Audix D6

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.

Been making music for 10 years, have been recording demos for all the bands that i've been in for the last 5. I mostly use a Roland vs-880ex to record and then mix/master on my computer with cubase and sound forge. My primary listening equipement is my Kenwood surround system and my Sony MDR-V900 headphones.

This mic is awesome for rock or extremely heavy music. Its super low and has one hell of a click. If you think an AKG D112 is too woofy and doesn't pick up enough below 100hz, then this is the mic for you. Having said that I would never use this mic for anything light... ever. Go get an EV RE20, Beyerdynamic M88 or something else for that.

I have been a recording artist for the past 20 years in Brazil, South America (though seven of them spent in New York). Though I have several albums under my belt, both as an artist and producer, only recently, with the advent of digital recording, I could put a full blown studio together. I use a Mac G4 733 with a 002 Rack running Protools. My main mic pre is the Avalon 737, with a Digimax for toms and Focusrite pres for the rest (when recording live). My monitors are NS-10's powered by a Hafler power amp. When you start putting mics in front of things yourself (something I have been only doing for two years now), you suddenly realize how every detail affects the recording chain. No different when I compared the recently purchased Audix D6 to an AKG D112.

Designed for low-frequency reproduction, this dynamic microphone is made of solid aluminum with a cardioid pickup pattern. It is a small mic compared to other bass drum mics, and the frequency response is 30Hz - 15kHz, with 144dB max SPL, so it can handle any amount of low end pressure. There are no pads on mics like these, but with those specs you won't need it, unless you are planning to capture the sound of the Big Bang. According to the manual, the polar pattern isn't so tight, so minute adjustments won't make that much of a difference. That seemed to be the case when tested, you don't need to adjust it that much!

This one was bought for bass drum miking only (and the occasional bass amp or floor tom) and now I know I will HAVE to get another. I usually mike bass drums with the mic either in the hole right against the opposite head, as if touching the head (if there wasn't a hole) in order to get the woody sound of a massive maple shell. But sometimes I mic a few inches off axis right smack on the beater (still inside the shell of course) depending on the band.

I was never really happy with the D112 (I own 2) using the other one for a floor tom, when a Sennheiser 421 couldn't pull it off. Even with the Avalon 737 mic pre, it had this hollow midrange mud which made me have to EQ the hell out of it to get it to sound straight, sometimes with great results. But since my studio is very transparent, I never liked to have to depend on EQ to track. Something had to change. When I saw the ad and the user comments on the D6, I decided to give it a try. Being relatively new to the market, there weren't many reviews on the D6. Remember, I am in Brazil, it's not like I can subway up to 48th street and try it in Manny's or Sam Ash. I have bought blind before (a pair of Audio Technica 4041 for overall's were bought like that, and I am really happy with them), so why not? 200 bucks is OK.

I set up a recording session, actually a pre production session just to see if a few songs would work, and the only kit available was a lame Mapex middle to low end kit, with a 22 inch drum head that was actually torn about an inch, two inches away from the rim. Since this demo was only to check final arrangements prior to an album, I didn't care. I put the usual D112 inside about 15 inches from the beater slightly off axis and fired up the Avalon. No compression, but more that usual EQ made it sound pretty good, inspite of it being a Mapex, with a torn bass drum head. The blend with the overall 4041's sounded powerful, and for a drum sound put together in 5 minutes, it sounded OK (I usually record with top of the line rented kits, with a drum tech on hand, with a whole entire day to tweak...). Laid a few beats, then I changed the D112 for the D6. Went back into the control room not knowing what to expect, but anything better than that hollow midrange would be welcome. I think you can deduce by now that I was floored. My jaw dropped to 15 Hz! Amazing, just the way a bass drum should sound. Thick, defined, powerful. Also, it rejects background leakage much better than a D112, so I didn't even have to "tunnel" the bass drums with thick blankets. It was like a Bob Clearmountain sample! I could go on for pages... Now imagine if it was inside a DW, or a Pearl Master Custom? Got the picture, right? I will NEVER use a D112 again on bass drum, mark my words, and I will purchase another D6 just for the road for my live band. Actually I am selling one of the D112's!

Of course I recommend the D6 to others! If you are like me, really frustrated with your bass drum sound, or spending way to much time, or your best pre, to make it usable, LOOK NO MORE. I am a happy man and the bands I produce are happy too. Now I can think in ordering a Royer 122 for guitars...

Wow. Talk about easily the BEST drum kick mic out there under $1000.
This is an awesome product. Relitively small and lightweight, easy to place anywhere in or around the drum head, this mic is fast to set up. Mainly because it's not super critical about placement. But the sound is clean and pure. BARELY need to crack the EQ's. You could just not touch the EQ's and be fine AS IS with this mic. But I like to taylor it around the bass line a bit more

Great for Rock, punk and just anything that hits a drum fast and hard

This is a slam dunk, just put in place and set the level and it sounds great. I challege anyone to just put up another mic...no EQ...and have it sound better that the D6.

I have only had mine for two months, but its built like a tank.

Again, I dont think it will be a problem. Audix seems to stand behind this thing. If I have any problems, they said just send it back and the will fix it as long as I didn't run it over with a bus.