While most of the attention on this site is kick drum microphones we must not forget that while we might have the best microphone in the world, it will never make up for a terrible sound source — in this case, you kick drum.  Let’s focus a little bit on the source right now and making that sound as best we can.

Tuning the Drum:

Most recording engineers know to tune their toms and even the snare drum but quite frequently ignore the kick drum altogether.  Why should we skip the largest one in the kit?  Many producers like to tune the kick to the root of the song, and in general this is a good idea.  Be sure that all the lugs on the beater skin are tightened the exact same amount.  Once you have achieved this, you can go ahead and start changing the tuning of the drum (tighter for a higher pitch, looser for a lower pitch).  Just be sure to keep all the lugs tightened the same.

One little trick is to record a couple kick drum hits into your DAW and then run thoughts hits through a tuner.  This will let you know how the kick is currently tuned.  Adjust the kick and repeat until you have it tuned to the key of the song you are recording.

Tie Down the Loose Ends:

Be sure to check the kit for loose parts, squeaky petals, or extraneous vibrations that can easily degrade your recording.  Be sure to have tape handy to secure and tighten up any loud suspects. (it even works for band members!)

Check out the Drum Dial, an awesome little device that measures the actual tension of the drum skin around each lug.  It’s much more accurate than guessing and can save exact tunings tensions for easy recall on other kits.