Hello,
i have tried tons of ways to try to get that famous metal bass drum sound.... But i cant seem to get it. Please tell me the placement that works best for you. Or if you use any effects on it. Thanks

I cut a hole about 6" in diameter at the top of the bottom left quarter in mine, put a pillow in it than stuck a mic in. sounds good to me.

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just mic it with a lot of pillows and make shure you mix it with a lot of attack (lots of high)

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The best way I've ever found to get a nice click for the bass drum is to take a bass drum mic and put it inside the drum itself with the capsule pointing up at the beaters from below. If you have a mixer where you can select the mid frequency in the EQ, then sweep it at about 3.5khz and crank it. Don't crank the highs too much, as that will make it too clicky. You should also try cutting some lows to make sure that it isn't too boomy. If your mics and pres are good enough, you can get a pretty damn good kick sound with not too much damping. Also, a little compression never hurts, but don't over compress. When I tried this and it worked, the mic was an AKG D112 through a Soundcraft SX12 mixer with no other effects.

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get your self some triggers, i used triggers on the last recording i did and they sound immense, you`l get that perfect click sound and every note will be the same volume for the earthquake sound that drummers get doing fast double bass.

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triggering is.... for pussys

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Triggers are the famous metal sound whether you like it or not.

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nah not really. what sounds better live? triggers that feel like theyre punching you in the chest or a miced bass drum that you can only hear double bass below 150 bpm? i play fast. im not proud to say i use triggers over normal mics i refused to for ages, but when ive been onstage using triggers, you can come off and people say fuck your feet are pretty fast. instead of the guitar was too loud i couldnt hear the bass drum.

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meh, the whole idea were it dosent matter how hard you push the pedal kind of bugs me.

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yeah it can be too sensitive and missfire but the overall benefits within a live metal gig make up for it

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dont you have to buy a mod or some extra electronics for it also?

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I have a beta 52 shure kickdrum mic and I use it on my tama rockstar custom bass drum with a evans EMAD batter head and place the mic into the Evans EQ3 resonant head hole and with a pillow at the bottom to lightly dampen both heads the result is pretty wicked, i find the only way to get a click sound is to use triggers for bass and run it through my ekit module and for that reason i use my ekit for recording (just cuz the bass patches on it are pretty pro clickety sounding) but just for example of the first way i described goto www.soundclick.com/churchburn and listen to pain in pure form, also goto www.myspace.com/mentalmasochist and listen to the mountain, that recording utilized a beta52 in the mic hole and a shure instrument mic at a different angle and even though there was a ton of blankets in the drum for home practice the result was still pretty spectacular

I think "pretty spectaclular" might be an exaggeration.

Must agree.

basically my trigger cost me £40 www.thomann.de best site around for cheap stuff, check the price of eliminators!

back to the subject, i have had a yamaha dtxpress for a few years now, i just use the brain from that. alot of people use the alexis brain due to the retro electric sound it gives. ebay them, not too badly priced, a mic can work as a trigger as well but obviously its not as responsive as a sensor on the head itself. also triggers are so easy to make. buy a thing called a pieso element, it is used in buzzers and stuff like that. i got 5 of the things with loose change i was carrying at the time. loads of tutorials on building electric drums and triggers are online.

after playing a gig a few weeks ago i had a perfect bass sound without triggers. but how often is it that people play gigs in unsigned bands where the sound guys actually give a shit about what the drums sound like?

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if you're going to buy an acoustic drumset AND triggers AND a brain to record, why not just buy an electric drumset?

Most people just use triggers for the bass drum. Everything else sounds fine micced.

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I don't think triggers are nessasary so much. They are easier to get the perfect sound and stuff but give off a very unnatural feel. And lack power IMO. They sound just like clicking with no actual BASS behind it. I think you can do just what drawn and quatered and the doc said. Pillows and holes. Just mic it flat and then adjust it in the mix.

There have been many bands that don't use triggers on their bass drums and they sound fine to me.

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Fine or better. Theres some horrible bass drum sounds out there, like Immolation - Unholy Cult thats a horrible bass drum sound

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Yeah, plus it is possible to get the same or better click with a mic.You have to muffle the drum up a lot though and put the mic inside right by the beaters.

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