Can anybody give me some golden tips on equalizing drums?

[siperdellyeer]

boost 200hz as much as you can on snares

dun forget to squash it down with a limter after that skrillzors snaer

yeah don't forget the limiter

[skerrick]

rly? man i dont bother with the limiter (unless its for boosting the gain on the wet drum level when using ny compression). seriously try this; put your snares on band 6 of your eq, move that band to 4000hz and just slowly push the db level up on band 6 and listen to how sharp you can get em. if you layer em right at 4000hz (i find a deep snare and a high sharp snare sound good together) you dont need to worry about limiting it because you tried to punch it out at 200hz.

[Swelly]

1. solo kick. The essential parts of the kick are roughly from 60-120hz. Cut everything above 120 and everything below 60.
2. solo snare. The essential parts of the snare are roughly around 230-250 hz (the crack/punch) and around 500 hz (the "air") Cut everything below 230 and use the Q control on one of the bands on the eq to boost roughly around 230-250 (you don't necessarily need to boost a lot, rely on your ears) Boost around 500 hz, and then experiment cutting above 500, or between 250 and 500; the object is to remove as many unnecessary frequencies as possible, because they are eating your headroom and making your track quiet.

Most certainly do NOT cut everything above 120 on the kick. That would make it sound flabby and like it's in water. Unless you want that effect. And why would you cut everything below 230 on a snare...most of the snare's weight sits below 230...some go down to like 130...

[skerrick]

^ agreed, i was reading this being like "have i been doing it wrong?" haha

[travis_baker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ISOfyUI ... r_embedded

wub posted this a few days ago, he goes into depth on eqing drums a little. the bit about how the listener has a different perception to sounds than the producer, basicly becouse the listener dosnt get to hear the sample before proccessing, it will sound full no matter how much u cut from it (within reason!).
actually all the videos and interview on the thinking out loud thread i would recomend you read.

[sunny_b_uk]

im sure the tips here will do but i gotta say its also down to experience and practice with EQing, it honestly took me ages to EQ kicks without making them sound shit.

[mesc]

im sure the tips here will do but i gotta say its also down to experience and practice with EQing, it honestly took me ages to EQ kicks without making them sound shit.

Each drum or loop could be EQed so many different ways depending on it's context with other elements in your track. Learn to use your ears and decide what sounds good to you. Chances are your choice might not result in the sound your looking for at first. It's a learning curve that will only get better with trial and error/ experience in my opinion.

[skerrick]

^yeah and in saying that, it gives you a style of your own if you figure out your own way of doing it that isnt conventional/done by anyone else. make your own sound

[bassinine]

snare, layer them. stagger the different snare samples.
kicks, pretty easy to make a crazy kick by layering a punchy one with a boomy 808 sub, then eq/saturate/compress them together (always sounds good getting your other low/mid range to duck for ~50-75ms, as long as it's not TOO much ducking).
hats, i like to lowpass them and add saturation to bring the harmonics back.

ny/parallel comp on a return track.

ignore these people trying to make it seem more complicated than it is.

[jrisreal]

Boost 200 kHz to +127 dB

[bassinine]

Boost 200 kHz to +127 dB

and the best way to make a good kick is to aim for jrisreals face.

[neonmansion]

boost 200 khz and STFU!

haha j/k.. Honestly (for dubstep, edm). Just make them loud as shit. Maybe roll of the subs on the kick. Or tune the subs. Def layer. PAP! snare for transient. POOF! snare for 200 khz (909 sample) and a lowpassed cymbal for release. For kicks I usually use massive to generate a sub and layer it with a vengeance electro kick.

[skerrick]

man i said that before, really sharp kick, really bassy kick. LAYER THEM.

[jrisreal]

Boost 200 kHz to +127 dB

and the best way to make a good kick is to aim for jrisreals face.

True story

[Swelly]

When you eq, just make sure each drum has it's own space (panning, frequency), there's no point in having low frequencies in your hats or crashes (roll of at least around 130hz and work your way up from there until it is noticeable and then go back to where the eq change isn't too obvious, then you can lightly compress the whole rack (or group, whatever you do), and very very light reverb to give it a sort of glue to make it seem like the drums where actually "in the same room".

[RandoRando]

just what i do with drums,

kick, normally hi passed around 60 hz, make sure it still has the punch a kick should.

snare- yes, i do accent 200hz alot in my snares, dont over do it though. try to avoid white noise snare as they can make a mix ugly, get snares with body and timbre.

hats- hi pass around 1k. rarely do normal hats need any freq below that. also panning is your friend when it comes to hats, pan those hats everywhere. give your mix some width.

then i throw everything into a drum bus with slight slight compression to glue it all together.

parallel compression, low/high exciters, and gates are all awesome for drum busses.