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Has anyone used the Shure Beta 52? I can't get a decent kick drum sound out of it. It sounds distant from the rest of the kit. I have tried every position imaginable. Is it just a piece of shit like the SM57s it comes with?

I personally can't stand that mic for anything except the bottom of a Leslie cabinet if there's not something cooler around. In any case, you say it sounds "distant" from the rest of the kit. Have you experimented with reversing the polarity of the mic? Sounds like it may be out of phase with some of your other mics.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

i agree, i have one of those mics, and the only thing it is good for is resting on a pile of paper near a draughty window so it doesn't all blow away. it sucks.

I too have yet to get a very decent kick sound out of my beta 52 either - at least without significant EQ. Haven't found much other use for it either. Actually, I can often get a better kick sound out of the SM57.......

i've been pretty happy with mine so far. i just got it maybe two weeks ago. i have it on a 10" stand, right where the front head would be if there was one, maybe 4" in from the shell of the kick, pointed maybe 20 degrees to the right of what would be a straight line to the batter head. it's getting pretty massive low end, at least from what i can tell. i've also received compliments from just about every drummer that's ever played my kick, though, so maybe that's helping. and for what it's worth, mine doesn't sound at all distant. it sounds big and up front. i dunno if this'll help, but do you have your pretty close to the shell? maybe there's some kinda proximity effect thing that you're missing out on? i dunno.

here's a link to the thread where this was discussed before

http://www.electrical.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1292

and when i posed the question about the beta 52, here's what Bob wrote

The Beta 52 is a perfectly respectable bass drum mic. If you can only afford to have one bass drum mic around, this will work fine. If you are at a studio with a large mic collection, try some different mics on the bass drum.

so i know it can't be just me who has had a non-bad result with it

I also love my Beta 52. Admittedly it's the only kick drum-type mic that I possess, but I get great results with it. While I do mainly use it on kick drum, I find that I get a great sound out of it by sticking it in front of my guitar cab (Marshall 1960AV) along with an AKG C3000. The Beta 52 picks up the grind and the C3000 picks up the grit quite nicely.