A nice clicky/fat bass drum sound..

chrishisey

New member
Hey.. I'm mixing a hevey band and alot of attention needs to be paid to the bass drum sound(everything else too, but you know what i mean) Any seggestions on How to mix up the bass drum to get a good sound? What they refrenced was 'as i lay dying' they wan't there drums to sound more like that... I just want some mixing tips for the bass drum... any help?
 
Clicky is easy to get!

There are some things you should know about that clicky metal sound. Most bands that have that in metal are triggering, with that being said since you don't have a trigger module(i'm assuming) you can do a few things to get that sound. Take any muffling out of the bass drum, tune the batter side as low as you can until it is almost wrinkled(then tune it up just a TINY bit.) Also tune down the resonant head as well. Check out the dudes kick beater, if it looks like a marshmallow it is not going to as easily yield that type of sound. He should be using a rubber or plastic mallet, not the felt kind. Now if you can get the drummer to do this you will be amazed at what it can do for a crap sounding bass drum, tape quarters to his kick drum mallets, so when he kicks the side with the quarter taped will hit the head. If this is not enough click, then also tape 2 more quarters on the batter head where the beaters with the other quarters hit. It is so clicky it is ridiculous now. And since you have the head tuned really low you already have good attack, and low frequency for the thump.

Or you can tune the drum the same way if the drummer is anal about his setup and not wanting tape on it. Mic the batter side of the bass drum with the mic pointed directly at where the beater hits, and also put a mic about 6 inches outside of the resonant heads hole, if there is no hole on the resonant side pull the entire front head off. Make sure you reverse the phase of one of the bass drum mics if you use this way, or your bassdrum will sound week.

In all honesty if you are going to provide recordingservices for alot of bands of the metal, metalcore, and hardcore genre i would invest in a module and at least a trigger for the bass drum. Most metal guys want the click but don't want to change their setup to get it. Triggering the bass drum is an easy way that is quick, and makes your job easier, while keeping the drummer from whining too much. Hope this works.

And in either case a little boost in the EQ around the 2-5 k mark will help.

If you are new to recording drums and don't know what triggers are, or drum modules this is a link to a song i did recently triggering all of the drums and only micing the cymbals.

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2111&alid=488
 
I don't use triggering... ?

Just use a hard beater. Wood, plastic, whatever.. and tune the bass drum so it sounds good. EQ the crap out of it. Put a little drop around 400hz and a pretty big raise at 2k-4k. Somewhere in there will be a nice defined click.

Triggering is alot of money. Heh.

They also sell beater pads that have metal in them to give a nick click.
 
very simple,

for a deep sound, i put my AGK D12 in the kick, on a pillow

then, to also hear the CLICK of the batter,
i just put a SHURE SM 57 next to the batter


i mix those two down as one track, but i got a vintage compressor on the AKG to make sure it sounds real fat and warm,
and a modern electronic compressor on the SHURE

this has given me real kick ass results, and its very simple tu use,
i don't have any phasing problems or nothing

if you don't have a KICK MIC , then just put a shure sm 57 next to the batter, pointing to the kickhead

BUT BUT BUT ALWAYS put compression on these mics, ok ?
 
mhhh, triggering can be supersimple, i do it,

i just bought five cheap drumtriggers....i think thye were 5 euro per piece,

paiste one of them on the kickhead, not too far away from the batter,
and connect it with a midi-drumcomputer like the ROLAND TD-6

my td-6 is a very simple machine with basic sounds,
but i can record my KICK in midi, or i can use the standard samples of my drummachine


after all, i always prefer my REAL sound, i got a very fat sounding kick,
and i can't beat my sound with samples...

so there's plenty of options, and i think the other guy already said it in his reply, but you can always PAISTE a piece of thin plastic on your kick head,
BUT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BATTER, so on the inside of yer kick,
where the batter hits the head, plastic,,,,,,you'll hear TICk


and also, drumheads matter...
now i got REMO ebony ambassador drumheads now, (black ones)
and they sound alot better than the SONOR heads i always used,
these black heads have a "plastic" TICK sound when you hit them,
together with a nice deep BOOING, i've heard better sounding heads,
but i really like them for recording, that little TICK sound you get comes true very nice in most of my mixes

and of course.....your drumsticks...the ones with the plastic heads sound a little more bright, same thing for your batter...i got a soft one,
but i played with plastic ones too (sounds like shit i think, but you sure get a real CLICK sound)


and a tip from me for recording your kick: don't record it with too much bottom end in it, cut away lots of the bass and turn it a lill louder,
always give ME better results...
 
Analytical Man said:
... If you are new to recording drums and don't know what triggers are, or drum modules this is a link to a song i did recently triggering all of the drums and only micing the cymbals ...

I really enjoyed the tune...

Are the guitars out of a box or a real amp?
 
How about this Kick drum sound?

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=3073&alid=-1


That is a pair of 28" Kicks with full resonant heads. Mic'd inside via a MayEA mounted D112, with an 8" Speaker in front of each kick (inside a tunnel.)

They were definitely put out some low end. I probably should have rolled a lot more low end off. But My bass player really wanted the kicks to be "gut pounding", as he put it.


Tim
 
Tim Brown said:
How about this Kick drum sound? ... They were definitely put out some low end. I probably should have rolled a lot more low end off. But My bass player really wanted the kicks to be "gut pounding", as he put it.

Tim

My impression ...FWIW

I didn't get the impact that I expected. The kick seems to lack body and is a bit flappy.
 
chrishisey,

Here's a clip of my Kick => Kick EQ Demo

The clip is:

Dry Kick as recorded...
followed by EQ, compression and a bit of gate...
followed by the full kit...

Here's pics of my kit

I have a 14" Genera G1 Clear taped to the Batter Side... no padding... I can dial in a lot more click if needed.

Here's my EQ curve
 

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Sonixx said:
My impression ...FWIW

I didn't get the impact that I expected. The kick seems to lack body and is a bit flappy.

That's without any tension on the heads. You have to step back about 10 to 12 feet before you get the thump.


I posted that as a lesson, and you got it right away. Don't tune your kicks as low as they will go. Tune them up above the shell's fundamental, so that the thump is higher in pitch - otherwise, you'll have to stand back to really get it.



Tim
 
try pulling out the low mids when mixing. I do a lot of metal, not as heavy as as i lay dying, but that usually works for me to bring out the clickiness more...
 
click pads, pantera sound, i am pretty sure that dude uses one. They have a piece of metal inside the eq sticker. Check GC, thats where i got mine, but i dont like the sound. I am more of a punchy rock sound not metal. But yes click pads. The metal makes a click noise. Easy enough.
 
Make sure you don't screw it up in the mix !
Mute your guitar tracks and voacals, so that you only hear drums and bass.
Then unmute your guitar track, and mute and unmute and mute and ... sorry
Does the guitar influence your kick in the mix ? Don't boost the kick ! Lower the 2-4khz in your guitar track, not toooo much so it still sounds good. Find the balance bewtween good audible kick and good sounding guitar.
Also check your bass and vocals.
greetz
 
fazil said:
Make sure you don't screw it up in the mix !
Mute your guitar tracks and voacals, so that you only hear drums and bass.
Then unmute your guitar track, and mute and unmute and mute and ... sorry
Does the guitar influence your kick in the mix ? Don't boost the kick ! Lower the 2-4khz in your guitar track, not toooo much so it still sounds good. Find the balance bewtween good audible kick and good sounding guitar.
Also check your bass and vocals.
greetz

Good advice. Pulling down the guitars between 2-5khz will reveal the kick drum's attack, and probably making the guitars less harsh on the old ears (if they are like super distorted metal guitars).

Another thing... don't be afraid to BOOST THE SHIT out of the "clicky" area if you need to. Another thing I like to do is isolate and make a seperate track of the click, (like roll off below 1000hz and above like 6khz, leaving mostly upper midrange, this is where the click lies), and like do something weird like run it through a speaker sim or some weird compression pedal or something... just something to add more "noise" and it thickens it up.

Or just use triggers. YAY DRUMAGOG!!!
 
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