Outside Kick Mic Placement: Low-End Weight and Resonance

Outside kick mic placement positions microphones beyond the resonant head, capturing the fully developed tone of the bass drum. This approach prioritizes low-end weight and musical resonance over the attack-focused sound of inside placement. Jazz, classic rock, and acoustic-oriented productions often rely primarily on outside placement for natural, full-bodied kick drum tones.

The Physics of Outside Capture

Sound emanating from the resonant head has traveled through the entire drum shell, developing harmonic richness that inside placement captures incompletely. The resonant head’s movement pushes air outward, creating pressure waves that carry the drum’s fundamental frequency and overtone series.

Distance from the head determines the balance between direct and ambient sound. Close positions capture more direct signal with tight low-end response. Distant positions allow room reflections to develop, creating a larger sense of space around the drum.

The port hole (if present) affects outside sound differently than inside placement. Sound escaping through the port contains significant beater attack that the resonant head itself doesn’t transmit as prominently. Positioning relative to the port influences attack-to-body ratio in outside recordings.

Standard Outside Placements

Close outside placement positions the microphone inches from the resonant head, either near the port hole or facing solid head surface. This position captures maximum low-frequency output while maintaining control over room contribution.

Facing the port hole captures some attack characteristics along with low-end weight. This position balances the resonant tone with enough attack for definition. Many engineers start here when using outside placement as the sole kick microphone.

Facing solid head—away from any port hole—captures pure resonant head movement without port hole air characteristics. This position emphasizes tone over attack, suiting musical styles where kick drum should be felt more than heard as a distinct attack.

Room and Distance Effects

Pulling the microphone back from the drum allows room sound to develop in the capture. This technique creates a larger, more ambient kick sound that can enhance the sense of space in recordings. The specific distance depends on room characteristics and desired ambience level.

Large-diaphragm condensers excel at distant outside placement, capturing the extended low-frequency response that develops with distance. Dynamic microphones designed for close work may lose low-end definition as distance increases.

Room characteristics significantly influence distant placement results. Rooms with favorable low-frequency response reward distance with full, natural kick tones. Problematic rooms with bass buildup or flutter may sound better with close outside placement that minimizes room contribution.

Floor reflections create comb filtering when they reach the microphone shortly after the direct sound. Raising the microphone or using boundary placement on the floor addresses this issue. Some engineers intentionally use floor reflection as a tonal element.

Combining Outside with Inside Microphones

Modern productions frequently combine inside attack microphones with outside body microphones. This dual approach provides independent control over attack clarity and low-end weight—qualities difficult to capture simultaneously with single microphone placement.

Phase alignment between inside and outside microphones requires attention. Sound travels different distances to reach each microphone, creating timing offsets that cause frequency cancellation. Time alignment during mixing resolves this issue, though some engineers prefer the phase interaction as a tonal characteristic.

Frequency division simplifies the combination. High-passing the inside microphone above 100Hz and low-passing the outside microphone below 200Hz prevents overlap that causes comb filtering. The crossover region can be tuned for specific kick drum characteristics.

When phase issues persist despite alignment efforts, polarity inversion on one microphone sometimes helps. The “correct” polarity depends on specific placement and desired result—audition both options before deciding.

Microphone Selection for Outside Placement

Large-diaphragm condenser microphones capture the extended low-frequency content that outside placement emphasizes. Models with flat response allow the drum’s natural tone to dominate, while characterized microphones shape the sound.

Ribbon microphones provide smooth high-frequency response and natural low-end that suits outside kick capture beautifully. Their figure-eight pattern captures room sound from behind, adding ambient dimension. However, high SPL at close positions may challenge some ribbon designs.

Dynamic microphones designed for kick drum work outside as well as inside. The same models used for inside placement—AKG D112, Shure Beta 52A, and similar—capture outside sound effectively. Their built-in frequency shaping affects outside tone just as it does inside placement.

Boundary microphones on the floor in front of the kick capture outside sound without floor reflection issues. This technique creates a focused low-end capture without comb filtering artifacts. The Shure Beta 91A works well both inside the shell and as a floor boundary microphone outside.

Genre Considerations

Jazz typically uses outside placement exclusively, capturing the warm, musical tone that the style requires. Inside placement’s attack emphasis contradicts the rounded, supportive role kick drum plays in jazz contexts.

Classic rock recordings often relied heavily on outside placement with minimal or no inside microphone. The resulting sound—full-bodied with natural attack—defined the drum sounds of the era.

Modern rock and pop usually combine outside placement with inside microphones, using outside primarily for low-end supplement. The attack control inside placement provides suits the precision these genres typically require.

Acoustic and singer-songwriter music benefits from outside placement’s natural character. The musical, unprocessed quality integrates with acoustic instruments more naturally than attack-heavy inside placement.