How to Record a Kick Drum

The kick drum is a fundamental element to your drum kit and an essential anchor in the overall mix of a song. Getting the right kick drum sound takes patience, good ears and a willingness to throw out the rules and do whatever gives you the best sound.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Tune the drum. Drum tuning is subjective for the most part, unlike a guitar that has an absolute pitch tuning. The drum needs to sound good naturally before you try to get a good sound through a mic. Spend some time on tuning and have a drum technician help if you are not proficient in drum tuning. You also need to make sure you have good heads on the drum, or tuning will be nearly impossible.
2. Get an idea of what you want the drum to sound like before you start miking. Kick drums sounds different for different styles, so make sure you have a "rock" sounding kick for a rock song. Use some reference songs to get an idea of what you want your kick to sound like.
3. Pick out your mics. The quintessential kick drum dynamic mic is an AKG D112, while Electro-Voice RE20s work well too. If you are going to use multiple mics, try a cardioid dynamic like the D112 paired with a large diaphragm condenser. You can also take a speaker like a Yamaha NS-10, reverse the wiring, and use it as a mic to pick up the sub-low frequencies.
4. Place your mics. There are no rules, only guidelines in mic placement. If the front head of the drum has a port hole, start with a dynamic mic slightly inside the hole pointing toward the beater pad. Adjust until you get a sound your happy with. If you are using a second mic, place it six inches or so from the front of the drum. Again, adjust until you get the sound you like.
5. Bring out the fundamental elements of the drum. Be sure that you are getting some low frequency thump with the drum, but don't neglect the beater. The "click" from the attack of a kick drum is what really brings it out in a mix, so be sure that you are getting plenty of attack. You can use EQ to boost the lows and the frequencies around the click, while eliminating a lot of the mud in the mid-range frequencies.
6. Experiment. Don't be afraid to try some things that may seem taboo. For instance, you can get a cool retro, punky sounding kick drum by removing the front head and using a Shure SM57 to mic it. Also remember that using different dampening methods, like tape or pillows, can really affect the sound.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember to check for phase problems when using multiple mics. The combined sound of two mics should sound better than either one by itself, so adjust the mic positions until they sound good together.