Low end thump???

[theguitarfreak]

Hi, im currently doing my first recording at home. I have kind of been able to get a satisfactory mix for the time being. I have tried listening to my mix on different speakers and headphones. I would like to how can i increase the low end thump of the bass guitar and kick drum? The kind of thump that metal tracks generally have? Which frequencies should i boost and which should i cut?

 

[tswsdrummer4]

for the kick drum, you might try to first move the mic either inside the head facing the beaters, or on the "drummer" side of the bass drum, also close to the beaters.

 

[RAMI]

for the kick drum, you might try to first move the mic either inside the head facing the beaters, or on the "drummer" side of the bass drum, also close to the beaters.

This gives you more low end?????

 

[Yonce N Mild]

for the kick drum, you might try to first move the mic either inside the head facing the beaters, or on the "drummer" side of the bass drum, also close to the beaters.

I think you got that backwards. That will give you more click. Back the mic away for more thump.

 

[tswsdrummer4]

i guess i was concentrating on the part where he mentioned wanting a more "metal" sound to the kick. Which to me might be a different sound than a thump, given that a lot of metal I listen to has more of a "click" sound to it

 

[RAMI]

i guess i was concentrating on the part where he mentioned wanting a more "metal" sound to the kick. Which to me might be a different sound than a thump, given that a lot of metal I listen to has more of a "click" sound to it

Yeah, I agree with you on that. When he mentioned metal, I thought "click", too. But the title of the thread is "Low end thump", which I don't hear much in metal, but more in hard rock, etc....

 

[tswsdrummer4]

yeah i guess i replied given what i think about metal, not what he mentioned....sorry!

 

[thebigcheese]

If you want more low end, then increase the low end. I'm fairly certain there's another thread in here with this exact same title...

One problem you might hit, though, is that the bass and kick occupy sort of the same space in terms of frequencies, so you might have to carve out a little bit of the bass wherever you boost the kick so that they aren't interfering with each other.

 

[thebigcheese]

Yeah, I agree with you on that. When he mentioned metal, I thought "click", too. But the title of the thread is "Low end thump", which I don't hear much in metal, but more in hard rock, etc....

Maybe not thump, but there sure is a lot of low end something in metal I would say that it's mostly bass and not kick, though that depends on the band/producer/mixer, I guess.

 

[theguitarfreak]

Yeah, I agree with you on that. When he mentioned metal, I thought "click", too. But the title of the thread is "Low end thump", which I don't hear much in metal, but more in hard rock, etc....

Your people are getting me wrong. I was talking about the overall low end thump of the mix. Not just the kick drum. I have a fair amount of low end in my mix but i want more of the "THUMP" or whatever you call it rather than boominess. Maybe some ways to for the bass eq so that the kick and bass are not messed up together.

 

[thebigcheese]

Ah. In that case, look to the mid range of the kick. You can really just cut out all of the frequencies between about 100 Hz and up, though somewhere in the upper mids you'll want to leave so that you still get the click. Play around a bit, but you're definitely going to want to cut out most of the mids.

 

[theguitarfreak]

Ah. In that case, look to the mid range of the kick. You can really just cut out all of the frequencies between about 100 Hz and up, though somewhere in the upper mids you'll want to leave so that you still get the click. Play around a bit, but you're definitely going to want to cut out most of the mids.

Are you talking about the eq of the master track?

 

[thebigcheese]

No, just the kick. Here's an example of what I'm talking about, but you may need to take more out. I'm using an Audix D6. It's made specifically for kick drums, so it already has a lot of that middle range scooped out. I like it because then I only have to do the little changes instead of big ones. So you could always just get a new mic. Wouldn't be cheap, but it would get you the results you want.

The area around #2 is where a lot of the boominess comes in and interferes with the bass. #1 is to enhance the thump a little bit, and #3 is so that you can hear the pedal smacking the head. You'll want to play around with the settings a bit unless you are recording in my basement with my drums and my mic when I'm not around, but this should give you a good idea about what to look for.

The real key is to solo the track and just loop it. Open up the EQ for the track and make one of the bands notch filter so that it cuts off all the frequencies wherever you are (leave the other bands default). Move that around while you listen until you've found where the boominess is, then switch the band back to a regular band and play with it until you get just the right amount.

 

[Zeppe]

I think that the key here is subtractive EQing rather then additive. I can understand that if you want more low end thump you can just boost the frequencies that sound the most like the thump your looking for. This might fix the problem but more than likely it just adds to the lack of clarity in the low end. You should try to cut the frequencies around that thump sound on the kick, this will create some space for the bass.

I'm not a big fan of soloing tracks because you can get away from the original direction of the mix. When its necessary I'll playback just the kick and bass together. Not to say that this is the only right way to do it but it has saved me a ton of time in the long run. When I first started recording and mixing I would spend hours EQing the kick and bass separately only to find out that when I played them back together I was back at square one.

 

[ReInventor]

The real key here is arrangement. You can have the best, thumpiest sounding kick, bass, and low guitars in the world, but if they aren't hitting with each other in time, and leaving space for you to tell the difference, it will just sound like mud. Droning chords and constant 16th note bass lines will not get you a punch in the chest low end sound. There has to be some definite rhythmic line happening in the bass where the bass and kick line up with each other, and in metal, this generally means the guitars do to.

 

[RAMI]

Your people are getting me wrong.

They're not my people.

 

[theguitarfreak]

Thanks a lot everyone for your views and suggestions. I will try them out.

 

[c7sus]

This will add low end thump to anything.

http://www.moogmusic.com/taurus/?section=product&product_id=21299