Kicksville, a musical conglomeration and municipality, have three records out on Ropeadope Records. They started their musical journey in 1998 as an open-ended studio project. The band also takes the show on the road with dates in the works for 2009. There are almost 60 citizen-musicians in the Kicksville community, but musical ideas usually originate with "The Mayor" Mike Stehr and "Commissioner" Conrad St. Clair collaborating. St. Clair took some time to talk to Gearwire about a few of the pieces of gear they can't go on without. In this last interview he talks up the Audix SCX1 microphone.

Tell me about what this mic is for; In what environment does it work best?

The SCX1 is a small diaphragm condenser, available in three different polar patterns: SCX1-C (cardioid), SCX1-HC (hyper-cardioid), and SCX1-O (omni). It works pretty much anywhere, studio or stage.

How and when do you use it?

The SCX1-C is very similar in sound and purpose to a Neumann KM184, and despite the fancy German name, I actually like the SCX1 better. I know, I know. . . blasphemy! Seriously though, the SCX1 is extremely flexible and sounds great. I’ve used it on everything from a $75,000 cello to a 1972 Buick hubcap.

Here’s one example of how we use the SCX1 in the studio. When we record a drum kit, we usually utilize a kick tunnel. We take 2’x2’ acoustic panels and build a sort of “Foam Henge” that extends out about two feet, and helps to separate the bass drum mics from the rest of the kit. Then, we stick an Audix D6 in the bass drum, an SCX1-HC at the end of the tunnel, and voile: hot aural action!

In the Kicksville live show, everything is run direct except vocals and percussion - and there’s a LOT of percussion. Because we don’t have ear-crushingly loud guitar amps bleeding all over the place, we can basically mic the percussion like we do in the studio. That means we can get a better, more realistic drum sound than if we were forced to close-mic everything, and helps to keep our already over-sized input list reasonable. For example, we use a pair of SCX1-Cs in an X/Y pattern in front of the drum kit instead of individually micing all the toms. Also, our main percussion world (which we affectionately call the Hobo Kit) is pretty monstrous, but we only need three mics to cover it since we don’t have to fight those damn guitar amps. It’s a left-center-right pattern, using two SCX1-Cs for left / right, and a CX-112 for center.

Tell me a little bit about why you like Audix in general.

Audix have been great to deal with and are very supportive. Another thing we like about Audix is their involvement in things like promoting music in the Portland community (where they’re based) and music education in the schools. We’re kinda suckers for fellow pinkos. . . On a practical note, their mics are worth far more than what they cost and are built to take some serious road abuse.

Funny story about how durable Audix mics are in general: Kicksville was playing a large outdoor festival last summer, and we got hit by a series of massive thunderstorms. Our entire upstage percussion world got soaked so bad that I was literally pouring water out of the mics. I let them dry out a bit between sets, put ‘em back up, and they ran without a hitch. You might expect that from ye olde SM58, but not something like the SCX1 or “delicate” large-diaphragm condensers. And they still sound great! For our upcoming release, The Singles - Season 2, we’ve been using that same Audix package to record almost everything that wasn’t run direct.

Is there a type of mic that Audix is best at?


Audix’s condensers are as good as almost anything out there -- I think that’s their strongest suit. I just wish they made a tube mic! The one mic they’re probably most known for in the pro audio business is the D6. Once you stick that up your kick drum, there’s no going back.

How would you compare Audix mics to other manufacturers of live or studio mics?

Outside Kicksville, my main gig is as the chief audio engineer for one of the largest theater and arts complexes in the country. I’m lucky enough to have an incredible mic complement at my fingertips that would make most major studios drool, and I still bring my SCX1s to work with me. Considering the theater’s mic closet has a drawer stuffed full of [Neumann] KM184s, that’s saying something.

In a studio context, I’d have to say the Audix mics hold their own, too. We use the CX-112 on all the vocal tracks in Kicksville, the SCX1s on everything from percussion to violin, the D2s for guitar cabinets, and so on. I have heard great things about the SCX25, but I haven’t had the chance to check it out yet (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). And if they only had a tube mic. . .

For you bullet-point-lovers and gear-hounds out there, Kicksville provided GW with a list of their live show microphones:

Drum kit:

• kick: D6
• snare: i-5
• center X/Y: SCX1-C (x2)
• overheads: CX-111 (x2)
• floor tom FX: D4
• djembe: D2

Hobo Kit:

• overheads: SCX1-C (x2)
• center: CX-112

Downstage left percussion:

• djembe: D2
• overhead: SCX1-HC

Downstage right percussion:

• hand percussion: D2
• overhead: CX-111

Vocals:

• OM5 (x5)
• VX5