I haven't used it, but when I first saw this product I was also intrigued.

Seems to me though that it's nothing more than an attenuator (pad), which, if you really wanted/needed one you could build yourself for way less than the cost of the Kickpad.

See? http://www.uneeda-audio.com/pads/

I think it's just a passive filter.

May be well designed though, but you'd really have to hear one.

In addition to a pad it has a passive filter network. I couldn't really find a frequency response chart, but it is said to have a midrange boost. $100 for some high tolerance resistors and capacitors seems like a lot to me. Especially if you are using a DAW because plugins do the same thing and you're not be limited to using it on one track (and using a fixed configuration of the filter).

I was going to mention elemental audio's products, but I see Roger Nichols acquired them. He changed their names and made them look stupid. And tripled the prices in some cases. And plastered his name all over them. separate rant...

I've always wondered about the Earthworks drumkit mics, if anyone has uised this 3 mic setup it would be cool to hear about..

I haven't used the Earthworks drum miking kit, but I have mic'd a drumset with three mics-- two of which were Earthworks.

The mic placement was pretty typical: one Earthworks TC30s were placed in the vicinity of the ride cymbal and floor tom pointing towards the snare. The second TC30 was placed about two - three feet above the hi-hats, basically equidistant from the snare, rack tom and high hats. A Soundelux iFet7 was placed in front of the kick drum, level with the top of the kick about three feet away from the drum.

As was expected, the Earthworks were incredibly neutral. Both omnidirectional and relatively flat, they picked up the drumset in a super natural, almost-human way. It sounded like the room. The TC30s are pretty noisy, but it doesn't bother me on loud sources like drums. The iFet helped define the kick and give it a tighter low end that wasn't coming through the Earthworks. In the end, I kept wanting a close mic on the snare and ended up using a 175. The kit sounded open and natural, but was a little too uncolored for my tastes. Usually, I prefer ribbon overheads to condensers and close mic'd toms.

I've also used stereo TC30s infront of a drum set equidistant from the kick about a foot or two from the ground poiting at the floor when recording myself. It works (and sounds good) if you don't feel like working to hard for yourself.

Eh, that's my take. Take it or leave it.

I own a Kick Pad. What follows is, of corse, case specific and subjective:

It worked nicely in conjunction with the D112 on a bass drum. I found the attenuation to be handy, and the tone useful. In this case, it gave a more "scooped" sound, yielding more treble "attack" and a fuller low end. The Kick Pad gave a close mic sound for the bass drum that blends well with the rest of the drum mics. The only thing I regret about buying this thing is that I no longer have access to a drum-kit!

I like to get the audio where I want it analog side, so as to avoid more processing than required in the DAW.

spaghettilee wrote:I haven't used the Earthworks drum miking kit, but I have mic'd a drumset with three mics-- two of which were Earthworks.

I've also used stereo TC30s infront of a drum set equidistant from the kick about a foot or two from the ground.

I do the same, although I point the mics straight at the kit and add a bit of a single Royer 121 overhead.

If you think it'll help, you can get a pretty good idea of the sound I was getting if you go to www.thejetage.net and listen to the track called "Denny and Michelle (it's under "Audio"). When the choruses kick in, the drums get pretty roomy. Earthworks went through a Hardy M1, Royer through a Speck 5.0, blended through my Harrison board, which probably made the tracks a little beefier and woolier. -E

http://www.earthworksaudio.com/52.php

I just got a demo cd for the drumkit mics in the mail. It only took them a day or so after I filled out the online form. Pretty useful if you want to dump it into a daw and do A/B comparisons between kickpad/no kickpad