kick and snare eq?

G

g0dmoney

New member
Can anyone tell me how to get a punchy kick drum sound with less ring out? I've got a blanket in the kick drum and I'm micing right at the hole with a second mic on the beater side. I'm trying for a tight/punchy sound like that found on Stone Temple Pilots' Core album. I've been playing with freq around 80-100hz and 1-2khz

Also, any tips in general on snare eq? I seem to have everything else under control.
 
IMO, the *only* way to get a great drum sound is to get a great sounding drum. You can throw almost any mic at it with no EQ.

Could be heads... Could be the batter... Could be the drum itself...
 
This is assuming the kick drum is tuned properly and sounds good.

The "trick" to a tight sounding kick is to punish the midrange. If you want that extreme metal sounding kick try a vaguely wide 8-12db cut around 400-600hz. If you just want it tight, a 6db cut in that area should help.

Keep in mind that this doesn't sound very natural, but it does sound "right" for some types of music.

Hopefully you will keep some of the tone in the room/overheads.

The "trick" to snare is *ALL* in the tuning and setup. Try to eliminate ring without resorting to dampening materials (or as few as possible). The more dampening on the snare the crappier it will sound... in most cases you are better off with some ring as opposed to choking the life out of it.

There are a million ways to EQ snare, but a common template I use as a "go to" for rock snare includes some light, wide boosts at 200hz, a dip around 600-800hz, a boost around 5khz and a gentle, wide boost around 11-12khz (don't go overboard here or you will get brittleness).
 
cool i'll try those things.. the kit is a pearl master custom or whatever, the best one they offer. so the kick sounds great naturally it just has a little more ring than i'd like to hear.
 
g0dmoney said:
cool i'll try those things.. the kit is a pearl master custom or whatever, the best one they offer. so the kick sounds great naturally it just has a little more ring than i'd like to hear.
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in my experience...any kind of "ring" that youre trying to get rid of is usually a result of bad tuning and when u try to muffle it just sounds even crappier. even the best drums can be tuned poorly.
 
I figured it was a matter of tuning, the tom's are pretty bad as well, but this drummer refuses to alter his tuning in any way and thinks they sound great... I'll upload a short clip and tell me what you guys think. Link will be on next post.
 
g0dmoney said:
I figured it was a matter of tuning, the tom's are pretty bad as well, but this drummer refuses to alter his tuning in any way and thinks they sound great... I'll upload a short clip and tell me what you guys think. Link will be on next post.
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Better yet, play the clip for the guy who won't change his tuning. :cool:
 
g0dmoney said:
I figured it was a matter of tuning, the tom's are pretty bad as well, but this drummer refuses to alter his tuning in any way and thinks they sound great... I'll upload a short clip and tell me what you guys think. Link will be on next post.
Click to expand...
He's right!!!!!!!!
They sound great!!!!!!!!
When he's playing with himself!!!!!!!!

Old Charlie Benante (Anthrax) trick:
Duct-tape a pair of quarters right to the head inline with the beater head (Best to invest in Center-dots, because this technique obviously shortens the life of your heads). The pedal then strikes the quarters first, giving a nice metallic element to the sound (Kind of a click sound) which is excellent because it adds just enough extra definition to the attack, to help it cut through no matter what anyone else is doing. I used the technique for awhile live, with good results. Just a thought....
 
Atterion said:
Old Charlie Benante (Anthrax) trick:
Duct-tape a pair of quarters right to the head inline with the beater head (Best to invest in Center-dots, because this technique obviously shortens the life of your heads). The pedal then strikes the quarters first, giving a nice metallic element to the sound (Kind of a click sound) which is excellent because it adds just enough extra definition to the attack, to help it cut through no matter what anyone else is doing. I used the technique for awhile live, with good results. Just a thought....
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm aware of that one, but once again... This guy won't let it happen. He's pretty hard headed. :mad: But.. then again... he is a drummer..... :D
 
g0dmoney said:
Yeah, I'm aware of that one, but once again... This guy won't let it happen. He's pretty hard headed. :mad: But.. then again... he is a drummer..... :D
Click to expand...
Drummers are a whole different breed of human being. Methodic, Eccentric, & just generally NUTS :eek:
 
my experience is that drummers like that don't last too long... infact anyone like that won't last too long.
this goes for any instrument... recording or live. when the tone doesn't work, i tell the musician. usually i am very blunt. i tell them that it's not going to work in the mix, and i try to describe the problem as best as i can. i tell them that if they don't change they tone, that it's not going to sound accepetable.

it sounds like i'm being a prick, but i'm hired to make the band sound good.
 
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