Snap Horse
Drum Track Tips, Part Six: More Equalization Guidelines By Thai Long Ly
This is the sixth installment of my tutorial series on the processing of drum tracks. Today’s focus is on equalization of toms, rooms, hi-hats and overheads.
First lets talk overheads. Ah, where should I begin? Applying EQ to an overhead track depends on the artistic approach for your song and their respective drum tracks (I suppose this is true for anything, but stay with me here). If you’re primarily using the overheads as cymbal mics, then you’ll want to roll out most of the bottom end using a Hi Pass Filter. Simply jettison everything below 500Hz or thereabouts and sneak the track up in level so that the cymbals sit in a proper place (with the drum tracks and the song in general) when struck. You could try boosting above 10kHz for some “air” as well.
If you’re looking for the overheads to convey location of the individual elements of a kit, as well as to capture the kit overall, then a fairly broad cut centered around 400Hz-500Hz is all that’s needed to pull some honk out of the kit to make room for the rest of the drum tracks and other instruments. Again, some lifting above 10kHz is nice to bring out some presence and sparkle and you may want to lift towards 7kHz to get more snap out of your snare drum track.
Now lets talk toms. Do you need “System of a Down”-style toms? Get rid of the bloom and resonance (below 250Hz) and accentuate the stick hit and attack (1kHz – 4kHz) of the tom tracks. Doing a Modern R and B thing? Bring up the resonance of the shell and let it ring out. Find the resonant frequency and boost them until they’re howling. Now fit that in with the Overheads and check out what happens with the drum tracks in relation to the song. What seemed like overkill when soloed now feels right when the rest of the track is playing doesn’t it? Good. That’s what it’s all about to begin with! You should always take that into consideration in terms of your drum tracks.
Next lets discuss hi-hats. Dump below 500Hz unless you want the sound of the session drummer’s foot thumping away. Adding a bit of air above 10kHz can work as well. Be careful not to overdo it or you could end up with excessively sizzly-sounding hats. That sounds terrible, and can ruin your drum tracks (and therefore your song).
Lastly, lets talk about rooms. Just mangle the snot out of these. Or, don’t. Filter them. Effect ‘em. Or don’t. Make them dull. Or, don’t. Make ‘em bright. Or don’t. You can see where I’m going with this? Good. Your ears should judge what is best for your drum tracks.
So there you have it: a basic set of concepts to get you up and rolling towards amazing sounding drum tracks. And as if I haven’t said this enough by now in my articles… EXPERIMENT! Find your own voice and signature sound when mixing your drum tracks. Copying someone else’s sound is cool for about a minute… but ultimately what you discover on your own is what will set your project apart from the pack. Remember, the drum sounds you create in a mix will greatly affect the presence and power of your recording. What is going to set a master apart from a demo? Drum sounds! Best of luck to you processing your drum tracks, and have fun.
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