CAD Audio KBM412 Dynamic Cardioid Kick Microphone

This was one of the first mics I ever bought when I was starting out. Bought it in 2011 to pair with my SM57 for micing my guitar cab for home studio recording and kept it with me since. Used the same combo on the kick drum when I started tracking acoustic drums. I still use it for guitar today, except most recently I used it paired with an SM7B and I'm still very satisfied. It captures the low end and compliments the Shure's track to create a totally new sound neither mic could create on their own.For kick, it is decent. Great for demos and perhaps live, but it does not get much of the natural sound or the bright attack, so I was always searching for a replacement. Ended up buying an Audix D6 which I am very happy with. I am planning on buying a second CAD KBM412 soon since the price went down to next to nothing to pair with the D6, D6 inside the kick and CAD outside for the boom, since I am mostly tracking bands live and use my first KBM on either the bass cab or guitar cab.Overall, I recommend this mic for teaming up with the favorite mic in your collection to pick up the extra low end you want in your mix and to save a lot of money for the real fancy stuff!

I purchased this mic to use on the kick drum at my church, and was pleasantly surprised. The sound leans more to the tone of a Beta 52 than a D112, as a matter of fact it sounds quite similar to a Beta 52 from memory, but I haven't A/B'ed them.I got a great sound with the mic placed approximately halfway between the resonant and batter heads, pointed directly at the beater. It had such a nice balance of boom/punch and click/slap there that I called it good enough, and didn't even bother to fiddle any more with placement. The drum is damped with a feather pillow, and has Evans hydraulic heads.For EQ, I used a very small boost from 100Hz down, a sharp cut around 250 - 320Hz to kill the "cardboard box" sound, a little slap added at 3kHz and a little click/air added at 5kHz. You'd never guess the sound coming from the speakers was a $40 Chinese mic.It's been in use for nearly 200 services now, plus practice sessions. It's still holding up great, and sounds wonderful.

I don't have any experience with high-end mics, so I really can't compare it dollar for dollar. I bought it to mic a Gong Bass from the inside. I have it positioned about 3" from the underside of the head, pointed at dead center. It is absolutely perfect for that job!

Very hard to adjust this to be able to record a guitar cabinet playing very loud but I eventually got it to sound ok, but if it weren't for my mixer having an equalizer it wouldn't sound that great because this thing can't handle the bass too much, I had to dial down the bass on the equalizer and turn up the treble and midrange and output 3/4ths and the mix at U and switch on the 78Khz cut-off switch to make it sound ok, and also had to fine tune the line in volume to just above 1/3rd because anything else would snap crackle and pop. But I am getting a new sound card to see if that makes any difference in the final results and output recording.

This is a great mic for the price. Surprisingly good for Cajon. Pair it with a standard microphone infront and this one in the back and you have a perfect combination for difficult to mic acoustic instruments like Cajon. And far cheaper than Shure too.Cons: Does not come with a case. That's why 4 star.

I wanted a real kick drum mic and i was impressed; tried it out on my bass cab and had to buy another one. I would say its a contender with shure and ev.

After our bass drum mic in our kit broke I wanted to find something else so we could continue recording. I decided on this one after reading the awesome reviews. I must say this mic has exceeded my expectations. Straight out of the box I was able to get a great bass drum sound. I seriously had to do no EQ modifications. It also sounds really good when I mic the bass amp with it. Don't miss this one.

Very touchy, you have to turn down low end if you want high volume out of it. I am able to get is as loud as I want through our mid quality sound system, but those who really want to crank up the kick might be disappointed.

Just placed inside kick drum about 2" from batter head,plugged in lead and switched on, great bass sound and very good value for money!!going to buy cad tom mics next no problems.

This mike is pretty good for the money. It has a lot of low end almost to the point of being muddy. However, after playing around with different positioning of the mike I got it sounding quite good. I use it for a kick drum in my home studio on a 20" Gretsch bass drum and I found that placing the mike about 10" away from the front of the drum, right in the centre produced quite good results. I tried it right at the sound hole, right inside the drum,etc., and wasn't very impressed. I have not yet tried it on a 22" kick but I suspect the result would be similar. I was using a Shure 57 but this produces a little more low end and sounds a little warmer. The build quality is pretty good and mount works well. Not bad for the money.