what to do with an SM57-recorded kick drum

[sthslvrcnfsn]

...discuss.

jim!

[drumsound]

...discuss.

jim!

Make it work with all the other tracks on the song!

[Cyan421]

Gate some 40hz sine wave to it. If you want it to sound like a real kick drum. Thats the old school way of cheating. The new school way would be to use "SOUND REPLACER" but you should only use that plug-in if you want to change your kick drum into a duck!

[sthslvrcnfsn]

no gates, no oscillator - though that would be cool.

i'm trying to make it work with the music - that's the best damn thing to do. the problem is that the bass, guitar, and the rest of the kit all sound way better than that kick - everything else has potential to gel nicely (i've only worked up one rough mix so far).

i'm thinking i might just try to get a trashy, distorted drum sound - something where i can kind of fudge or forget the kick and still have a good sound. the only thing standing in my way is the music - the drum parts get a little technical from time to time (think metal), and i think it would get all jumbled up and sound like worries are for nothing.

for now, i'll go nurse this flu or sinus infection or whatever i got yesterday. maybe it's even the fucking bird flu.

jim!

[drumsound]

Can you emphasize a little of the BD out of the overheads and room to help beef up the BD tracks tone? How about multing the BD and crank the lows and cut the rest, blend to taste?

Good luck with the mix and the flu.

[GLEA]

Run it through a crunchy amp. I saved a track on which one of my mics shorted out half way through. I didn't notice until it came time to mix. I ran it through my Peavy Due, mabe with some Rat. Sounded fine. A gate really would help..

[soundguy]

if you have a parametric EQ just sweep and find the resonant peak and cut it out, totally simple to do with a peaky mic like a 57. Once you do that do whatever processing you have to do make it sound bigger. Recording a kick drum with a 57 is hardly the end of the world, that can be made to work and shit, I know engineers who use 57's on kick drums on purpose. I just sacrificed my last 57 tonight to avoid confusion on this very issue, heh.

dave

[drmorbius]

You can make it work. Blood Sugar Sex Magik from Red Hot Chili Peppers features an SM57 on the kick--apparently it was just the mic Rick Rubin had handy.

[joel hamilton]

Well recorded with a 57 or just poorly recorded?

assuming it is a well recorded kick drum, even with a 57.... Use whatever you have to use to make it work. Probably just EQ and compression.

I would probably hit the pultec first, then a compressor, then slight EQ at the console.

If I was in DAW land, I would soundreplace that sucker immmediately if it was not well recorded. I would use a trigger if I was on tape and it was not well recorded. I have samples in every sample rate that I have made of good kick drum sounds that totally would never get "busted as a sample."

If you hate the sound of "canned" triggers and samples ( i do usually) then put a good mic in a good kick drum, hit it a few times, record it. make your own sample of a well recorded kick drum. eplace the crappy one with that.

There are a bunch of other, more convoluted tricks that work as well. Just try stuff....

[leigh]

Depending on how you want the kick to sound in the mix, the GRM Tools plug-in called "Reson" does as much resonant filtering as you'd ever need. At extreme settings, it's almost like gating a tone, because the original signal is acting more like an impulse into a resonant system than a sound of its own. Of course, you have the liberty to blend it to taste. Tune the primary resonant freq to the root note of the song, or maybe a fifth up or a fourth down from the root.

Leigh

[eeldip]

you could also just let the kick be a bit clicky 57y and let the bass guitar totally dominate the sub 120hz zone.

it might not work with the song.. but if there is a lot of bass guitar, its a nice opportunity to put a real deep heavy bass in there without screwing up the kick.

[vvv]

It is Friday afternoon and getting weird here right before Happy Hour, but has anyone ever tried the old "re-mic" snare-drum trick of playing the snare track through a speaker on a snare drum, by putting the kick track through a speaker on a kick drum?

Maybe I should just go have that Martini...

[darjama]

Maybe it's a bit of a cheat, but you could try one of those bass enhancement plugins if you need more of that low-end ring. I've tried that once or twice and got decent results. Helps if there's not too much bleed on the track.

[Cyan421]

yeah Red Hot Chili Peppers! The bass guitar is all the sub 120hz stuff!!

Also an album that did pretty well Give Up from The Postal Service. That has the same kind of thing. That should be some good inspiration.

Sorry for the patened gated 40hz responce, I just think of that when i think of a kick drum....guess i gotta forget that.......

[Fletcher]

...discuss.

jim!

Make it work with all the other tracks on the song!

Maybe I don't hang out here enough to comment... but this seems like the best answer I've read so far.

How do you do shit like add oscillators, and gates, and parametric equalizers, and Pultecs, and whatever the fuck without having heard the damn thing in context with the music?

Did I miss the day they taught that you're supposed to preguess what every sound needs before ever hearing the song?

Seems a bit dumbass to me. I dunno... I'm old so maybe listening to the song and making the drum sound work in context to the song is something only old people do