Audix D6

Impressed by the tone from this Mic, can capture a defined click or thud but can also dial it for nice tone/ timbre voicing of the bass drum for when playing Jazz or folk. Dynamic sound from micking floor toms with this as well.

Without a compressor on it, the D6 can hear and define a good amount of the ride cymbal, even if it is unwanted ;) as in to say - it has a surprising high freq definition for a bass mic.

Super strong chassis/ casing. Impressive SPL limit, although subjective when using full un-ported reso heads.. still got squashed when used 'on axis', close up. Curious to try this next under the bass side of a grand piano in a mix.

only disappointment is the supplied clamp, super fine casting yet firmly sprung, making it cumbersome to set up and can't see it surviving me long term even in a home studio, have other generic sprung mic holders that do a better job.

Making no pretences to be an all-rounder, the D6 is clearly aimed at big fat kick drum sounds. It's a large-diaphragm mic with anything but flat response, scooping out the boxier low mids whilst accentuating the deep lows and giving some click near the top. It makes for a supremely efficient live tool given that the natural frequency response represents what many engineers will go for anyway. Couple this with good build quality, great reliability (so far anyway) and a reasonable price tag, it's something I would recommend for any small/mid live venue that takes pride in it's sound whilst also working on tight turnaround times. Travelling engineers will generally approve too.

Audix makes great mics! This one is fantastic on both kick and toms. It's not flat in it's frequency response by far, but the sound is excellent. It gives me both the thud and the click in one mic. I mainly mix rock music so I'm not necessarily looking for the most "authentic" sounding kick drum though.

For genres where you want a more acoustic and natural drum sound there might be better mics. But if you want your kick to cut through heavy guitars, this is one of the best mics you'll find.

I kinda want to compare it to the Shure Beta 52A, but tuned even harder for "that" kick sound. And it's not nearly as big and heavy as the Beta (it's under half the weight), so no need to use a double round base stand to keep it from tipping over.