The Tubby Drum microphone system first surfaced some two years ago, the brainchild of Brent Page, a drummer in a club band working around the Swindon area. The system consists of a set of small electret microphones which fit either on or inside the drums and a power supply/preamplifier/control module which is built into a sturdy alloy box. The great attraction of the system is that a kit can be miked-up quickly and without the need for masses of expensive dynamic microphones and boom stands.

With the complete Tubby 6 Channel system costing between £250 and £300 (depending on whether jacks or XLRs are used) the system wins on cost compared to normal pro microphones, without even adding an allowance for stands. It's too cheap you may say, but read on!

The heart of the system, and the "special" part in my opinion is undoubtedly the microphone itself. The characteristics are truly remarkable, as the same type of mike works quite happily anywhere on the kit (including bass drum) either inside or outside the drum. A very tight directional response pattern ensures good feedback rejection and separation between signals from different drums. It also seems to be almost impossible to overload these mikes, and any distortion that occurred during our tests was always traced to a wrong setting somewhere down the line. Physically the mikes are special too, as they are small and light enough to be taped to the drum shell and the lead taken out through the breather hole if miking from inside a double headed drum — single headers obviously present no problem! The current series of mikes is unfortunately just too big to fit through the average breather hole, the solution being to disconnect the jack or XLR plug from the control box end of the mike lead, remove the bottom head from the drum and thread the lead through from the inside, reinstating everything once the mike is positioned o.k. After this the mike lead merely needs to be wound around the drum when taking the kit down after a gig. Not too time consuming at all really, and the mike itself will be safe from any knocks as it is completely inside the drum — another attractive feature. An alternative mike which is even smaller and can fit through the average breather hole is currently under development.

Moving "down the line" from the mikes we come to the control box. This provides for inputs from all the mikes (6 on the standard system - any number available to special order), individual outputs to a mixing desk, and one mixed output. Level controls for each channel are also provided, acting only on the mixed output.The individual in/outs are all balanced line (via either stereo jacks or XLR, according to specification) low impedance and the mixed output is unbalanced via a mono jack. Power to drive the control box can be supplied either externally from a d.c. supply (anything from 9 to 32 volts) via the socket provided or internally from batteries. There is also an on/off switch and a L.E.D. power-on indicator.

"...IT SEEMS TO BE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERLOAD THESE MIKES... VERY TIGHT DIRECTIONAL RESPONSE PATTERN ENSURES GOOD FEEDBACK REJECTION..."

Performance tests of the Tubby system were made at Coconut Productions, a small home-based 8-track studio just outside St. Albans. The studio is based around the increasingly popular Fostex ¼" 8-track and Fostex mixer combination and has been set-up to cater for writer/performers or duos. Vic, the owner/engineer, has selected a small but high quality selection of effects, including every drummer's arch rival a Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer! The latter in fact served as a good sound comparison for recordings made using the Tubby system.

To start the test we set up the Tubby system on my own kit with the mikes mounted outside the drums and one under the hi-hat. This was done with the help of Tony Morris who is marketing the system. Following this, recordings were made from the individual outputs and also from the mixed output. Several points came across during the first recordings, the most important being that the drums definitely need to be specially set up to get the best from the Tubby system, much to our consternation! However, Brent Page came along with a couple of his own drums which had been tuned up and fitted with Deadringers, and these came across very well, leaving Vic free to use the Eq to generate various different "feels" from the basic recorded sound, rather than struggling to get a decent tone, which was the case with my drums.

"THE NOISE LEVELS FROM THE COMPLETE SYSTEM WERE CERTAINLY LOW ENOUGH... FOR STUDIO USE."

The hi-hat came across very clearly, and the system is certainly acceptable in this application as well. The noise levels from the complete system were certainly low enough to be considered acceptable for studio use, with the mixed output being a little noisier than the individual ones due to its higher gain. However, as this output is intended for either P.A. or foldback applications the slightly greater noise level would be quite acceptable and in any case it could hardly be considered obtrusive!

After competing the recordings of standard drums, we decided to try out the Tubby system on the Melanie Tri-Fantoms reviewed elsewhere in this issue. These were recorded by placing a Tubby mike about 12—18 inches away from the unit, taped to the main part of the stand. The results were excellent, and to my ears gave a much sharper attack and brighter sound than when using the usual standard of an SM58. It therefore came as no surprise to learn that Tubby have been getting good results from their system on a variety of Latin percussion and even a tambourine, and they are bringing out a 3 channel system intended for use on Latin and general percussion.

There is a refinement that can be added to the basic Tubby system which makes it even more convenient to use. This requires a firm commitment on the drummer's part, but results in an exceptionally neat installation. A hole needs to be drilled in the shell (gasp!) to accommodate a chassis mounting XLR plug. The Tubby mike is then mounted directly on the back of the plug and the whole assembly mounted on the drum. This leaves a very secure installation for the mike and reduces setting-up the system to plugging a cable to the XLR connector — what could be simpler?

Overall I think that the Tubby system came across very well, especially with the mikes mounted inside the drums, which is very much the preferred position even for the snare. To the drummer who is going to have his or her kit miked-up regularly it provides a very simple and secure miking system that is also cost-effective and minimises the amount of hardware cluttering up the area around the kit. There is no doubt that initially you need to spend some time setting up your drums to get the best out of the Tubby system but once this has been done, the "drum-sound" part of sound-checks should be a very short affair.

Finally many thanks to Brent Page and Tony Morris of Tubby drums for their patience and advice during the tests and to Coconut Productions for the loan of their studio.