Kick Drum Microphones
For a live music mix, the kick drum can be one of the most important inputs on the console. Many engineers place the kick drum input as #1 on their mixer, and that is for a reason. The kick drum is the base on which the rest of the mix is built.
With such a variety of microphones, the age-old question for sound engineers continually arises; "which kick drum mic is the best to use?" The answer to that question is, of course, "it depends".
Many factors go into the choice of a kick drum microphone:
- Personal tastes, bias, and history
- Brand preference, and bias
- Type of music, and drummer
- Price
- "Rider friendliness"
Throughout the years, a number of microphone models have consistently been the choice of top recording and touring engineers. These traditional kick drum microphones are:
- Shure Beta52
- Shure SM/Beta 91
- AKG D112
- EV RE20/PL20
More recently, a number of microphone models have begun showing up in tours and studios to augment and replace these traditional models:
- AUDIX D6
- Audio-Technica AE2500 Dual Element
- Sennheiser E602/E902
The point is, "Old school" engineers will often talk with a sense of nostalgia about how they successfully covered and entire drum kit with only Shure SM57s. They revel in the memory of "huge, monster, incredible drum sound." In the end, kick drum microphone selection will always be a very subjective matter.