The EM Poll

AUDIO-TECHNICA AE2500

Nov 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Myles Boisen

           

The AE2500 ($699) is an ingenious “two-mics-in-one” transducer that gives engineers an exciting new option for live and studio kick drum applications. By including a dynamic and a condenser element in one housing, Audio-Technica has made it possible to compare the sound of both microphone types and select one or the other, or to blend the two at the mixing board without any phase cancellation worries.

The Audio-Technica AE2500 kick drum mic offers a unique dual design, featuring a dynamic and a condenser element in one unit.

The AE2500 is a front-address microphone with a large mesh grille. This heavy-duty protective cage is easily unscrewed to reveal two separate microphones mounted side by side. The dynamic transducer is one inch across, and the condenser element measures about three-quarters of an inch across.

The condenser circuitry offers a low-cut switch featuring a 12 dB-per-octave rolloff at 80 Hz. A standard -10 dB pad switch is also provided, and because the condenser element has a fairly hot output, I left this pad engaged for most sessions. The dynamic element offers no switches and no way to make adjustments.

To provide discrete output from each element, the mic has a 5-pin XLR output. A custom 16-foot cable is supplied; it terminates in two standard male XLRs clearly marked “Condenser” and “Dynamic.” An isolation mic clamp is also provided.

In Session

I first put the AE2500 through its paces on the double-headed kick played by Vijay Anderson of the Full Throttle Orchestra. For a conventional jazz sound, the dynamic side of the AE2500 picked up a pleasing roundness, sustain, and complexity of tone. The microphone's cardioid pattern seemed very open, giving a very natural representation of the drum. However, a by-product of this openness was reduced off-axis rejection, and consequently more leakage from the snare and from other sources in the room.

The condenser element of the mic offered good transient snap and a concentrated note around 350 Hz, but less sustain and overall tonal character than the dynamic. The off-axis bleed was less severe relative to the dynamic track.

In the mix I found the ideal proportion of the two mic elements to be roughly 65 percent dynamic, 35 percent condenser. Using much more of the condenser track tipped the tonal balance too much in the midrange direction, with a prominent bump around 350 Hz.

Get Funky

Bay Area session drummer Jan Jackson provided the opportunity to test the AE2500 on some rock and funk tracks, with the mic placed inside a single-headed bass drum. On that recording, I found that the dynamic element again yielded a more representative and complex sound with enhanced low end around 100 Hz. But, as with the previous jazz session, the pickup pattern of the dynamic mic introduced more leakage.

Even with the mic inside the drum, positioned about three inches from the head, the dynamic element picked up a lot of midrange-heavy snare drum, toms, and some ambient guitar from amps in the room. In addition, a cowbell mounted on the kit came through loud and clear on the dynamic's channel but was nearly inaudible on the condenser track.

On Jackson's kick the differences between the two mics were more apparent than they had been on the aforementioned jazz date. The condenser element was noticeably clicky around 4 kHz, which came in handy for adding high-end definition during mixing. The condenser delivered less low-end depth (with the Low Cut switch set to the flat position). But I was able to pull out some powerful low end and punch using equalization. Once again, when mixing these tracks I used more of the dynamic element, with just enough of the condenser to add attack and a thicker low-midrange note around 300 Hz.

Alive and Kicking

For those with a restricted number of tracks or inputs, remember that the two elements can be premixed before recording, and either mic element can be used separately to capture a very workable kick drum sound. When taken individually, I preferred the sound of the dynamic element.

Around the studio the AE2500 also proved useful on a bass amp, and I envision it having a lot of potential for acoustic bass recording as well. Overall, the mic's unique dual-element design allows greater sonic flexibility than a conventional mic does. If you're serious about kick drum recording, the AE2500 is definitely a mic you need to hear.

Audio-Technica U.S. Inc.
tel. (330) 686-2600
e-mail pro@atus.com
Web www.audio-technica.com