Audix D6

Working musician, live sound and recording for almost 30 years

I got this mic back when it was still a little of an "inside secret" and have never looked back as far as kick drum is concerned. It's not that it will necessarily result in the "best" kick drum sound as there are just too many drums and drummers...not to mention styles of music for that to ever be the case. What's uncanny about this mic is it's ability to seemingly always produce a really good sound with little to no effort. Not the least of that is the fact that you needn't hunt for the "sweet spot" to get a good sound, any of several different typical positions will all yield different but equally good sounds. In other words...place the mic, turn up the channel gain and let it roll. Pricing is certainly an appealing aspect of this mic...but it really does the job regardless, and certainly as well or better than mics that not only cost much more...but it does it with much less fiddling than about all. This mic is about as close to a "plug and play" solution for kick drum as you can get. Again...that's not to say this will blow away any other mic for kick drum, or that multimic solutions and other more complex methods won't be superior some of the time. If you want consistently really good sound for kick drum with little fuss at a great price, this is it...period.

Been playing guitar for 25+ years having played in plenty of bands over the years. I have about 1 year of professional recording experience having produced two albums in the process along with a bunch of other little stuff. Also have a decent amount of live mixing experience with mostly rock bands. My philosophy with recording or any type of live sound is every instrument has its place. You are shoving several instruments with several channels into a left and a right channel. If all the frequencies walk on each other you get mud and mud is bad.

I did a lot of research looking for the best kick drum mic before I bought this and feel I found a winner. A decent amount of research was done right here too so I am just reinforcing what has been said. I looked at the Sennheiser 901 and AKG D112.. sorry to say I don't have much experience with either, but having read the reviews here I don't feel they would deliver the rock/metal kick drum sound I was looking for.

This mic made the horrible kick drum at my church sound decent. And having just gotten back from a major week long gig playing with a drummer with a nice set of drums, all I can say is this mic RULED! It doesn't take much fiddling either to get it to sound good. I know a lot of people here say you can run the mic flat. You can, but for my live application a nice boost in the low end (40-50 hz) going through a set of EV I-25 speakers and a sub gave a tight punchy thump in your gut. Then if you dial in a little 4k htz you get a nice "click" off the hammer that gives a nice polished professional sound.

It goes without saying this mic is supurb for any rock/metal application. Is it good for other styles of music? I would say so.. I feel the sound can be sculpted plenty with correct mic placement and someone that truly knows how to turn the EQ knobs. Maybe not for some jazz applications as I think there are warmer kick mics out there, but if this was lost or stolen I would replace in a heartbeat.

I've been making music for about 15 years playing guitars and doing vocals for numerous rockbands. Been engineering live and studio for about the same amount of time. Currently working as a freelance producer/engineer.

This mic rocks my world. It's so much easier to work with than the other popular kick mics out there (d112, shures). It works especially well for metal type kicks, very nice and tight. I've even used it to mic up a guitar cabinet for a very detuned sludgy metal sound and got a sound that I was very happy with. And yes... no eq in the kick. it's that easy. Seems to be built like a tank too. Aaah ... i am lost for words.. i love this mic!

I play all styles professionally on a 1993 Premier Signia kit. I have recorded to tape and direct-to-drive. My current gig is with an 80s tribute band about 6 nights a month in the Denver Metro area. I use the mic for live playing only at this point.

I use the D-6 on my kick and my presence in the overall sound has never been better! No eq, no compression or other tweeking used. I put it on a stand and point it right at the beater about 3 inches off the batter side head, right where the instructions say. It's small, light, stays where it's put, and delivers a big sound with just the right amount of punch. Our sound guy told me it's the best investment I've made so far. I bought it after reading the promo literature and then asking around. I looked at the Shure, AKG, and Audio-Technica kick mics. They were either too big or too expensive, and I found this online for cheap. Hell yeah I recommend it!

The D6 is my live kick mic of choice. It's not as natural as the D4, but how often is natural what you are looking for? I prefer the feel of the Beta52, but the sound of the D6. If the kick is underdamped, the D6 needs less gating than the B52, which is often a big plus. (I'd take either over the D112 in most any case.) (I've never used the dual element AT - I'm afraid I might like it, and it's just too expensive.)

I ve been making music for about 8 years, and own a Mac G4, Protools 6.9 le system with a Digimax lite 8 channel Mic pre.. My primary listening equipment is 2- 8 inch powerd studio monitors and 2 switchable 15 inch stage monitors for comparison.. but i am anal about making new copies after every stage of recording and listening to it on every possible radio, stereo, etc avaliable .

I hace 2 audix D6's carcoid and it is the best mic for the price around hands down.. i've toured with big name recording artist ad we used a D6 when we played medium 2,000-10,000 seat venues.. it is a work horse and there is almost no EQing necessary.. no kidding it make s that much difference.. I chose this mic because i heard it in action, and it sounded great.... you can almost pick it out on recordings if you know what to listen for.. I love this mic because i like heavier music and it can get real "clicky" ie... that KORN bass drum sound... if you dont have alot of cash and want a great kick drum mic this is definatly it.. i ran out and bought a second one used just incase i lost one...

I'm a musician who's been recording since the 70s. Started with a TEAC 4-track and have accumulated a LOT of gear over the years. I have my own project studio which I used nowadays mainly for recording alternative rock bands. I'd been using a Sennheiser 421 for kick, liked it alright, but wanted to see if I could improve on the sound I was getting.

I like this mic. Stick it in the front hole of a kick drum, near the back head and it gets a nice whack with a balanced low end. A good rock sound with little or no EQ depending on the state of the drum itself. But I really was blow away when a guy came in with a kick that didn't have a hole in the front head. So I placed the D6 in back near to and pointed at the spot the beater hits. I also placed my 421 in front about a foot out from the head. Listening just to the D6 it was fine. I could have used it alone. But bringing up the 421 just blew me away. By itself, the 421 was way too boomy. But mixing the two singals together (421 out of phase) and using a high pass filter just a little to cut under 60 Hz on the 421 gave me a sound to die for. The D6 gives the full range balanced power to the kick (no EQ needed) and the 421 yields the low down boom. This is a great marriage of two very good mics. If I was recording rap music, I wouldn't have cut anything of the 421.

Well I have had this mic now for about a year and have been extreamly impressed by it. A few of my friends had bought this mic before me and I was sick of borrowing their mic off them!
I am a home recording musician running a firepod onto laptop. I am a guitarest and drumer and find it incredably usefull to have some good mics hanging around the place!

One of the great things about the d-6 is that you just stick this puppy in or close to the whole, and bang, you have a killer bass drum sound!
Un-like a lot of bass drum mics where you feel like you have to have a small world war before you get a good sound out of them, this beauty needs to just get close to the bass drum and it sounds great!

Like other reviewers, this mic is surprisingly versitile and you will want acress to a couple of them. Just last week when I was micing up my mashall stack at church (yes it does happen!), we had a spare d-6 hanging around and stuck it straight on with a 57. The d-6 gives a lot of presence, especially if you are wanting to fill out a mix! I just found out that my brother who also recently bought a d-6 did the same thing to a boogy combo and had the same reaction! This mic has balls! (He also puts a Rode Classic on the speaker - and is a bit of a sounic manic but that is another story).
What I am trying to say is that this mic is fantastic. It is extreamly cost effective and great for both the professional or home enthusiast.
A lot of people think this mic is only good for rock. The fact is, if you after a fat,full tight sounding bass sound for any kind of music, you really can not walk past this mic. Great live and in the studio!

I've been drumming for 6 years. I do home recording. I use a firepod, and a bunch of other stuff.

i play a tama starclassic birch kit.

I use this for bass drum. have tried it on a floor tom as well.
so when i first bought it, i was like ..hmm this doesnt sound as good as i thought. So then i learned that i could turn the gain up on the firepod. Thats when the magic happend.

All i can say is, holy shit, buy this mic. Its exactly the clicky big bass drum sound i was looking for. With some compression its even better. i've never tried a d112 or a beta because from reading abou tthis mic and past experience with audix i found it pointless to try those

Floor tom, very deeeeeeeeep. i wish i had two so that i could actually use it for floor tom.

FOR AUDIO SAMPLES EMAIL ME

I've been playing drums for well over 20 years, and have had a home recording studio for a couple years (Digi 002R) where I tinker with a bit of everything...

I have an AKG D112 that I've owned for almost 20 years now. It has been my main studio kick mic, and I've used them live too. I've been recording with it lately and have had to apply a lot of EQ to get the sound I wanted (and that's after repeatedly trying different mic positioning). BTW, Kick = Pearl MRX 16x22 with Evans EMAD and Pearl logo head with 5" hole. Evans AF patch on batter head.

I bought the Audix D6, placed it inside the center of my kick and WOW it was great the very first time. This is THE kick mic to get for a solid rock/pop/country/fusion kick sound without a lot of fuss. I will probably be getting one for live use as well.