I also run a compressor though the Insert of the channel to make sure that the levels is even more controlled.
The gain is quite low anyway (just a little bit above minimum)

Also, when I solo'ed the channel, it was still within the Yellow range

IDDrummer said:
Is the signal clipping? I've had monitor feeds where the kick was too hot and I had to get the sound man (AKA the guy in the band running the board, lol) to reduce the gain or I got a sound like you are describing. Just a thought.
Click to expand...
 
I'll try on the 16 floor tom, the snare is too small to fit the bass drum mic inside(then place on the stand).

drum4fun27302 said:
Try putting the whole setup you have on the kick mic on the snare. Leave everything plugged up and move the beta 52 on the snare and record. You'll figure out if the noise is coming from the kick drum itself or from the mic/cable/mixer/interface.
Click to expand...
 
My laptop has both, but the noise was happening even if I didn't have the laptop on. I was also running it directly from the monitor/control room/headphones output of my mixer.


BacteriumFendYoke said:
I'm assuming that was because of a spinning hard drive. I've had that happen before. Not an issue with a solid state drive but with a spinning hard drive, it can cause I/O problems (causing pops and latency) or in extreme cases make the heads crash - which can cause long term damage.
Click to expand...
 
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