I have a pair of Lauten Audio LA-220 V2s above my drum kit, and I’ve previously reviewed the Lauten Snare Mic [Tape Op #159], Tom Mic [#163], and Rim Mount [#164], so of course I was eager to check out their Kick Mic too! If you haven’t been following along, these Lauten drum mics are all condenser mics. Specifically, the Kick Mic is an end-address pressure gradient FET condenser. Like the other Lauten drum mics, this one has its own swivel mount, with a metal lever that helps lock it in place once positioned. It’s not a huge mic – about the same diameter as a dynamic vocal mic but about 40 percent shorter. There are two miniature switches for low-pass and high-pass filters (LPF at 5 kHz or 12 kHz, HPF at 80 Hz or 140 Hz). The mic also comes with a Cordura zip bag for storage and an aramid fiber “impact patch” sticker for your bass drum (to place where the pedal impacts the head).
I frequently use a condenser on the outside of a bass drum but have always relied on a dynamic mic inside. For the Kick Mic, I started with both filters flat, then eventually engaged the LPF at 12 kHz (to reduce cymbal leakage). I can see where the other settings may be useful in a live sound situation, when combining with another mic, or just for creative purposes, but I preferred the HPF set flat. Lauten strongly recommends sticking this mic all the way into a port on the front head of the kick, so that’s what I did. The port on my drum is at four o’clock, so the mic was angled up slightly toward where the beater impacts the head and… Boom! I mean that literally! Maybe it’s because it was a little farther inside the drum, but compared to my other mic, the Kick Mic sounded almost like it had a slight gate on it. It was picking up all the good sounds and none of the muddy or weird, ringy overtones that I might otherwise EQ or gate out. There was almost no bleed from the rest of the kit. I’ll be honest, I didn’t have to work hard to find a sweet spot. It immediately delivered a warm thump with plenty of bottom and just enough attack for some definition. Output level-wise, it was pretty darn close to the dynamic mic I had been using. Other than engaging +48V phantom power, I didn’t even change the settings on my preamp.
Later, I tracked some drums for an online/remote drum project. It was a heavier rock song, so in the mix I did use some additional EQ and a tiny bit of gating, but the recorded sound was about as "finished" as I’ve ever heard from a bass drum mic, and I’ve tried a lot. Fast forward a couple weeks, and I’ve now used the Lauten for sessions ranging from rock to pop to country. I might not grab it first for traditional jazz, but let’s be fair, if you are mic’ing up a kick drum, it’s probably not a jazz session anyway, right? However, for a modern rock-style sound, this has quickly become my number one.
Many of us have an idea of what our ideal kick drum sound is, and that always comes down to personal taste. For me, this one checks all the boxes. If you are still searching for your perfect kick drum sound, check out the Lauten Audio Kick Mic. Your quest may be over!