Getting a good recording of a kick drum can be tricky. The type of miking and the drum mix depend on the kind of music. For pop, rock or dance music, it's essential for the drums to form the rhythmic foundation of the songs, and here the kick drum plays a leading role.
Tonal preferences vary, but in general the aim is to capture the body (that dry, deep sound) and the attack (produced by the beater's impact), and in many cases the best approach is a mix of both. This can be hard to achieve... Placing a microphone inside the kick drum pointing at the beater will capture the attack. On the other hand, placing a microphone just inside the kick drum or at the port will provide more body and less attack. So... how do you capture a balanced combination of body and attack?
Shure makes 2 different kick drum microphones, each with its own advantages. The Beta 52 is ideal for low-frequency punch and is Shure's best microphone for capturing the body of a kick drum. The Beta 91, on the other hand, which is also well suited to kick drums, performs particularly well when placed inside the drum to capture the attack. A common miking technique is to use both microphones to capture an excellent sound that combines body and punch.
This dual-mic technique is sometimes known as "inside and outside," and it's done like this: place the Beta 91 inside the kick drum and the Beta 52 next to the port, as described above. The idea is to take advantage of the strengths of both microphones and blend the sound of the two. This offers several advantages over using just one microphone and trying to find a position that captures both body and punch. Any multi-mic recording of the same instrument can produce phase cancellations. For the best results, experiment with inverting the phase of one of the channels to get the most coherent sound.
