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Adding sub bass to kick drum


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Hello,
I am currently putting together a new band. I want to use the sound company that my former band used. Everything was great with this sound co. except we felt like the low end was missing especially on the kick drum. The sound guy stated that he can only reproduce what is sent to him via the kick mic. We want low end kick like you would hear on a modern rock recording or at a modern rock concert. Ive done some recording at home at with my experience, I have to add the sub bass to the kick to get this modern sound. EQ alone will not do it.

So my question is, is there any hardware that will add sub bass frequencies to the kick that can be used live? Or any other tricks we can try? I dont know what the specifics are on this sound co's equipment. But I can tell you that when you play CD's through it, the bass is there.

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Quote Originally Posted by lovegun View Post
Hello,
I am currently putting together a new band. I want to use the sound company that my former band used. Everything was great with this sound co. except we felt like the low end was missing especially on the kick drum. The sound guy stated that he can only reproduce what is sent to him via the kick mic. We want low end kick like you would hear on a modern rock recording or at a modern rock concert. Ive done some recording at home at with my experience, I have to add the sub bass to the kick to get this modern sound. EQ alone will not do it.

So my question is, is there any hardware that will add sub bass frequencies to the kick that can be used live? Or any other tricks we can try? I dont know what the specifics are on this sound co's equipment. But I can tell you that when you play CD's through it, the bass is there.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...9QEwBw&dur=560
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Quote Originally Posted by lovegun View Post
Hello,
I am currently putting together a new band. I want to use the sound company that my former band used. Everything was great with this sound co. except we felt like the low end was missing especially on the kick drum. The sound guy stated that he can only reproduce what is sent to him via the kick mic. We want low end kick like you would hear on a modern rock recording or at a modern rock concert. Ive done some recording at home at with my experience, I have to add the sub bass to the kick to get this modern sound. EQ alone will not do it.

So my question is, is there any hardware that will add sub bass frequencies to the kick that can be used live? Or any other tricks we can try? I dont know what the specifics are on this sound co's equipment. But I can tell you that when you play CD's through it, the bass is there.
What's the bass drum mic your using?
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Is your sound guy named Wyn? Just asking.

Any decent PA with subs should be able to get what you want. The question then becomes "is there enough rig for the gig?"

Low end is one of the most difficult things to get right because the demands on speakers and AC power are high. If you don't have enough gear, or enough current to run the gear, low end won't happen.

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Quote Originally Posted by lovegun

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...Ive done some recording at home at with my experience, I have to add the sub bass to the kick to get this modern sound. EQ alone will not do it...

 

This comment is why I am suggesting that the OP start by looking at the kick drum, not the PA.
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To actually add "sub" bass you'll need to gate an oscillator using the kick drum as a trigger. You can probably get the effect you want with a peak/dip EQ (as opposed to a shelving eq which is typical on a mixer) and a compressor much more easily.

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The mic is a Shure Beta 52A. The only reason I think the PA is sufficient is because when we play CD's through it, the bass sounds great. We will definitely try tuning the kick. Our sound guy did suggest that to our drummer from my last band. The drummer argued about it. This will definitely be the cheapest route. Hopefully the new drummer is not as stubborn and at least give it a try.

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Do you by chance know the make of the drum kit and the head being used? Also have you adjusted the location of the mic in the bass drum itself to see if that helps?



Bob's the man. Bass drums can be tricky to tune due not being able to hear the tones as well as smaller drums but nice video on tuning that bass drum.

Hear those are good mic's for the application that you are using

I once had a D112 that went funky on me and no matter what could not get it to sound good, swapped with another one found out had a bad D112 that "worked" but didn't produce desired results and was the source of the issue.
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Quote Originally Posted by lovegun View Post
We want low end kick like you would hear on a modern rock recording or at a modern rock concert.
These are not the same thing. There is MUCH MUCH less low end enhancement on a recording than what's typically done at concerts.

Ive done some recording at home at with my experience, I have to add the sub bass to the kick to get this modern sound. EQ alone will not do it.
That's not correct. In fact, when listening to a recording, excessive low-end on the kick is a big indicator that the mix engineer was an amateur. What you are hearing on recordings is most likely a combination of excellent tuning, playing, and recording, along with (depending on the genre) a lot of compression.

Our sound guy did suggest that to our drummer from my last band. The drummer argued about it.
facepalm.gif

-Dan.
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Well dude, if you can't get the kick to sound good the rest of the kit is gonna sound like carp too. If you're looking to play paying gigs you might want to look into an eKit. I'm pretty happy with my Alesis DM8 Pro - it allows us to rehearse at volumes where we don't need to mic the backup vocals and we'll be able to gig places where an acoustic kit is too loud cool.gif assuming we ever get out of the basement facepalm.gif . Also helps to have a PA that doesn't "look" loud wink.gif .

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There you go, hatin' on the DL112 again. Funny thing is the one "A" listish drummer I often work with has one built into his kick and I've never had a problem getting a good sound out of one. You do have to high pass them bit and get them in towards the beater head - sitting them right at the port gives you all "woosh" and no "thump" IMO.

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