# Kick drum reverse speaker mic



## ejbragg (Dec 13, 2009)

Hey, guys, I've been contemplating building myself an auxiliary kick drum mic using a speaker, to help absorb low end for special occasions. Has anyone done this before? Does anyone have any special tricks they wouldn't mind sharing? Thanx.


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## BoogieBear (May 25, 2008)

A lot of folks seem to favour the white cone low frequency driver as used by the infamous Yamaha NS10 monitor but IMHO that is just for show! :coocoo:

Any smallish driver is worth a go - try a cheap 5" driver such as that used in a car stereo system 

Cheers
Anton


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## Soundguy1 (Dec 3, 2008)

Yes, I have used them before, very unique and have had people compliment the way it sounds. You will need a second mic in the kick though. You don't need anything fancy.


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## tehguit (Jul 19, 2009)

If you want to do it REALLY properly, you'll need to build a DI and probably a pad switch in it as well, but works fine run into a DI.

Classic way to do it is get a smallish drum shell, drill in some hooks or eyelets and use bungie cord (the elastic stuff with the hooks on it that i can't remember the name of at the moment) to suspend the speaker in the middle. Then just use something like a snare stand without the snare holder to mount it.

Works like a charm.


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## 0bazooka_joe0 (Mar 22, 2010)

tehguitarist said:


> If you want to do it REALLY properly, you'll need to build a DI and probably a pad switch in it as well, but works fine run into a DI.
> 
> Classic way to do it is get a smallish drum shell, drill in some hooks or eyelets and use bungie cord (the elastic stuff with the hooks on it that i can't remember the name of at the moment) to suspend the speaker in the middle. Then just use something like a snare stand without the snare holder to mount it.
> 
> Works like a charm.


I'm wondering if hooking it with bungie cords would affect the responsiveness of the cone. For instance, if the drummer starts on a rhythm with the kick, being suspended by bungie cords, the cone would start to move back and forth but so would the entire speaker. Would the motion of the entire speaker itself not affect the responsiveness of the cone. It seems to me that if the speaker was bouncing/swinging away from the beater as its being hit you would get a weak response as its moving away in the same direction as the sound wave. Where as, if the speaker was bouncing/swinging toward the beater as it is being hit you would get an exaggerated representation of the kick, probably along the lines of a massively clipped initial transient.

I'll have to try this one out.


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## spacedout (Dec 17, 2007)

Yamaha actually make one of these already: the Yamaha Subkick


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## Soundguy1 (Dec 3, 2008)

spacedout said:


> Yamaha actually make one of these already: the Yamaha Subkick


Here are some instructions, and as the article points out you are talking about a huge price difference. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/SPKR-MiK--How-to-make-a-microphone-from-a-speaker/


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## 0bazooka_joe0 (Mar 22, 2010)

woo hoooooo!


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## ejbragg (Dec 13, 2009)

Great information, guys! Thank you.

Getting some brainstorms going already. I've seen the Yamaha kick drum mic before - quite interesting. But I'm kinda getting in the mood to piece one together myself. I have some old speakers around here somewhere. Don't necessarily want to destroy a good speaker / cabinet combo for this. I'm more curious than anything else right now. I've used a D112 for a couple years, and am presently using a D6. I'm quite happy with the pun ch of these two mics - I've also played around with the earthworks kick drum filter. But I'm looking for some more ideas, and am just more curious than anything else about what type of response I can expect from an added dimension such as this.


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## jaddie (Jan 16, 2008)

You might try a load resistor across the speaker, which would damp any cone resonances and help control cone excursion which could become an issue in this application. You could start at 8 ohms and move around from there. A DI should be unnecessary, if the level is hot, just use a pad. A passive DI uses a transformer, and cheap ones use cheap transformers which can saturate at high level low frequencies. An active DI would be fine, but there's no need to isolate the speaker, so a resistive pad would work and be nearly free. Smaller cones would be different than larger ones. I'm thinking a 5" woofer with the lowest possible Fs. 

Jim


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## ejbragg (Dec 13, 2009)

Thanks, Jim,

Did you mean a load resistor across the voice coil? Or in series with the speaker?


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## jaddie (Jan 16, 2008)

ejbragg said:


> Thanks, Jim,
> 
> Did you mean a load resistor across the voice coil? Or in series with the speaker?


Put it across the speaker's voice coil. The idea is that when used this way the speaker becomes a generator. When it has a load to drive the cone will become damped, and not be loose and sloppy, making transients tighter, and cone resonances lower. It works like the "damping factor" of an amp. You might try it with/without, and the starting point for the resistor value would be the impedance of the voice coil. You will lose a little output this way, but the response should be smoother. Should be plenty of output when placed in front of a kick.

Jim


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## Darnstrat (Jan 9, 2010)

ejbragg said:


> Hey, guys, I've been contemplating building myself an auxiliary kick drum mic using a speaker, to help absorb low end for special occasions. Has anyone done this before? Does anyone have any special tricks they wouldn't mind sharing? Thanx.


Yeah, I took a Radio Shack Minimus-11 (it's mate is blown), connected a 1/4" jack to the outputs.. plugged that into a Shure A95U xfmr... works awesome. Zero dollars invested.
Gonna have to try the 8 Ohm resistor across it though for the dampening factor. Great tip!:yikes:


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