About kirk_rothrum

About me
I'm an audio nerd and professional sound designer with extensive experience in urban music. My bread and butter forte is Hip Hop drum & FX design and my company (Bangin-Beats.com) supplies many platinum producing clients (from Dr. Dre to Bob Rock) with industry standard modern drums & percussive FX. I've been featured in Scratch Magazine, On the Hot Trax DVD Series as Featured Sound Scientist, and am a contributing writer in Producer's Edge Magazine. Aside from my urban music production roots, I have a growing library of field recordings and 'other-worldly' FX I've captured and/or created over the years.

Tools
I thrive in a hybrid analog/digital environment. From Pro Tools in the box to outboard dynamics processing from Manley, Drawmer, SPL, Empirical Labs & more. Production gear includes Akai MPC4000, MPC2000, MPC60II, Emu SP1200, Clavia Nord Lead, Korg Trinity, Roland Fantom X6, and of course a plethora of virtual instruments. My mic cabinet consists of solid vintage performers like the RCA 44BX ribbon and the EV Model 77 carbon, and workhorses like the AKG C414 TLII & C414 XLS and many many in between for a flexible and diverse palette. For field recording I rely on Sennheiser and AT shotguns as well as an AT XY pattern stereo
microphone. Where lower self-noise is needed I use stereo matched LDC's and my front end for location is generally an Apogee Mini-me 24/96 direct via optical to the Sony PCM D50.