How to build a sub kick

A Sub kick is an amazing piece of recording equipment. Using it live or in the recording studio, in grouping with at least one other decent kick mic it produces an incredible sound. If you listen to a soloed sub kick track, it doesn’t show the whole picture of the kick drum sound. But when you add it in with a great kick Mic, or any kick mic for that matter, the results will be awesome

The Sub kick is a large diaphragm microphone (actually, an 8″ speaker wired in reverse) that basically only picks up sounds at about 500Hz and below. Used with a regular kick mic (Beta 52, D112, D6), it can help fill in some additional low end, especially in the 60-120Hz range. It will also pick up some of the low end of 16 & 18 floor toms.

Speakers and microphones are both known as “transducers”, and they work on the same principles. Although one is normally meant to produce sound, and the other captures it. You can actually wire a speaker or microphone in reverse to perform its opposite function, and this is exactly what we’re doing with a sub kick.

We can make one sub kick for about $30 or $50. To build a sub kick, at first you take a speaker, preferably something around 6 – 9″. Then you need to solder the wires to an XLR cable. Take the XLR cable, cut off the end, and wire the positive (+) of the cable to the negative(-) on the speaker. Vice versa for the other wire, and then take the common ground and wire it straight to the speaker chassis.

There are several concepts about using a speaker as a microphone and using this for a kick mic has been done for many years. You will get the best results from a 10″ or 8″ soft mounted (i.e. soft edge, hi-fi, not hard edged guitar) speaker like the bass driver to an NS10 or similar. To make a low-priced sub kick we can use any old 8″ or 10″ speaker.

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