New Kick Mic Tested: AT AE2500

[In10city]

After watching eBay for a few months, I landed a really good deal on an Audio Technica AE2500 dual element kick drum mic. Brand new in the box with a 1 year warranty from Audio Technica through a retailer in Maine. I hooked it up when it came in to make sure it worked and just did a quick test but that was a few months ago.

We are gearing up to record the next album and hooked up all the drum mics last night and did some test recording just to hear the overall sound as I've incorporated a lot of ideas and suggestions I've read here. This kick mic is incredible! We recorded each element into it's own track to set the EQ levels and how much volume each should contribute to give a good combined sound and then submixed both elements into one track. Amazing!

I've always typically used my kick mic (Audio Technica AT-25) inside the kick drum, pretty close to the batter head behind the beaters because I like to hear the punch but I've found this mic is much better just inside the resonant head port.

[brandondrury]

Can you describe it's tone? What you going for? AC/DC kick drum? Dimmu Borgir kick drum? etc

Brandon

[In10city]

The way I have the elements balanced and EQ'd, it has a nice wet slap on the attack with a very rich deep tone. I've got my kick tuned pretty well with Evan's heads so it already sounds nice but this mic seems to be picking up all the aspects I want to hear. I'm not really trying to emulate any one specific drummer's kick drum but I am striving for good clarity and punch. I don't want a whole lot of boom and resonance because I use a double kick pedal I don't want some of the faster stuff to get lost in mud. The best example I can think of would be Paul Craddick's kick drum sound off the "Break" album by Enchant. You can hear a sample of "Surrounded" here: http://www.theoasis.cc/sound/mp3/Surrounded.mp3
Actually, I'd be really happy if I could get my entire kit to come through with the clarity his had on this album.

The official Enchant home page is here: http://www.theoasis.cc/

Paul Craddick no longer plays drums for them but they are still one of my favorites.

[brandondrury]

Hopefully, I'll never engineer drums ever again in my life (at least not in my current room) but I woud like to try this mic out. Everyone seams to love it or hate it. I like that in a piece of gear!

Is it tough to bring out the beater's attack with the mic placed just in the front head's hole? I've always had good luck with my Shure SM91 inside the head about 3 or 4 inches from the beater side head and therefor used to getting plenty of attack.

I've tried micing the soundhole and almost always end up not using the outside mic at all.

The soundclip you provided didn't have a lot of beater definition in the kick. This is not a bad thing (just a character thing) and I'd expect micing just the outside whole to give you a similar tone. Personally, I USUALLY go for more beater, but, again, this is just a personal preference.

I wonder what this mic sounds like when placed inside the kick drum.

Brandon

[In10city]

I'm using this mic just inside the resonant head port, so that the XLR plug is just inside the head. The mic is about 4 or 5 inches long so the elements are approximately 6 inches inside the resonant head. Do you think I should back it out some more? I didn't want to end up with "wind noise" or something so I left it in far enough to avoid restricting the air flow of the port.

[brandondrury]

Do you think I should back it out some more?

Yes, because your question illustrates that you obviously haven't tried it yet. If you don't like it, put it back where it was.

It gets complicated talking about kick drum mic placement in text. I like the mic pretty damn close to the beater. Some guys don't. There is less low end there, but that's never been a problem for me. At worse, EQ can fix that pretty easily.

As far as wind noise is concerned, I've never noticed wind noise on any kick drum I've recorded off hand. I've put condensers like my AKG 414 or Soundelux U99 right on the Soundhole and never noticed wind, but that may depend on the drum.

Brandon

[In10city]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Yes, because your question illustrates that you obviously haven't tried it yet.

Good call. I'll give it a try after I re-head the kick.

[DogpitStudios]

If your getting wind noise or some kind of buzzing or distortion type of sound that might be from the wind then you shouldn't point your mic in the exact dirrection of the wind. But it below the beater and point it up, or above and point it down. Some people point it towards the floor tom or snare, I'd say floor tom is the best to get less snare bleed.

Ben

[brandondrury]

I've guess I've been lucky in that my SM 91 sort of takes this out of the equation since it lays on the bottom of the kick drum.

Brandon

[In10city]

I ended up placing the mic just inside the resonant head port so that the elements were about 1 inch inside the head. This placement was MUCH better than I originally tried and I appreciate the suggestion. I never got any wind noise or anything like that and the mic performed as good as I hoped it would.

After listening back to the 'final takes' on my drum tracks, I decided to boost a very narrow band of 6200 hz to give the kick a little more definition and 'wet' sound so that it can be heard on smaller speakers and through headphones but that's the only EQ I needed.