B-Band Ukko Drum Contact Mics - review -- All- I've been a frequent reader of these forums while putting together a small rehearsal studio, and the wisdom imparted herein has been a tremendous resource. So I wanted to give a little back with a mini-review of an interesting product I just picked up: B-Band's Ukko drum contact mic system. I'll note up front that I have no business relationship with B-Band. I've been intrigued by the idea of using contact mics on a drum kit ever since I discovered that the Cure's album "17 Seconds" was recorded this way. If you haven't heard it, the intimate indie feel of "17 Seconds" is a stark contrast from the top-40 bombast of the band's later efforts, and really appealing from that perspective. The ultra-minimalist production was a perfect complement to the icy bleakness of the program material, and abetted in no small part by the drum sounds. The kit was apparently mic'd with C-ducer contact mics in its entirety -- even cymbals. The resulting effect is eerily like a drum machine, and very evocative of the era (1980). Producer Mike Hedges gave the skinny in an interview with SoundOnSound a few years back: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec04/articles/classictracks.htm I have a C-ducer mic, and when stuck to a snare or hi-hat, it does indeed replicate the "17 Seconds" sound. It's also quite harsh, and clearly not going to work as a bread-and butter rock setup. When I heard about the Ukko system I ran right out and picked up a set. While you can purchase the modules separately, B-Band sells a kit containing five preamps and five stick-on contact mics for about five hundred. Setup The kit is remarkably small, and arrived in attractive black packaging about the size of shirt box. Inside were five preamps, five mics, a baggie of mounting bolts and rim mounts, and a key for popping open each of the preamps. The contact mic itself is a flat oval of silver and black foil (photo 1) at the end of long black ribbon cable. Although the material appears contiguous, the cable is in fact just a cable, and not also the contact material. It terminates in a small two-pin connector such that setup and tear-down is modular if you want it to be. By comparison, my C-ducer came permanently attached to a quarter-inch jack, making in-drum mounting a matter of removing the jack if I wanted to feed it through the drum shell. The preamps are designed to look like drum hardware, and they look great (photo 2). They're a perfect match for the chrome hardware on my DW kit. I'd note that they're plastic and don't feel supremely hefty. I would have appreciated something die-cast and more road-worthy, and I've popped them open so many times for one reason or another in the few weeks I've owned them that I'm already worried about stripping the plastic clasps. Nevertheless I'm a sucker for good design, and I appreciate when attention is paid to both form and function. Overall, as something mounted to my drums that everyone can see, I think they look pretty cool (photo 9). The preamps are labeled individually as either "snare", "kick", or "tom", and this has to do with a selection of two dip switches inside each preamp that activate eq curves specific to those drums. When those switches are set to "off", the preamps are identical. More on EQ later on. It's clear that the preamps were designed with breather-hole mounting in mind, since the body of the device is cleverly both curved and vented to let the breather vent continue to operate. While they can also be rim-mounted, I went for the cleaner look of the breather-hole install, and that meant I that I had to remove the rivets that DW had installed in the shells. This wasn't a big deal, and did not damage the drums at all (photo 3). The contact mics stick pretty firmly to the inside of the drum (photo 4). Although B-Band indicates that you can peel and reposition them if you're gentle, they're so well stuck that I personally wouldn't go doing that. So wherever you mount them, it's likely to be semi-permanent. The manual recommends a quarter inch down from the bearing edge so that's what I did. Back on the outside of the shell, the bottom half of the pre mounts up flush to the surface (photo 5), the ribbon cable is pulled through and attached (photo 6), the top is replaced (photo 7), and you're done. The xlr jack points out the bottom almost like a little chrome jet pack (photo 8). Four more drums and we're all mounted up (photo 9, 10). Again, the look is a great match for chrome drum hardware, and would easily pass as stock to a beer-swilling groupie. And judging from the reaction of the guys I share studio space with, that would include most guitarists and drummers too. Dual Rig For purposes of comparison, I set up my usual drum mic rig alongside the Ukkos. These are Sennheiser e604 on snare and toms, AKG D112 on kick, and a pair of Beyer M160s on overheads (photo 11). The Sennheisers provide a meaty thwack that I really like, and their rejection in the face of massive brass-bashing is great. Kick is always so heavily post-processed in most rock contexts that, to me, almost any of the standard mics will do. In this regard the ubiquitous AKG is both cheap and durable. The M160s are arranged in ORTF high up behind the drummer, positioned a little off to the side of the hi-hat to help center the kick and snare in the stereo image. One nice thing about flush-mounting the Ukkos is that there's really no penalty for keeping them mounted at all times -- they're never in the way. As a result, you can switch rapidly between an all-Ukko setup and your traditional clip-ons in seconds just by re-plugging the mic cables. The Ukko preamps run on phantom power, but I just left it on the whole time, and the Sennheisers didn't seem to mind. The Kit The kit is a DW Collector's Series in twisted walnut with a 14" snare and a 22" kick. Toms are 10", 12", and 15". The snare head is an Evans Genera HD, and the kick is a Remo Powerstroke 3 on both batter and resonant head. Ukko recommends that you use a resonant kick head with *no* hole in it, so this is what I've done. To save time, I did not swap this out when I switched to the AKG mic. Although I would typically stick the D112 halfway through the hole in the resonant head to get more beater attack, in this case I just placed it near where the hole would normally be. This resulted in a more pillowy kick sound with a retro Stevie Wonder "Superstition" kind of vibe to it. Not at all unpleasant, though admittedly probably not what's most commonly done these days. In two of the clips, the drums aren't muffled or Moon Gel-ed at all. The snare is tuned medium high and allowed to ring naturally. The Evans heads are hefty and naturally damped, but this still produces a reasonably ringy snare sound, and toms with more sustain than you'd typically want. Nevertheless I wanted to see how the different mics responded to the natural sustain of the drums. In a third clip, the snare was cranked down about a full turn on each lug from the ringy clips, with the bottom head still tight. It was then damped with a Remo Ritchie ring, and the reliable "wallet on the snare" trick (photo 12). The goal here was to see how the mics responded to that classic dead "'70s" snare sound. Tests In each of the following tests, the only processing was a touch of peak limiting in Ozone (-3 on the input slider, -.5 on the output), just to bring up the RMS a bit. Otherwise everything you're hearing came from the mics themselves. In each clip, the Ukko mic setup plays first, followed by the Sennheiser setup. In each case, you'll hear the full kit, and then the same clip replayed without the overheads. Since one of the rationales for using contact mics is isolation, particularly from the dreaded hi-hat bleed in the snare mic, this gives you a sense of how well each setup rejects bleed from the brass. Clip 1 - the bash test http://www.troygrady.com/snd/ukko-bash.mp3 With that in mind, clip 1 is the bash test. Lots of brass, and no break for the snare mic. I think the Ukkos sound pretty good here. They're obviously a lot brighter than the Sennheisers -- a family trait which is evident in all the Ukko clips -- but appropriately so in this context. As you might have guessed, the brass rejection, while not perfect, is phenomenal considering what's going on with the cymbals just a few inches away. Clip 2 - ringy http://www.troygrady.com/snd/ukko-ringy.mp3 The next clip is the same kit tuning but more restrained on the brass. As a result, the brass rejection in the Ukko clip is essentially perfect here. Note also how much more quickly the toms die out with the Ukko mics. This could be both a help and hindrance depending on the situation. Clip 3 - fat http://www.troygrady.com/snd/ukko-fat.mp3 In this clip I wanted to see how the Ukkos handled the ultra-dead '70s snare sound, which is a favorite of mine. This sound is a strength of the 604s, and I prefer them in this clip. They provide a beefy attack that really works well, particularly at ballad tempos, and even without the overheads. If the Ukkos and the Sennheiser sounded reasonably similar in capturing the ringy snare in the first two clips, it's surprising how different they sound here. The splatty attack of the deadened Ukko snare reminds me of that snare sample the Backstreet Boys used to use in all their '90s hits ("As Long As You Love Me", "I Want It That Way"). Alone I might not prefer it, but it's not entirely unappealing when mixed with the overheads. It all comes down to context. Clip 4 - eq http://www.troygrady.com/snd/ukko-eq.mp3 When I said that all the sounds in these clips were completely free of EQ, it was a white lie. The Ukko preamps each feature two internal dip switches that activate eq curves specific to their intended drum. The snare preamp features a switch for a -6db shelf cut at 8khz, and another for a +3db boost at 500hz. The tom pre offers a +6db boost at 5khz, and a -6db cut at 1khz. And the kick pre offers a 6db cut at 330hz and a +6db boost at 5khz. These frequency ranges were obviously created with common drum eq treatments in mind. The kick eq in particular imparts a subtle but noticeable bit of that scoopy mid thing we all tend to dial in anyway, so I left it on the whole time. Interestingly, because the response of the Ukko mic on a snare is so bright, the dip switches are effectively the reverse of the usual snare eq treatment. Instead of boosting the highs and cutting out the bonk at 500hz, the Ukko snare eq cuts the highs and adds the bonk back in. I'd probably prefer a little more girth, but it's a step in the right direction and I left this on the whole time as well. The tom eq robs a little of the low end, but adds a little bit of hi-fi scoop. Truthfully I could go either way on this, but I decided to leave it on for consistency. So... In the "eq" clip, you'll hear each drum played flat, then with the eq engaged. This is also a good way to hear more clearly how the Ukkos sound on each specific drum. These are close mics only -- there are no overheads in these clips. Clip 5 - bleed http://www.troygrady.com/snd/ukko-bleed.mp3 Finally, although the Ukkos did a great job rejecting brass, I was surprised at how much bleed there in fact was between the drums. In this clip, the first two selections are the bleed from all three tom mics wide open while the rest of the kit is playing the "bash" clip. The third and fourth are kick drum bleed from the same tracks. In both cases you'll hear the Ukkos and then the Sennheisers. Bleed from the rest of the kit through the Ukko tom mics takes on an oddly resonant quality that is clearly tied to the size and shape of the drum in question. It sounds as though you're listening from inside a can -- which, in a certain sense, you are. Although bleed helps to add a sustainy kind of space around the individual drums, it's unnatural enough compared to traditional tom mic bleed that you may want to gate it out during mixing. You can also hear this "in the can" effect when the toms are played individually in the preceding "eq" clip. Conclusions 1. No question, the Ukko mics are bright -- much brighter than traditional microphones. But this brightness is more natural than other contact mics I've heard like the C-ducer, and it isn't always undesirable. Considering how much 3.5khz crack is often added to modern snare drums, an Ukko on snare may be closer to an out-of-the-box solution for certain kinds of music than it at first appears. 2. Say goodbye to hihat bleed in the snare mic. It's true, if your clientele is full of drunken punk drummers with heavy 14" hats and no desire to play nice for the sound engineer, mixing a little Ukko into your snare diet may be something to consider. In so doing, you'll also add some upper-mid crack, and 8k snare buzz, for free. 3. While the Ukko mics absolutely solve the problem of hihat bleed in the snare mic, they don't work as well for inter-drum bleed. If you want total control over individual tom sustain through gating, without interference from other drums, samples are still the only way to do that perfectly. 4. I could stand to be a much better drummer. Thanks! Troy