Reply posted by Bryan Wright on March 07, 2001
Personally, I have never been fond of many AKG mics for live sound, other than perhaps the venerable 414 and a smattering of others, so unless there's some sort of budgetary constraint, you might want to look at others as well. You know what they say about other people's advice, though... it's worth what you paid for it most of the time. :)

I have never heard an e602 before, but I have heard both rapturous and not-so-rapturous things about them. I don't know which to believe, so until I hear one for myself, I'll avoid that completely. I DO know that unless you don't MIND EQing the crap outta yer kick channel (you should see the curve it takes on a 31 to make them sound decent... YIKES) you might want to avoid the D112. To my ears, very harsh in the midrange and upper midrange where you find that tasty little "click" from the beater that it takes to make the instrument stand out.

The Beta 52 is warm, smooth, and round-sounding and *almost* lacks the "click" the AKG provides way too much of. Very nice mic, though... I like these on kick a lot, and they do great double-duty on bass guitar too.

BTW, what's wrong with a Sennheiser 421 or EV RE20 for kick? Is there some price point you're at that keeps you from looking at these? I regularly see used 421s for around $200 and used RE20s for around $300. Both very durable with excellent response.

As far as overheads, I *really* love my Crown CM700s. I have had seasoned engineers comment on the clarity and smoothness of these little guys, and the CM700s don't have the huge form factor of the AKG C-series. Cheap, too... around $225 new. They have a 3-position LF rolloff switch that suits them perfectly to this application. In general, they don't require a whole lot of EQ either (depending on the room, of course).

Just my opinion, of course.

Reply posted by Paul Babikian on March 07, 2001
I don't know about that "durable" part referring to the 421. I've seen many that either have a broken mount(you'd think they'd improve the design by now) or parts of the wind screen are missing.

Despite it's flaws, it's still one of my favorite mics.

Pauly

Reply posted by Harry on March 07, 2001
Those are my two favorite kick mics.

I use the D112 a lot. I don't find it to be too bad, but it does tend to make every kick sound the same and if the kick is not up to that task it is difficult to get anything good out of it. Thoughts like "that kick drum is not tuned well" and "that kick sounds like crap" come to mind. The mic is not forgiving of a non-in your face, pound your chest kind of kick.

Also, if you are looking for a REAL, ACCURATE, kick drum sound I guess an RE20 at some distance would be the ticket. I like the RE20 inside the drum hole and a nice 4 band EQ with parametric mid bands, and peak/ shelf and sweep controls on the lows and highs. With that little bit of EQ (which is more than you usually get on the average live console), and that mic, you can get just about whatever the kick will let you have.

Reply posted by Howard Smart on March 07, 2001
Here's my input!!!

For kick 1st choice Shure B91.....the mutts nuts
2nd EV RE20 / 27
3rd Shure B52

O/H 1st Shure KSM32 very nice
2nd AKG 414
3rd Calrec....can't remeber the
model but as rare as rocking horse shit!
4th Shure SM81 good on hats aswell

As for a D112.......crap !! i'd rather have a 421 with a battered pop shield!!!!

Reply posted by Rog on March 06, 2001
Hi Mike,

Don't be a girl. D12 (for real men) not D112 egg in ya face no bass mic for kick, and 414 or some other load of crap for overheads. You come from the UK so it's SM 57 on snr and toms for you my lad.

None of this nice smooth Neumann on guitar cab thing like they do across the pond for us. We are Britsh and dirty. Someone recently posted a question about British EQ, there's no such thing, just dirty people who know how to make things real and rock.

Listen with your heart young Skywalker. Ears are for people who've had heart bypasses.