The two-minute reviewer

"Nothing I know of in the world would make my old tools sound like this. It's better than I know how to make it and takes absolutely no effort."

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Perhaps the most important yet unsung hero of almost every pop, dance, folk, zydeco, rock, hip hop, house, roots, traditional, world music, et cetera et cetera is the BASS DRUM. Its tone, volume and musical composition profoundly affect the impact (pun intended) of the music - it can get you up off your bum and dancing or punctuate a tender lyric perfectly.

Shure's Beta 52 is a godsend to the severely limited kick arsenal.

Here's the skinny. Historically I used an AKG D112 and more recently a D12E (with tons of eq), an EV RE20 (with megatons of eq), or some boutique mic I keep secret--- compounded with exciters and expanders--- but that's about it. Along comes "Mr. Portly", a BIG, grey steel hammer of a mic on a swivel. OK, I like it so far, it's heavy. I hook it up one inch from the front head (slight angle) and trundle off to the control room the usual half hour of tweaking.

I push the fader up, tell the drummer to start kicking, reach for the low mid-range equalizer and just as I'm about to turn it on, I stop - hand on button, jaw dropped. I sit down. I listen. The bass drum sounds PERFECT! I look around to see if anyone's watching (they're not), so I go on to the snare drum. This can't be true. My ears must be asleep or something. Once I get the rest of the kit focused, surely I'll need to go back and fix the kick.

When I finish with the whole drum kit, my partner Drew walks in and says "Nice kick". "Yeah", I say, "I worked on it a lot", then point out that the channel's flat. "Mmmmm", we both say appreciatively. When the rest of the group is eq'd and we start recording, I notice that the kick holds up from tune to tune. The clarity; the little punch in the chest from the tight low, low end, and non-muddiness is totally happening. I can turn it way up, it drives the band, I can turn it way down, it's there in its own little space. But wait, there's more!

Drew finishes recording the album over the next two days, I come back to mix the project a couple weeks later. I've forgotten we used this marvelous new mic. I push up the faders and immediately flip at the presence and punch of the kick. Then I remember - oh, yeah! That mic Dave Clevenger brought me to examine. I carefully build the mix and upon completion take a glance to make sure everything's as intended, and I notice THE KICK IS STILL FLAT! There is no eq, aural excitement or DSP program! Nothing I know of in the world would make my old tools sound like this. It's better than I know how to make it and takes absolutely no effort. That's what I want from my tools. Immediate gratification.