Buttkicker setup

DrDrumz · 3rd October 2011

Hey slutz,

Just wanted to share my experience setting up a buttkicker to use live and for recording. Our church uses in ear monitoring, which is great but doesn't give the same experience as playing in front of subs. The point was to add some tactile feedback. Played for the first time with the new setup and I'm a huge fan. Here's the details of what I used:

Internal kick mic (audix d6) mounted on a Kelley shu with a may vent hole adapter XLR plug. Signal is split to the snake and to a dbx 286a preamp. The preamp is used to bring mic up to line level, compress signal, and gate signal. Gating specifically makes the experience nicer, especially if you have a boomy bass drum.
I'm using a crown xls 1500 bridged mono to a Buttkicker LFE, which is the 4 ohm version. The buttkicker is mounted to my tama first chair hydrorider throne by buttkicker's mounting plate, facing straight back. I am using the cut end of a speakon cable with a speakon to speakon adapter to connect to the amp via a 6 ft speakon cable.
We set up and tear down every week, so we needed a portable rig that's easy to connect and disconnect.

The buttkicker is not very efficient and needs a lot of power. 400w min, 1500w max. I already had this amp, which is why I bought the 4 ohm version. The buttkicker concert is 2 ohm, it's the one they market for pro audio. They have their own amp available, but I needed something rack mountable. If you clip the preamp or power amp, it makes a weird noise. It actually sounds like a fart. I guess that's how you know it's distorting. I dial it back to just this side of farting when I'm wailing on the kick.

I thought I would put this out there, since there isn't that much info on the web about the electronics required for this set up.

Of note, Porter and Davies have the BC2 and gigster. These are purpose made systems with drum throne seat included. Nice idea, much lower wattage, and cost prohibitive for me. Don't know if it would give the same strength of "jolt" as my setup does.

Cheers,
Josh

3rd October 2011	#1
DrDrumz Gear interested Joined: Oct 2011 Posts: 1 Thread Starter	Buttkicker setup Hey slutz, Just wanted to share my experience setting up a buttkicker to use live and for recording. Our church uses in ear monitoring, which is great but doesn't give the same experience as playing in front of subs. The point was to add some tactile feedback. Played for the first time with the new setup and I'm a huge fan. Here's the details of what I used: Internal kick mic (audix d6) mounted on a Kelley shu with a may vent hole adapter XLR plug. Signal is split to the snake and to a dbx 286a preamp. The preamp is used to bring mic up to line level, compress signal, and gate signal. Gating specifically makes the experience nicer, especially if you have a boomy bass drum. I'm using a crown xls 1500 bridged mono to a Buttkicker LFE, which is the 4 ohm version. The buttkicker is mounted to my tama first chair hydrorider throne by buttkicker's mounting plate, facing straight back. I am using the cut end of a speakon cable with a speakon to speakon adapter to connect to the amp via a 6 ft speakon cable. We set up and tear down every week, so we needed a portable rig that's easy to connect and disconnect. The buttkicker is not very efficient and needs a lot of power. 400w min, 1500w max. I already had this amp, which is why I bought the 4 ohm version. The buttkicker concert is 2 ohm, it's the one they market for pro audio. They have their own amp available, but I needed something rack mountable. If you clip the preamp or power amp, it makes a weird noise. It actually sounds like a fart. I guess that's how you know it's distorting. I dial it back to just this side of farting when I'm wailing on the kick. I thought I would put this out there, since there isn't that much info on the web about the electronics required for this set up. Of note, Porter and Davies have the BC2 and gigster. These are purpose made systems with drum throne seat included. Nice idea, much lower wattage, and cost prohibitive for me. Don't know if it would give the same strength of "jolt" as my setup does. Cheers, Josh

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