A much more common technique for increasing the snare and/or kick levels in the ambient mics, however, is to set up a PA system in the room and feed it with a mix of the close mic signals. Chris Kimsey adopted this approach for the snare on the Rolling Stones' 'Start Me Up', for example ("The PA was aiming at the drums, so the snare would actually come back through the overhead mic and create this quite unique sound."), while Steve Churchyard used tinny little Yamaha powered speakers behind the drummer when recording the Pretenders. He also sent the odd delay effect through there too.

Chris Fogel has applied a similar approach with kick drum. "I run everything that's at the bottom end, like kick and low tom, into a powered 18-inch subwoofer situated right behind the drummer... Basically it extends the bottom end on the kick drum, and when the drummer hits the kick, you really feel it... In fact, in some cases I didn't have to EQ the drums at all." Jack Douglas takes this idea and turns it up to 11: "Another trick I'm trying these days is to spread out a bunch of powered subwoofers — maybe six of them — in the room. Then I'll put a contact mic on the bass drum and use that as a trigger, so whenever the drummer hits his bass drum, everything from about 80 cycles down to 20 suddenly shakes the room. The subs fill the room with this low wave, which everything picks up — room mics, guitar mics, everything. That'd be pretty tough to do in a project studio, though..."

Isn't that the truth Greg.

The problem with this whole scenario of running your bass drum and low toms through subs is the rest of the band hates your guts. Everyone starts turning up and you know where that goes..
It's great by yourself though.

Never tried that. Not even in the last two years.

Isn't that the truth Greg.

The problem with this whole scenario of running your bass drum and low toms through subs is the rest of the band hates your guts. Everyone starts turning up and you know where that goes..
It's great by yourself though.