Mix Recipes: Kick Drum EQ and compression
There is no reason to settle for lackluster kick drum sounds on your home recording. This article explores some great mix recipes for equalizing and compressing your kick drum tracks. While every kick drum has an individual sound there are some general guidelines you can follow to get a great start in shaping your drum’s sound. Start by trying a few of these eq and compressor settings and tweak them in to suit your specific starting drum sound and desired results. All you need in your home studio is a four band eq to start shaping the kick drum sound of your dreams!
The kick drum big three: boom, smack, click
These are three key elements that can be used to describe the sound of a kick drum.
Boom is where the low end thud of the kick drum comes from. You can find a cleaner, modern sound boosting around the 50-60Hz area. A more traditional, ringing boom will be found a bit higher, perhaps in the 100Hz range. I typically use a normal, peaking band for the boom but you can experiment with a low shelving band here if your kick drum is lacking girth. Be careful not to overdo it with the shelf though, things can get blurry fast in the sub frequency ranges.
Smack is the primary attack of the kick drum. This is the frequency range that helps the ear identify individual kick drum hits. I like to start my search for smack in the 3-5kHz range. Microphones specifically tailored to kick drums will often have a bit of a presence bump somewhere in this range. I always use a peaking band for the smack and keep the Q parameter in the 1 to 1.5 range.
Click is exactly what you think it is. At first thought you might not attribute click as a quality desired in a kick drum sound. Click works in conjunction with smack to help bring a kick drum through a dense mix. This is the sound of the beater actually hitting the drum head. You can find the click up around the 6-8kHz range. A peaking band works well on the click (Q around 1.5) but a high shelf can be used to enhance the bleed of the snare wires in the kick drum mic.
Mud is not one of the big three because it is a bad thing! We want the opposite of mud in our mix, especially on the kick drum. You remove some of the mud and clean up your kick drum sound by cutting a thin band in the 250-300Hz range. I will often use a peaking band with the Q set to around 3.
Kick drum big three eq quick chart
More boom (modern) +6dB at 50Hz
More boom (solid, classic) +6dB at 100Hz
More smack (attack) +7dB at 3.5kHz
More click (beater) +6dB at 6.0kHz
Kick drum eq recipes
- Start here to get a solid, full kick drum sound with plenty of click
- Band 1: +6dB at 55Hz
- Band 2: -9dB at 275Hz (narrow)
- Band 3: +7dB at 3.7kHz
- Band 4: +8dB at 6.2kHz shelf
- Start here to get a more traditional kick drum sound
- Band 1: +6dB at 100Hz
- Band 2: -10dB at 800Hz (narrow)
- Band 3: +6dB at 1.5kHz
- Band 4: +6dB at 7.0kHz shelf
- Start here to get a ringy bottom end with less attack
- Band 1: +6dB at 100Hz
- Band 2: -5dB at 250Hz (narrow)
- Band 3: +3dB at 4.0kHz
- Band 4: +3dB at 10.0kHz shelf
Kick drum compression recipes
If I have a very consistent drummer with great dynamics then I often will skip compressing the kick drum at all. Sometimes you need to bring up the sustain or level out an uneven performance or you might be looking for the ultra compressed modern sound.
Reduction level is the amount your kick drum is being compressed. All good compressors have some kind of meter or way to gauge your signal reduction. This will sometimes be labeled gain reduction or will just be a meter that seems to work backwards, going down or showing negative values on each kick drum hit. You should be able to see the reduction increase (more into the negative range) as you lower the threshold of the compressor. I like to get about -3dB of gain reduction for subtle kick drum compression. I’m not afraid to get the gain reduction up to -10dB or higher when necessary though. You don’t have a reduction level control on your compressor. You adjust the threshold control until you are getting your desired reduction level.
Kick drum compression recipes
- Subtle kick drum compression
- Ratio: 3:1 or 4:1
- Attack: 4ms
- Release: 200ms
- Threshold: adjust for about 3-6dB gain reduction
- More “in your face” kick drum compression
- Ratio: 6:1
- Attack: 3ms
- Release: 200ms
- Threshold: adjust for about 8-10dB gain reduction
Drum processing plugins for your DAW
When it comes to plugins I am a big fan of Waves processors. If you are using moderately capable DAW software it probably came with some eq and a compressor. Using those will get you fine results. If you want to step up to what a lot of pros are using and take your home studio recording to the next level then Waves processors will make a good investment. Their software plugins are top notch, stable, sound great, and the company stands by its products and customers.
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Waves Musicians 2 Bundle price check This is the bundle I recommend people use as the entry point to the Waves sound and experience. It includes the Renaissance EQ and Renaissance Compressor which are two of my favorite plugins ever. |
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Waves Renaissance Maxx Bundle price check This is the next step up if you can afford just a bit more. The two main go to plugins you will add above the Mus 2 bundle are the Renaissance Reverb and Renaissance Vox, two of my other favorite plugins. |
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Waves Gold Native Bundle price check This bundle has a lot more plugins than the other two bundles, but it is a lot more expensive and doesn’t really add any go to plugins that are essentials. The coolest addition is the L1 which is great for mastering. Only you can decide if the extra plugins are worth the scratch. |
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Waves Mercury Bundle price check This is the bundle for you if price is no object (costs more than most DAW packages). You get every Waves plugin currently supported by the company. There are a lot of cool, boutique eq and compressor plugins here. The SSL, API, and V-series plugins all have really great, classic sounds to them. |
I hope you’ll find some of these kick drum recipes helpful and be able to put them to good use. Feel free to post some links to your results in the comments section below!
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November 27th, 2007 at 2:54 am
Hi,
I really appreciate your tutorials! more please! The parallel compression drum compression worked a treat an im now using it in my mixes. The drums really stand out!
More Please!
Thanks a bunch!
Monkey
November 27th, 2007 at 5:57 am
Great! I’m glad you’re getting some benefit. As long as people keep reading, I’ll keep writing.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:50 am
any chance of doing tones for Guitar Rig?
Monkey
November 27th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Sorry, I don’t have access to Guitar Rig.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
hey thanx 4 the tutorials, this and the modern mastering one were exactly what ive been looking 4. any chance u could do something similar to the kick drum recipe but with snares and hats as well? thanx again
November 29th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
I am definitely planning on doing snare and hats. I’d also like to do vocals, guitars, bass, and anything else I can think of! Some of the other instruments will have more than just eq and compression. Reverbs and delays will most likely appear in some of the future recipes. It’s just a matter of finding time to fit it all in!
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I love your articles! THis one, in particular was a BIG help. I have a question maybe you can answer though. I am a Hip Hop producer and beatmaker. Currently, I am producing on a Pro Tools 6.4 setup, and I like my tracks to come out sounding professional and robust. My only problem is that, on some of my more “bass and/or boom driven” tracks, the kicks, basses or booms over-power my master compressor and temporarily drop the levels in my mix. On my master fader, I almost always use the L2 compressor from Waves, and as long there is not a lot of heavy bass or boom, it can make my tracks sound INCREDIBLE. But bass escapes me in the finalizing of a track. Can you help me?
Thank you in advance,
Vibe One
Vibal Beats
January 4th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Three possible solutions come to mind:
- This could be an indication that the kick is just way too loud for your mix or you are trying to compress too much on the master bus L2.
- Use an L1 on the kick track itself to even out the levels automatically.
- Use the L3 (or some other multiband dynamics processor) on the master bus instead of the L2. This will let you compress the bass frequencies independently of the other frequencies. So when the kick compresses it doesn’t affect the rest of the mix.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:17 am
A fourth solutions has come to mind. Submix everything other than the kick/bass to one bus and the kick/bass to a separate bus. Then mix those two submixes to the master bus. Use your L2 on the non-kick/bass bus and maybe even an L2 on the kick/bass bus. Then mix those two tracks to the master bus.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Not to sound redundant but these are great articles. Quick question, theres a compression process that I don’t know the name of but it involves the bassline ducking when the kick comes in, does this sound familiar? Thanks in advance.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
It does. I plan on doing a piece on ducking, possibly as one of the “mix recipes” series.
April 6th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
hey man i´m from germany youré tutorials are great you help me a lot
many many thanks
but can you say me what come´s first the equalizer or the compressor??
greetz izeman!!!
April 6th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I generally put EQ first, then compressor. Both ways are a different sound. Try each one and see which you prefer.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:59 am
ok thanks man !!
April 11th, 2008 at 6:52 am
i got another question? Vocals equalizer or compressor first ???
first i take the Rcomp than the q 10 !!
how about you ???
April 11th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Across the board I generally put EQ first, then compression. That is just my preference. Both ways are valid though, so pick the one you like best!
April 11th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Thank you very much!!!!!
and which equalizer you take for the voice ???
and compressor???
April 11th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Check this article for my vocal plugin preferences.
http://benvesco.com/tonemonster/mixing/taming-vocals-compressors-in-series/
April 15th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
and which eq do you use????
April 16th, 2008 at 7:17 am
The one mentioned in the article I linked in response to your question about which EQ and compressor I use on vocals.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Hey man, I found this blog by accident… best things occur in that way. I’m from Peru. I’m actually doing the drums for my band using BFD2. I think all the EQ principles rule even for drum samples. I was trying to achieve this sound from a technical death metal band called Neuraxis:
http://www.killthepixelnow.com/solo_project/neuraxis_drums.zip
And this is my attemp:
http://www.killthepixelnow.com/solo_project/drumkit004.zip
I’d be great for me to hear a honest comment on that drumming. You got my e-mail, and my web too… lol
Luck.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:15 am
hey i got a question for the more in your face kickdrum;
i take the c1 or the Rcomp and my settings are:
threshold 0,,, attack 3ms,,,release 200ms,, and gain between 6-8 db
like you !!
is that right or is the treshold - 6 or 8 and the gain 6-8 db or only the gain is 6-8 ???sry for my bad english !!
April 29th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Threshold of 0 is like bypassing the compressor. Set the threshold so the gain reduction meter reads 6-8dB of gain reduction. You do not have to change the output gain at all.
April 30th, 2008 at 6:59 am
ahhh ok !!!!!
thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!
April 30th, 2008 at 7:08 am
you’re welcome you’re welcome you’re welcome!!!!!!!!
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Hey Ben,
To start off your site has been a huge help to me in my “audio education”
lol
Thanks a lot for taking the time to write up these little things
they are greatly appreciated
Now to business
I am in a deathcore band
and I am looking for the standard death metal kick click
I’m using DFH btw
I can’t seem to get the right amount of click without killing all the sub freq after compression
I either have no sub and plenty of click
or not enough click and plenty of sub
Thanks
September 1st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Death metal is a very EXTREME form of music. You will have to use very extreme plugin settings to capture these sounds. Don’t be afraid to boost a very narrow EQ band to get the click. Read this article http://benvesco.com/tonemonster/mixing/2008/fx-tips-eq-how-to-sweep-an-eq/ for tips on sweeping an EQ band. Make one of your EQ bands very narrow and give it a healthy 12dB (or more) boost. Then sweep to find the spot where the click is very pronounced. Then you can use a low shelving band to boost the sub frequencies to be more prominent if the click is too pronounced. I would also suggest a moderate to wide band that scoops out a good portion of the mids to really get that over-processed death metal kick sound.
September 7th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Thanks
I’ll have to try that out when I get back to my house and mix tonight
I’ll post back on the results
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:55 am
u rock man tnx for the tutorials helped me alot !