Packaged with the unit is a split XLR cable, with a single female five-pin XLR on one end and a pair of male 3-pin XLRS on the other. You assume right away that you are dealing with a stereo microphone, but this is designed for a kick drum, so that idea doesn’t make sense. Taking off the grill revealed the two very different capsules mounted side by side for a phase coherent audio capture. This is, in essence, two very unique drum microphones housed within the one casing to allow you to get the most from your kick drum sound. Think about it – how often have you thought that a little extra boom would be nice from the kick? Or perhaps, with all the bottom end accounted for, you want more snap and punch from the drum head? One microphone usually doesn’t give you all that with a comfortable balance, but the DTP 640 REX is not just one microphone.
What you get is two very different sounds from your kick drum, fed into two separate channels on your mixing console. This means you can have more thump, more snap and overall added punch to your kick sound. You are left to mix the two outputs to suit your needs and to better fit in the mix. This is ideal for live setups when you need extra control and don’t want to have additional mics on the kit. It’s even better for studio recording, where you can always have an extra microphone capsule on any source for the added ease of mixing later on. One capsule, the condenser, which requires phantom power, certainly delivers the snap, with a crisp mid frequency response and super-fast transient response. The other dynamic capsule brings the bottom end that you want in a kick drum, without sounding too flat and lifeless. The two combined result in a lively drum sound that you would be very hard-pressed to find with just one single microphone. The overall result is a detailed kick in the arse that lets your drummer make his or her presence felt in a solid fashion.
