How To Record A Bass Drum Like A Pro

[@therockhour1386]

For the outside kick mic, here's an old school trick: The "dollar bill trick". Take a dollar bill, and drag it across the resonant head while someone plays slow quarter notes. There is likely to be one or two areas where the paper does not get pushed out by the soundwaves/Air. Put the mic there.

[@kylekrysadrums]

Hey that's a good one, i'm going to have to try that!

[@iksszed8048]

Thank you Kyle,greetings from France.

[@dicnxhxj]

Very interesting!

[@jamescassidy4045]

So how do you like the ATM-25's? I got mine to use for inside kick, as it's obv a bit notorious for that, but heard great things on toms, and even guitars. Have you just used your's on toms mainly for recording, or do you like it on kick in ever? Also, do you often place your kick in mic off to the side, and pointing away from the beater like in this video? That actually sounded really good considering how off axis, and angled away from the beater it was hah. I'd love to see you do a video on tuning your kick for rock etc. Just curious how you like to approach your head relationship in terms of batter tighter, or Reso tighter, or same, and just what you generally go for in terms of general tension on each head.

[@kylekrysadrums]

Hey! I'm a big fan of the ATM 25s-I actually own four of them. I pretty much always use one as my kick drum inside mic. Recently, I started trying them on my toms and have been impressed, though I still think the kick is where they really shine. I've noticed it gives my kick a more natural and less hyped sound than my other mics. For my setup, I usually place the ATM just inside the kick drum’s port hole, pointed straight forward. This positioning is usually a bit off-axis, aimed somewhere between the beater and the drum edge. If I want a punchier sound with more attack, I’ll move the mic further inside but keep it angled off-axis. I actually picked up this technique from Terry Date-I've always loved his drum sounds, especially how punchy his kick comes through. He uses ATMs on all the toms and the kick, with the mic on the kick aimed straight in, slightly off-axis from the beater. I basically borrowed that setup, haha. When it comes to tuning for rock, I keep it simple. I tune the batter head just enough to get the wrinkles out, then tune the resonant head slightly higher and add muffling to taste. For a modern, punchy sound, I like it tuned loose with plenty of muffling. If I'm going for a classic rock vibe, I'll tune it a bit higher with less dampening.

[@kiplingtturner]

So I listed to the audible book “beast” the book about John Henry Bohnam drummer of Led Zepplin and they said Jimmy page succeeded, where others failed in recording John Bonham’s huge powerful sound putting the mic further away from his drum set like an Ambient mic 🎙️ word to the wise the great Jimmy page knew how to master and track and record

[@kylekrysadrums]

That's interesting. I didn't know that. Bonham used such a huge kick that was tuned pretty open. I imagine having the mic right up against that drum would have been extremely over powering to everything else in the mix of the song.