"I think DPA has absolutely knocked this one out of the park."
Live Sound International's Dennie Miller tested our 4055 Kick Drum mic on a wide variety of drums, drummers and msucial genres.
"I think it’s fair to say that anyone would be hard pressed to find a sound engineer worth their salt that doesn’t choose their kick drum microphone based upon the genre and musical content du jour. So, what gives? One of the most reputable mic manufacturers on earth has created a product that flies directly in the face of such a standard practice? They’ve absolutely fallen off their chair, right?
My friends at the company were kind enough to send me a pair to try and now that several weeks and performances spanning multiple styles of music have gone by, my skepticism has proven unwarranted, and I think DPA has absolutely knocked this one out of the park.
(...) I’ve now had an opportunity to use the 4055 with metal, R&B, and country artists, and in each case the same scenario played out. I gave the 4055 its own input strip, placed it similarly to the existing mic(s), and proceeded to A/B the sources. Without fail, it took a matter of seconds to create a sound that I did far less – yet different – processing to achieve; however, in each case I was instantly happier with the sound attained with the 4055 than the previous mic of choice.
It didn’t matter whether the goal was powerful low-end paired with the clearly dened attack of the batter head for metal (the short impactful transients of the double kick were out of this world), a well-rounded and punchy internal sound for R&B, or the fat but scooped kick sound from outside the drum that is so popular in pop-country, the 4055 found itself at home in every situation.
I will admit that it made me rethink my idea of what my kick channel’s EQ should visually “look” like without the inherent high-frequency boosts and low mid-frequency cuts that are baked into so many other mics, but in this case the theory of less is more remains true. I even found myself choosing to favor a single 4055 over a blend of two microphones, which really surprised me.
I’ll sum it up like this – I’ve thought for a long time that DPA is on to something with their “choose your own adventure” philosophy, and the 4055 continues to prove that. I now have four other kick mics for sale, and I would submit for your consideration that perhaps mics that alter the sound of a source aren’t as wonderful as everyone thinks they are. I could go on, but you get the idea – use your ears, not your eyes, and try it for yourself."
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