Tried this with a Fender 2x15 bass cab. Just plugged a balanced jack to xlr male cable between the cab and mic pre of the sound card with great results.
My sister and I used to have nothing but one Shure "pistol-grip" style mic (very similar to a 57) and a small square mic that looked like it was stolen from an ATC tower or something.....and a Tascam 424. Well, the square air-traffic control mic died, and we were left with only the "pistol-grip" 57. Having known of the use of speakers as low-end mics for kick, I decided to try a pair of large headphones. You know the type, REALLY big and heavy, coiled cable, 1/4" stereo plug at the end, like headphones used to be, back when people gave a shit how their music sounded. So I plug these monstrous headphones into a mono input jack on the 424, and one headphone worked as a mic. So, out of curiosity, I A-B'ed it with the handgun mic. Well, it was actually quite nice, almost like a perfect cross between an SM7B and a ribbon. If you happen to have a pair of headphones, with 40 or 50 mm drivers - that maybe don't work properly anymore, but only because of shorts in the wiring or something other than blown drivers - you absolutely *MUST* try this. Same way you wired up your subkick, you can wire one driver to a cable or even solder it to a jack if you're feeling confident! It will blow your mind!
And make a VIDEO!!!!! Also, this will help to tighten up both the headphone-ribbon-sub-face-mic AND a loose sounding subkick, shellac works very well on the cone, if it is paper. Or the . . . . whatever they call it in headphones. Just a fine mist, spray the cone of a 12" speaker for a total of 4 to 6 seconds with aerosol shellac, and for a headphone element, less than a second. Spray from about a foot away. It makes the paper more rigid, and you'll have a more usable sound, with more attack and tighter lows. Obviously, don't do this to a guitar speaker that you intend to use in a guitar amp in the future, but if you have an old 10 or 12 lying around that you just don't have any use for, and you want to make a permanent subkick, or a permanent mic out of a headphone element, this can clean it up a lot.
Amazing. The cheap domestic speaker sounded better to me, richer and less boxy, but both were great. Rigging up the speaker cable to the DI box is GENIUS. I shall try using my little Fender Blues Junior as a kick sub using this method... Another brilliant video Ulf. Joe.
Wow this made a huge difference! There was so much thump and power in the kick (opinion based on listing on Kali LP 6)! Now I'm gonna try this with my old fender mustang (with 8" speaker). The only problem I've got is that I got e-drum kit in my house...
This is so good!!! Best Alternatives to the SubMics you can buy for more then 200 Euros... I just built one and it sounds great! thx mate! cheers from Switzerland
Älskar dina videosar!! De är så bra för att du förklarar hur du gör steg för steg och allt går att göra för en billig peng också! Fortsätt med dina videosar de är kanon! :)
Nice. Had a play around with a Fender 8" driver on its own on a mic stand which worked OK, but the low end from a Vox amp I tried after watching this is distinctly better. Thanks for the great vid. Out of interest, it might be worth thinking about speaker polarity - which way the driver moves in response to a positive voltage. Nothing that cant be sorted with a phase-flip post-recording I guess.
Great video. I was trying to determine if I should use a 6-8" speaker or 12" that I have laying around. You saved me some time, considering the 12 picked up more lows. I'll prolly end up doing both at some point... Good thing I garbage pick every speaker/stereo people throw out!
To avoid phasing problems you should wire the subkick backwards...positive to negative and negative to positive...it makes sense when you think about it...!...The speaker is designed to push out on a kick hit and a mic will be pushed in...!!!
You should try a bass combo 10" with bass reflex, it must be super beefy with massive low end. Guess 4x10" will be great too. Or studio monitor with bass reflex tube on a front pannel, monitor speakers are more sensitive.
Hi Ulf ! Thanks for your test and all your work. Amazing sound with the marshall amp. Could you please tell us what exact speaker is your combo ? thanks a loooot !
i did this with a genz 15" bass cabinet last year- even a good 3-4 ft back it had so much low end i used a cheap passive line mixer as a pad so it wouldn't clip my pre- worked like a charm
the amp speakers it seems richer in sounds and harmonics than the small cabinet. It might depend on the volume of the sub in the mix. Have you tried with a bass speaker too? they are designed for low end, so it may sound a lil better i guess, but th esound is already good like this
I know this is old, but... Every diy subkick tutorial always touches on the “backwards” wiring of the speaker to turn it into a mic. Is that bs? I’m trying to understand how I can use my bass cab without opening the cabinet to reverse the wires on the speaker. Love your channel and your music! 🙏
@@DZNTZ maybe you'll have to flip the polarity but otherwise it should not matter. I got a microphone that is wired "backwards" and it still works except for the polarity
You shouldn't connect white wire with a shield: 1 - there's no need to 2 - this makes unbalance in input impedances, which may cause some hum to be captured by your interface.
So when you used the regualar speaker and reversed the polarity do you have to use an attenuator or direct input box or noisegate to eleiminate feedback? I was thinking i could use my bass amp but i would need to use something like a DI box to reverse the polarity right?
You can reverse the polarity in your daw. The DI box is just to make the signal balanced so you don’t pick up interference. It’s just the speaker you plug in to the DI box. The amp should be left out.
Great tip using a regular speaker cab through a D.I. box. You really caught the bull by the nose, erm.. horns with this one! Thanks a lot.
Haha 😂 thanks!!
using the combo speaker without any modification is really cool
Tried this with a Fender 2x15 bass cab. Just plugged a balanced jack to xlr male cable between the cab and mic pre of the sound card with great results.
That guitar amp sounded a lot better than I expected! I think I need to move my subkick back more I'm getting that PTHHHT you were talking about.
Haha, yeah you just have to experiment a but with it.
My sister and I used to have nothing but one Shure "pistol-grip" style mic (very similar to a 57) and a small square mic that looked like it was stolen from an ATC tower or something.....and a Tascam 424. Well, the square air-traffic control mic died, and we were left with only the "pistol-grip" 57. Having known of the use of speakers as low-end mics for kick, I decided to try a pair of large headphones. You know the type, REALLY big and heavy, coiled cable, 1/4" stereo plug at the end, like headphones used to be, back when people gave a shit how their music sounded. So I plug these monstrous headphones into a mono input jack on the 424, and one headphone worked as a mic. So, out of curiosity, I A-B'ed it with the handgun mic. Well, it was actually quite nice, almost like a perfect cross between an SM7B and a ribbon. If you happen to have a pair of headphones, with 40 or 50 mm drivers - that maybe don't work properly anymore, but only because of shorts in the wiring or something other than blown drivers - you absolutely *MUST* try this. Same way you wired up your subkick, you can wire one driver to a cable or even solder it to a jack if you're feeling confident! It will blow your mind!
+Adam Rainstopper this sounds interesting! I have a bunch of old headphones, so I better try this out!
And make a VIDEO!!!!! Also, this will help to tighten up both the headphone-ribbon-sub-face-mic AND a loose sounding subkick, shellac works very well on the cone, if it is paper. Or the . . . . whatever they call it in headphones. Just a fine mist, spray the cone of a 12" speaker for a total of 4 to 6 seconds with aerosol shellac, and for a headphone element, less than a second. Spray from about a foot away. It makes the paper more rigid, and you'll have a more usable sound, with more attack and tighter lows. Obviously, don't do this to a guitar speaker that you intend to use in a guitar amp in the future, but if you have an old 10 or 12 lying around that you just don't have any use for, and you want to make a permanent subkick, or a permanent mic out of a headphone element, this can clean it up a lot.
Amazing. The cheap domestic speaker sounded better to me, richer and less boxy, but both were great. Rigging up the speaker cable to the DI box is GENIUS. I shall try using my little Fender Blues Junior as a kick sub using this method... Another brilliant video Ulf. Joe.
Cool, thanks! Did you try it out?
HoboRec i tried it with a fender pro jr3 to an avalon u5 and it sounded cool :)
Wow. Great content. I love that I can now try this technique with a combo amp that I already have.
Thanks so much
Thanks! Good luck. Leave a comment when you’ve tried it and let me know how it went 😀
Wow this made a huge difference! There was so much thump and power in the kick (opinion based on listing on Kali LP 6)! Now I'm gonna try this with my old fender mustang (with 8" speaker). The only problem I've got is that I got e-drum kit in my house...
This is so good!!! Best Alternatives to the SubMics you can buy for more then 200 Euros... I just built one and it sounds great! thx mate! cheers from Switzerland
Älskar dina videosar!! De är så bra för att du förklarar hur du gör steg för steg och allt går att göra för en billig peng också!
Fortsätt med dina videosar de är kanon! :)
Tack! Riktigt kul att höra =)
Nice. Had a play around with a Fender 8" driver on its own on a mic stand which worked OK, but the low end from a Vox amp I tried after watching this is distinctly better. Thanks for the great vid. Out of interest, it might be worth thinking about speaker polarity - which way the driver moves in response to a positive voltage. Nothing that cant be sorted with a phase-flip post-recording I guess.
Great video. I was trying to determine if I should use a 6-8" speaker or 12" that I have laying around. You saved me some time, considering the 12 picked up more lows. I'll prolly end up doing both at some point... Good thing I garbage pick every speaker/stereo people throw out!
To avoid phasing problems you should wire the subkick backwards...positive to negative and negative to positive...it makes sense when you think about it...!...The speaker is designed to push out on a kick hit and a mic will be pushed in...!!!
Good point! I usually just flip the polarity switch on the console to get it right.
You should try a bass combo 10" with bass reflex, it must be super beefy with massive low end.
Guess 4x10" will be great too. Or studio monitor with bass reflex tube on a front pannel, monitor speakers are more sensitive.
Do you have one? Try it!
Hi Ulf ! Thanks for your test and all your work. Amazing sound with the marshall amp. Could you please tell us what exact speaker is your combo ? thanks a loooot !
i did this with a genz 15" bass cabinet last year- even a good 3-4 ft back it had so much low end i used a cheap passive line mixer as a pad so it wouldn't clip my pre- worked like a charm
Did you reverse the polarity?
So when you used the direct line box you didnt jave to reverse the polarity or does your line box have a reverse polarity button?
Hi! I have a question, what about putting the solomon mic inside the kick drum? Inside and near the reso head, would be work? Thanks
the amp speakers it seems richer in sounds and harmonics than the small cabinet. It might depend on the volume of the sub in the mix. Have you tried with a bass speaker too? they are designed for low end, so it may sound a lil better i guess, but th esound is already good like this
Nice!
Thank you!
good tip.
Thanks!
I got lost. so if I have a 1x12 guitar cab I can just go speaker jack > input on d.i. box > output from d.i. to interface?
+Steven Baker Exactly!
I know this is old, but... Every diy subkick tutorial always touches on the “backwards” wiring of the speaker to turn it into a mic. Is that bs? I’m trying to understand how I can use my bass cab without opening the cabinet to reverse the wires on the speaker. Love your channel and your music! 🙏
@@DZNTZ maybe you'll have to flip the polarity but otherwise it should not matter. I got a microphone that is wired "backwards" and it still works except for the polarity
genious idea!!
You shouldn't connect white wire with a shield:
1 - there's no need to
2 - this makes unbalance in input impedances, which may cause some hum to be captured by your interface.
+Mareusz Faceusz thanks for clarifying! I’m just a happy amateur when it comes to electronics, but this makes sense. Thanks!
Awesome
So when you used the regualar speaker and reversed the polarity do you have to use an attenuator or direct input box or noisegate to eleiminate feedback? I was thinking i could use my bass amp but i would need to use something like a DI box to reverse the polarity right?
You can reverse the polarity in your daw. The DI box is just to make the signal balanced so you don’t pick up interference. It’s just the speaker you plug in to the DI box. The amp should be left out.
@@hoborec thank you very much
hey Ulf...would you cut anything below 40hz on the sub or you would leave it as it is?
Leave it.
3:53 "prhthhhhhh" :-)