DAN AGOSTO: Hi gear fans. My name is Dan, and this video is going to be looking at the kick drum, and in this particular video, we’re going to be listening to the kick drum recorded with the Electro-Voice N/D868, and then in the next video, we’ll listen to the kick drum with the Shure Beta 52 and we’ll compare the two.

So, I really like this N/D868, the Electro-Voice because it really doesn’t require much in the way of E Q in most applications like you may want to EQ it if you’re doing like heavy metal and you really want to get that high end click in there, but for most applications it cuts through the mix really well.

So, I set up both mics on the kick drum, and they’re pretty much the same spot. They’re kind of big mics so it wasn’t the easiest thing to do but I think I got pretty close with both of them to where I wanted them, and let’s give a listen to this kick drum. I have it soloed right now.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE]

So, as you can hear, the N/D868 gives a good amount of punch, a good amount of low end, and also a good amount of slap. And as you could see where I have the mic positioned, a lot of times engineers will put a microphone on the other side of the kick drum just to pick up more of that slap. I believe with the Electro-Voice, you don’t really need that as reinforcement.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE]

We are getting some cymbal bleed but I guess that’s to be expected. I was banging on the cymbals. So, let’s listen to the kick drum in our mix and see how it fits.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE PROJECT MIX]

Actually it actually can come down a little bit.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE PROJECT MIX]

There’s no problem cutting through. I’m going to go ahead and throw a compressor on there. I’ll just throw a Neve 88RS on there. I don’t really need much in the way of EQ but I’m going to put some compression on there. I’m going to do a fast attack. Try an auto release for now, and just bring that threshold down and ratio up...

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE PROJECT MIX]

...and turn that on. There we go.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE PROJECT MIX]

And we’ll use some makeup gain.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE PROJECT MIX]

Solo it just to check for our release, and we want some quick release.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE]

Hi cut to bring out some of those cymbals.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE]

You don’t want to cut out too much of the click of the kick drum that’s cutting through our mix.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE PROJECT MIX]

We’ll do a slower attack on there.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYING A KICK DRUM TRACK RECORDED USING THE ELECTRO-VOICE N/D868 KICK DRUM MICROPHONE ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE PROJECT MIX]

That’s good enough for what I think we’re doing here just to kind of see what the Electro-Voice M/D868 can do. So, make sure to check out the next video. We’ll be listening to the Beta 52 from Shure.