Kick 2 2015 Dual Audio 720p Video
Morgana Castrillo
The DTP 640 REX is a dual-element microphone specifically designed to capture the sound of your drums and percussion instruments. It consists out of two phase-aligned capsules, a condenser and a dynamic one. You can switch between three sounds for more flexibility for studio and live applications.
We put two phase-aligned microphones in a single housing. The dynamic side ensures accurate attack reproduction of the kick drum, while the condenser element captures the drum's low end. Each element has a dedicated output.
You get a thumping dynamic microphone capsule that really delivers the punch and force of the kick as well as an electret condenser that adds clarity and definition to the snap and extended low frequency response that this microphone is capable of capturing. The result, once fed through two channels of a mixer and balanced to suit the drum, is really something special. I have never heard any kick microphone like this before.
To expand on the title: I've sampled "All Night All Right" by The Emotions in order to make a house song. I've laid down my drum patterns but can't get the kicks on the MIDI and audio tracks to match. It's very noticeable throughout the full song and is preventing me from finishing and releasing it. I've spent hours moving warp markers trying to sort it but to no avail. Can anyone advise me as to how I can resolve this? I'd be extremely grateful. Here is the track on SoundCloud so you can hear the issue for yourself. Thanks in advance to anyone who tries to help.
ARKAN is the second module release and a special take on a dual-voltage polarizer. These are often used to invert CV signals, especially when it is modulated with a negative voltage. The module offers some features that are very unique for a polarizer. The highlight is the curvature control which is usually only seen in unipolar VCAs.
For example, you can use it as a waveform distortion. Once patched, you can either boost and add odd harmonics (symmetrical distortion) or offset it and add even harmonics aka asymmetrical distortion. You can also run it at audio rate, then the module acts as a flexible ring modulator with four timbre parameters
Getting a good kick-drum sound is often quite a challenge, and achieving the ideal balance between the attack of the beater and the ringing of the shell can be too much for one microphone. As a result, it is not unusual to see two different microphones being employed, typically a moving-coil mic to deliver a slightly dynamically compressed sound that accentuates the beater transient, and an electrostatic mic to capture the body resonances.
Audio-Technica came up with a very practical solution to the problem in the form of the AE2500 dual-element kick-drum microphone, which I reviewed in Sound On Sound in December 2003 (/sos/dec03/articles/atae2500.htm). This Artist Elite Series microphone incorporates separate dynamic and electret capsules, both carefully aligned within a shared microphone body to ensure phase coherence between the two individual outputs. I was so impressed with that mic's performance that I bought the review model and use it often.
The same basic design has now been made more affordable, in the form of the ATM250DE microphone, which is part of Audio-Technica's more cost-effective Artist Series. A word of warning, though: the ATM250DE should not be confused with the similarly named and styled ATM250 model in the same range. The latter is a single-capsule dynamic mic that is also intended for kick-drum applications (as well as other loud instruments). The two differ visually in that the DE version has a taller, more extended grille.
The polar responses of the two capsules are nominally cardioid for the electret and hypercardioid for the dynamic. The dynamic capsule's output certainly sounds rather tighter at the sides and rear compared to the electret's output. In terms of the frequency response, the dynamic element has been 'shaped' to suit kick drums, while the electret element is fairly neutral. Both elements show slight presence peaks around the 4kHz region, but whereas this amounts to about 5dB in the dynamic capsule, the electret's peak is a far more subtle 2dB. The bottom end of the dynamic also has a broad peak centred around 90Hz, with a 'hollowing' in the response between this and the upper peak, giving an overall 'smiley' shape to emphasise the thud and click of a typical kick drum. The electret capsule's LF response is slightly subdued below 200Hz, falling to about -5dB at 50Hz, although the slope can be increased dramatically to reduce unwanted subsonics, if required, with the built-in, switchable, 80Hz high-pass filter.
Naturally, the electret capsule requires phantom power and will accept anything from 11V to 52V on its own output cable (with a 3.5mA current demand). The microphone is supplied with a dedicated five-metre break-out cable, with a five-pin XLR at the microphone end, and two male three-pin XLRs presenting the individual outputs from the two elements (with clear 'Condenser' and 'Dynamic' labels). An isolating stand clamp is also supplied, complete with a 3/8-inch thread adaptor to suit European mic-stand threads.
Like its larger and more expensive AE2500 sibling, the ATM250DE is a more neutral and subtly tailored kick-drum mic than many, and that allows it to provide a far wider range of tonalities. So many dedicated kick-drum mics are 'one-trick ponies' that always produce the same sound regardless of the size or tuning of the actual kick drum. While that might be useful or convenient in some circumstances, I much prefer to capture what's actually there in the first place, and the ATM250DE allows that with considerable flexibility. Its inherent neutrality and very high SPL capability also makes this microphone ideally suited for use with other loud and dynamic sources, such as bass and electric guitar cabs, and brass instruments too.
Naturally, with two elements instead of one, the ATM250DE is more expensive than many single-element kick-drum microphones, but the price differential is offset by the extra versatility and convenience that this approach provides, and I think it is a trade-off worth making. If you are working with a wide variety of musical genres, the tonal flexibility and practical convenience afforded by the ATM250DE is very attractive and well worth considering.
A compact, dual-element kick-drum mic, providing the best attributes of both a moving-coil and a capacitor capsule with critically time-aligned diaphragms to avoid destructive interference. The output from each capsule is available separately, allowing them to be combined to suit the material and personal taste.
The underlying concept of this kind of microphone is to combine a large-diaphragm (32mm) dynamic cardioid capsule (which is intended primarily to capture the character of the kick beater), with a small-diaphragm (22mm) cardioid electret capacitor capsule to focus on the shell resonances and decay. The two elements are mounted one above the other within the same physical microphone body to ensure precise time-alignment, so that their outputs can be mixed together to achieve any required tonal blend.
Other dual-element kick drum microphones are available, of course, such as the Audio-Technica AE2500 and its lower-cost sibling, the ATM250DE, both of which have been reviewed in Sound On Sound (the December 2003 and April 2012 issues, respectively), and the DTP640 REX has a very similar form and overall design. This chunky new microphone measures 158mm in length by 71mm in diameter, and it weighs 755g. The 5/8-inch threaded stand adaptor (supplied with a 3/8-inch converter) is an integral part of the microphone body, and also incorporates the five-pin output XLR connector.
Switching to the middle, 'Dynamic' EFR position emphasises that 'smile' response for the dynamic microphone quite considerably, adding roughly 10dB of low bell EQ boost centred at about 50Hz, and a broad HF lift of a similar amount above about 2kHz. In other words, it boosts the boom and click dramatically, to match the typical tonality of many conventional kick-drum mics. The nominal sensitivity of both capsules remains the same as in the standard mode, and the electret microphone's response is completely unchanged.
As it happens, I own and use regularly the Audio-Technica AE2500 dual-element kick-drum mic, and although that model costs almost twice as much as the Lewitt design, it still makes sense to compare the two in a practical situation. So, I installed both microphones in an open-fronted kick drum, placing them in similar positions symmetrically on either side. At the console, I set a typical amount of gain on each of the four channels and then faded each up in turn, as my tame drummer started to flex his leg muscles.
I found that the flat EFR mode most closely matched the tonality of the A-T mic, and once the gain structure had been optimised, the two performed quite similarly. Switching to the Dynamic EFR mode gave a more typical kick-drum mic sound, and provided a great solution when there is one kick drum channel available, presenting plenty of LF weight and HF click, plus a nice mid-range scooping for clarity.
I have become a big fan of the dual-capsule kick-drum mic approach, and found the Lewitt mic compared quite favourably with my own A-T AE2500 in many ways. I would recommend keeping the 10dB pad switched in for the electret, to balance the two capsule outputs more effectively, but with that small proviso, the DTP640 REX is a good-sounding and very versatile dedicated kick-drum mic.
Two other dual-element kick-drum mics worth considering are the Audio-Technica AE2500, which costs roughly twice as much, and the same company's more affordable ATM250, at about 40 percent less than the DTP640 REX.
A totally new, innovative mic design, the Audio-Technica AE2500 uses specifically designed dynamic and condenser cardioid transducers mounted side-by-side in perfect phase alignment in a single microphone body. This dual-element approach offers audio engineers a kind of remote control at the mixer position. Whether you mix the mic's two elements together or record them on separate tracks, the $699/list AE2500 offers many creative processing options when miking LF sources such as kicks, floor toms and bass cabinets.
dd2b598166