When I went into recording the drumset had a small accessory that went over the port which enhanced the sound. It looked like a small snare drum to be honest. Does anyone know what this is called or what exactly it helps in the sound? Is it worth it to get one?

yamaha subkick maybe? i know that it acts similar to a mic, not sure exactly what it does.










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zen_drummer wrote:

Real life doesn't work that way, and one day he's gonna pull a stunt like that and they'll put a cap in him. At that point it won't matter that he was fat in high-school and couldn't get laid.

it is a speaker housed in a drum shell, inversely wired to act as a microphone.
It's able to pick up much lower frequencies than typical mics.

http://www.yamaha.com/drums/drumproductdetail.html?CNTID=544671&CTID=


lot's of DIY'ers make their own by just using an unmounted speaker.








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M is exactly right. The idea itself of using a speaker as a mic is nothing new, The Beatles were doing it back in the 60's. You can do it yourself, as the Yamaha Subkick is rather pricey, but the frequencies that it picks up is AMAZING. I've been saving for one for a while now. (BTW, the Subkick was created by Russ Miller, studio ace,)








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Yes, this is an old producer's trick to get more low-end in the mix. So if you were going to make one, what would it look like? Just for grins.....








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That's interesting! I always thought it was just a little thing to go in front of the bass drum to give it an added little sound! This is very interesting...








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I play drums with the following items: Tama Superstar SK Hyperdrive, Sabian, Paiste, Aquarian Heads, Vic Firth sticks, and Latin Percussion. Nicko McBrain(Iron Maiden) deserves FAR more respect than he recieves!!!

all of QOTSA's drummers have done it. including Grohl








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I've play around with the subkick and it does sound awsome... do notice though, for the best sound out of your bass drum you'll need a more standard mic inside teh drum to capture the definition. the subkick on its own is just really low tone, which alone will be a waste of time...

there is a russ miller video on the yamaha website where he talks it through...

http://www.yamaha.com/drums/drumproductdetail.html?CNTID=544671&CTID=5040593

click where it says DEMO below the pic

cheers








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Simeon is absolutely right on the money. The subkick does pick up those incredible low ends, but you are still going to need a good kick mic, it doesn't stand on its own. I have even heard of engineers using two kick mics and a subkick.

a friend lent us one of these for the past few weeks, so we experimented with it.
Glad we did, instead of just buying one.

I could see where it might be nice for certain types of music, but not really for the organic sound we are interested in.

It definitely scoops up some nice lows, though not quite as exaggerated as I expected. There's just not much punch, since the mids and highs aren't there. You'd definitely need to pair it with other mics to get a typical bass drum tone.
Our engineer noted that it sat differently in the mix~ whereas other bass mics might be said to sit 'inside' the mix, he felt this one kind of spilled over the edges a bit, which would make it easier to stand out if that was what you wanted.

I don't think it's quite the tool for us, but I'm glad we got to experiment with it for a while. I can think of plenty of more useful toys for the studio, this one would be pretty far down my list








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