EQ'ing Toms

  • Thread starter Thread starter MadMax
  • Start date Start date
I looked at the name of this thread and thought "eq'ing Tom's what?". Toms shouldn't need any EQ... if they do change the tuning, change the drummer, change the room, change the mic, change the arrangement of the song.

There is no more a generic EQ than there is a perfect bottle of wine.

Ethan... for that "pull out some 300Hz" comment I'm going to add 300Hz to every tom sound I work on this week and clean that frequency out of some other sound to make room for it there... why you ask? Because I can!!
 
Fletcher, I respect and value your input, but I gotta disagree with your blanket statement "toms shouldn't need any EQ."
Generally, and under more controlled circumstances, like a good room and a good mic locker and API's, etc. Maybe I wouldn't need a smuch EQ, but I record in my living room with 57's and my pre's are an A&H MixWiz.
And the sound I'm going for is a big 80's-90's in yer face, crushing tom sound. I've never heard an acoustic set that actually sounds like that in person. And I've been around a bit.
Just like the kik drum, I always have to suck the 125-500hz out of it for a rock sound.
But if you have any suggestions for getting that sound as in mics, pre's etc. I'm all ears, That's why I'm here.
 
MadMax said:
And the sound I'm going for is a big 80's-90's in yer face, crushing tom sound. I've never heard an acoustic set that actually sounds like that in person.
Click to expand...

I've never heard one that sounds like that in person either... however, with a few noise gates and some artificial "reverb in a box" and a ton of hours getting reverb balances to gate settings... and yeah, a measure of mix EQ... you're going to get the over the top, Coke fueled explosions that were drums from that era. A "Non-Lin 2" program is more the ticket than any equalizer.
 
Like FLetcher said, that big, annoying 80's tom sound has more to do with reverb and gating (and maybe compression......or sampling) than it does with EQ.
 
Fletcher,

> change the tuning, change the drummer, change the room, change the mic, change the arrangement of the song. <

Can't disagree there!

> Ethan... for that "pull out some 300Hz" comment I'm going to add 300Hz to every tom sound I work on this week and clean that frequency out of some other sound to make room for it there... why you ask? Because I can!! <

ROF,L.

And please send me an MP3 when you're done. :D

--Ethan
 
I usually EQ the Toms after hearing what's going on with them, it dependes on the drummer, the drumset, the tune, the song, etc. I try to listen first the overall sound and them, I make some adjustments if they are necessary.

Generally, I use 57's on Toms, if I have the chance, I use the 421 or 441's , mainly because I work in the indie market.

How much I boost or remove depends on the sound, always listen first....


Regards

;)
 
if you've used eq/gates/and compression and still can't get a fat tom sound, try doubling your tom tracks, then compress the holy hell out of the second track with a multiband compressor

i've also heard of some engineers, including david bottrill, who will set up a PA behind the drummer while tracking and play the EQ'd tom tracks through it to beef up the sound of the mics in the rooom. i personally don't have a PA, or room for one in my drum room along with a kit, but if it works for danny carey's drumming, i'm sure it'll work for others

i'm actually going to try a different take on this approach in the next couple of days on this mix i'm working on...i think i'm gonna put a couple of LDC's in front of my monitors and record the playback of the eq'd and panned tom tracks in stereo, then eq/compress those tracks and work them into the mix under the original tracks. i'm also going to try 1 mic in a figure-8 pattern, and see what each does not only to the sound of the toms, but to the stereo image as well
 
I used to have to eq the holy hell out of my toms too. My problem was mic placement. Check out my mic placement thread here in the recording technique forum to here before and after clips. I ended up getting big round beefy toms with just 57's and no eq.
 
How close are you micing?
Maybe you're fighting a proximity effect? That's why you'll see people who use directional mics cut a lot of the "boxy" proximity effect frequencies.

Try this...

I'm assuming you're using some condenser overheads.
Compare the overhead track with the tom track. Best if you have an isolated tom hit.

If the overhead is natural, and sounds as good as when playing the drums live... I think you've got too much proximity effect going on. Though on toms and snares, close micing is desirable, and is accepted in drum recordings since this is how most drums have been recorded. Whether the engineers knew it or not.

Anyways, try running the overhead, and the close 57 tom hit through a frequency analyzer to see how much, and where the proximity effect is really overpowering.
 
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