Custom Built Subkick Microphone

 

 

 

Recently I built a subkick microphone for  recording a kick drum.

 

A subkick microphone is a low-frequency microphone that picks up low frequencies, roughly around 100Hz-2000Hz. It picks up low frequencies that a normal microphone cannot, this is due to its large diaphragm. The large diaphragm of this microphone will pick up more of the low frequencies when recording a kick drum or bass guitar. When used in conjunction with a microphone such as the D112 the kick drum has a ‘punchy’ bottom end sound.

 

Looking at previous custom-built subkick microphones, such as the one being used at Univibe studios in Birmingham, it was apparent that a subkick microphone could be built from an old speaker and an XLR cable.

 

This one was built from the speaker from an old practice guitar amp and reversing the polarity of the xlr cable on the back of the speaker. It was then mounted to a small microphone stand so it could be adjusted to the desired placement when recording.

 

When testing it, it showed it picked up alot of low frequencies making ideal to record a 'bassy' sounding kick drum as the image shows.