Kick Drum

[dBHEAD]

Just wanted to share.

This afternoon I recorded a ska band. When micing the drum kit, against my better instinct, I decided to use a Royer 121 inside the shell, aimed at the beater. I had an AKG D112 outside, about 14 inches away. The D112 was going into a Presonus MP20, a preamp notorious for its amazing punch. The Royer 121 was going into a channel of a Millenia HV3-D, an expensive preamp renown for it's transparency.

The 121 made me nervous, but Royer confidently says it can handle the SPLs of a kick.

Guys, for me, this was the holy grail. This was the absolute most perfect kick drum sound I've ever heard, and I've been recording since the 1980s, both as part of my job and semi-professionally.

The 112 at 14 inches always gets the full lows of the kick, and the manual says to have it outside of a kick and a foot or two away. But the Royer...OHHHHH the Royer!! I've never heard anything smooth out the attack of the beater like the 121. I mean, this is a kick drum sound so perfect, you almost want to listen to the song again just to hear kick drum!! It's big. It's fat. Yet it's not hyped. It's very natural.

So that's it. Make of it what you will. Just got done with a session that went well and had the peculiar characteristic of the most perfect kick drum sound I've ever recorded. So I thought I'd pass it along to interested parties.

[Roland Clarke]

Good to hear that it worked for you, however, I would issue a small word of warning. Ribbon mic's such as the Royer (and a few others) can handle high SPL, the problem with kick drums is the pressure wave which cause a large "deflection" of the diaphram. With many dynamics and a few condensors this isn't necessarily a problem, but with ribbons it can cause them to stretch as the ribbon elements are themselves very delicate. I've seen (and heard) the Royer used on kick and it does sound impressive, though in the scenario's I'm talking about it was placed outside the drum pointing downwards using the null of the fig.8 response to minimize the bleed, not inside the drum or on the hole in a front head.

Having ribbons replaced is an expensive business so I would just advise a little bit of caution.

[O.G. Killa]

I've popped a few R121s on a Mesa rectifier 4x12 cab. The SPL wasn't what got it, it was the wind from the moving speaker cone.

I know someone who's popped a few on kick as well for the same reason. Now I always use a pop filter in front of the royer when using on guitar amps. I would suggest the same on kick, but inside the drum air movement might be going in all different directions, so I don't know if a pop filter will help.

[BobbyDazzler]

They explain the ribbon on kick drum concept quite well in this clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlg5UcNOT0Y

[dBHEAD]

My Royer WAS angled. I've always angled the mic inside the kick because the secondary purpose is to pick up the sound of the shell. Plus, it had a wind screen/pop filter over it.

[Roland Clarke]

I think that you may be missing the issue. If you place your hand over the hole in the front skin every time the drum is hit you get a "whoosh" of air, with the amount of deflection on the beater head it is working like a giant air pump, angling the mic probably isn't going to do much inside the drum itself and relying on a pop filter will unlikely provide any real protection. As has been mentioned in other replies above, blown ribbon diaphrams on kick's, guitar cabs, even brass instruments is quite common and they are expensive to replace. It's your call.

[O.G. Killa]

I didn't think it was that expensive. Royer charges around $125~$150 to replace the ribbon. For a $1300 mic, $150 isn't that much, but it's all relative I guess.

Also, when you pop the ribbon the mic can still be working. It's just the top end goes away. Most of the time you never completely tear through the entire ribbon so the mic will still function but it won't sound the same. It'll sound like it has more bass than you remember it having. On a kick you might not even notice it is popped. What you described, how it "smooths out" the attack of the kick, could be the ribbon having a little tear in it. If it popped on the first or second kick drum hit, you might not notice that it's torn.

But when you go to record something with a lot of top end like Overheads or trumpet, you might think "hmmm, I don't remember the R121s being this dark?" That's how you know you popped 'em.