Recording of entire kit - Bring out Kick with EQ?

C

complexprocess

New member
Hey All,
I was doing a recording for a metal band, which we made as a scratch track for a demo. We recorded the entire drum kit as a single track instead of routing everything separately. In the overall mix the kick is lacking. We're going to be re-recording everything (the performances are a little sloppy and these are just early tracks,) however, I was wondering if there's a good way to bring the kick out a bit with EQ.

I'm thinking that adjusting EQ on the drum tracks (to bring out the click) as well as the other tracks (to create some room) would help, but I'm looking for some typical frequencies that might be a good starting point. Remember, the drums are one track right now so anything that I do to the kick will also be applied to toms, snare, and cymbals.

Think of it as a challenge to make the best out of a bad situation. Thanks a lot everyone!
 
Around 50-100hz is where a kick sits, I think? It's pretty much useless if those frequencies weren't recorded to begin with, though.
 
50-100hz is just the low end. Many people forget that the loudest part of the kick that you hear is the beater slap. The low end is secondary. Depending on the style of beater you use, you can bring out the attack in the 4-6k range. Careful! This is also a range that will alter snare and cymbals.
 
Hey complex.
I have the same problem. I record my the entire kit to just one track, and that's just because my DAW doesn't allow more to be tracked together. Anyway, eventhough I have no preamps, to eliminate phase cancellation, what I do is that I mic my kick with a Shure PG52 just inside the reso batter hole, and on the beater side, I mic the slap with a SM57.
Here's a sample, take a listen
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=371758&songID=3861755
I track without EQ. Then I EQ it as a whole track when mixing.
Cheers!
 
Thanks everyone! I was able to bring out the kick a little bit and ended up with something that sounds pretty ok. I appreciate your tips.

Incidentally, do any of you ever high-pass your kick tracks? If so, where would you suggest? 20Hz? 30? Higher?
 
high pass, eq, and all that

i'm currently recording a metal project myself, and i go so far as to high-pass my kick mic @ 80Hz, and i've never had a problem with presence or bass. in fact, it helps my bass guitar sit in the mix. the nice thing about doing this drastic a high-pass is, i get a hard-hitting, loud, attacking kick with no clipping, and i use ZERO compression in the recording stage. i have 8 mics on my drumset running into a mixer, which i have well-balanced through trial and error, and i record 2 stereo channels straight to my akai--it's very unforgiving, but also rewarding once you find the perfect mix. as long as your drum is tuned and dampened, and your mic is placed right, you shouldn't have to use much eq. i usually trim 3 or 4 dB around 300Hz (the fundamental freq of a 22" kick drum), but i've twisted knobs trying to eq my way out of trouble, and it only makes me more frustrated. it's all about sound source and mic placement. if you set up, do sound check, and your kick sound is way off, then the most expensive, expansive eq unit in the world will do nothing for you. imho anyhoo.
 
Hello...

Are you working in a DAW?..


You can zoom in on your drum track and see where your kick hits, and add a sampled kick on another track.

(Or trigger a sample by placing trigger 'marks' at the kick hits)

This can be done for snare as well. Gets complicated for rolls.

Hope this helps,

-LIMiT
 
If you're rerecording everything, why not get the kick sound how you want it before you hit record instead of just recording the same sub-par sound you already have and trying to fix it with eq? That sounds like it would be a better solution.
 
if your'e working with a pc DAW then maybe you could consider sound replacement. go to wavemachinelabs website and get the drumagog demo. its an excellent drum replacement plugin. once you have it installed, make a copy of your drum track, use an EQ plugiin on the insert section of your channel strip in whatever program your using and filter the track with low and high pass eq till nothing is left but the thump of the kick, then put the drumagog plugin after the eq. what this will do is allow you to do is use your existing track to trigger a new bass drum sound (which you can record or use the existing samples) and control it seperately. then you can just dig out the kicks dominant frequency from the original drum track to clean it up a bit.
 
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