Capturing the full weight and power of the kick drum is a key recording challenge. Inside, outside and multi-mic approaches all have their advocates, but some favour cannibalising a full-size speaker cone — often the woofer from a Yamaha NS10 monitor — to create a make-shift extra low-frequency capture device. The people behind Solomon Mics are wise to this trick and have set about designing a bespoke kick drum mic built along the same lines.
Promising “chest-rumbling, sub-freq goodness”, the LoFreq houses a 6.5-inch dynamic driver, delivering a frequency response of 25Hz to 3kHz. Mounting to any standard mic stand, the LoFreq is smaller and lighter than conventional commercially available sub-bass kick drum mics, making it potentially easier to position over a more precise area of the kick’s front head. Meanwhile, a custom in-line pad helps to deliver a gain and impedance profile similar to the widely used Shure Beta 52A kick drum mic, so there are none of the issues encountered when trying to connect the overly hot output from a repurposed monitor speaker to your regular mixer and recording setup. Attractively finished in either white or black Tolex with a matching aluminium grille, the LoFreq is available now from the Solomon website, very reasonably priced at $179.99.
