GEAR REVIEW
DPA 4055 KICK DRUM MIC | Carl Albrecht w / David Terry
KEY FEATURES
• Picks up the clear , true sound of the kick drum
• Flat frequency response so you can shape the sound your way
• Built tough to withstand rough use on the live stage
• Asymmetric design for easy placement inside or outside
Checking out a new microphone is always a bit of quandary for me . I ’ m a musician / drummer / producer by trade and training , but engineering is not my strongest gifting . At least that ’ s how it is for me when it comes to “ tech and specs ” details . I think I do have pretty good “ musical ears ;” I can tell when something works or doesn ’ t . I also know how to work on placement and a bit of EQ and other effects to get the right sound . So , I trust my gut and my musical instincts when it comes to these types of things . But knowing how something works technically is not one of my strengths , not yet anyway . With that in mind , I called on my professional engineer buddy , David Terry , to help me evaluate the DPA 4055 Kick Drum microphone . He ’ s a great musician as well as a highly trained and seasoned engineer . I really appreciate his opinion and experience with this sort of thing . So here ’ s what happened .
Photo # 1
The approach we took was to compare the DPA 4055 with other microphones we like to use . We used a Shure Beta91 , a Beta 52 , a classic SM57 ( not really a kick mic , but a drum favorite overall ), an Electro-Voice RE20 , an AKG D-112 , and even a Neumann U87 . We tried to be sure to use the same placement for each microphone to make a fair comparison , which normally for me is just inside the hole of the front head of the kick pointing towards the beater . The only exceptions were the Beta 91 , which is designed to be placed flat on the towel we used inside the kick for muffling , so we kept it inside the drum ; and the U87 , which was too big to get into the hole . Its pick-up pattern is on the side , so it was placed just outside the hole as close to the other mic positions as possible .
You can see in photo # 1 exactly where I placed the 4055 . As David and I used the mics , this was our favorite position overall , save for the exceptions mentioned above . Of course , with any microphone , experimenting with placement always brings a different flavor to the end result . Normally as you get into the kick drum farther and closer to the beater you will get more “ smack ” of the beater sound . As you keep moving it out , you ’ ll get more air or what I would call a boomy sound . But for this test we went with what I ’ m used to in general , and David agreed .