Any good EQ settings for drums anyone wants to share?

[akg414]

This is asinine. Sorry to be a bit gruff, but there are alot of these questions around here, and they are unanswerable. Use your ears!

It just amazes me how quickly people step up to "educate" us all - on how a particular aspect of recording is SO generic and how there is NO real answer for a question somebody asks.

This is NOT asinine. People gotta stop with the typical "go to" answer of "use your ears". Like, um, we all know this already? If everyone just simply "used theirs ears", then no questions would be asked, right? And authors would only write one line in their one-page books "there's no one solution - use your ears". This is a recording forum. People ask questions - the same questions over and over. This is how we learn.

Red Crown said he's hitting a road-block. His drums are a little lack-luster so he's seeking some people's EQ settings. Maybe he can learn something from what others are doing?

We all know that drums take some basic (and yes "general") EQ settings. Bass drums like a boost at 100? Snares fatten starting around the 250 area? Overheads become more sparkling with some 10K boost. Does this work ALL the time for EVERY drum kit? No fool believes that.

Give Red Crown a break. If you want to contribute, post your settings, if not, then answer another post. But please spare us the "use your ears" bit. It's a little tired...

Sorry for the rant, but I've learned quite a bit from the talent on this forum, and it just gets me when people feel the need to remind us to use our ears, or that every situation is so unique that there is no answer.

[akg414]

i'm not really sure why i'm helping since you just want us all to suck your dick, but what can i say... i'm a helpful guy

Maybe you like sucking dick?

[akg414]

...to fucking hacks who don't want to bother learning what frequencies SOUND like...

People who use presets = "hacks".

[curtiswyant]

This is asinine. Sorry to be a bit gruff, but there are alot of these questions around here, and they are unanswerable. Use your ears!

It just amazes me how quickly people step up to "educate" us all - on how a particular aspect of recording is SO generic and how there is NO real answer for a question somebody asks.

This is NOT asinine. People gotta stop with the typical "go to" answer of "use your ears". Like, um, we all know this already? If everyone just simply "used theirs ears", then no questions would be asked, right? And authors would only write one line in their one-page books "there's no one solution - use your ears". This is a recording forum. People ask questions - the same questions over and over. This is how we learn.

Red Crown said he's hitting a road-block. His drums are a little lack-luster so he's seeking some people's EQ settings. Maybe he can learn something from what others are doing?

We all know that drums take some basic (and yes "general") EQ settings. Bass drums like a boost at 100? Snares fatten starting around the 250 area? Overheads become more sparkling with some 10K boost. Does this work ALL the time for EVERY drum kit? No fool believes that.

Give Red Crown a break. If you want to contribute, post your settings, if not, then answer another post. But please spare us the "use your ears" bit. It's a little tired...

Sorry for the rant, but I've learned quite a bit from the talent on this forum, and it just gets me when people feel the need to remind us to use our ears, or that every situation is so unique that there is no answer.

I disagree. It's the "teach a man to fish" idea. I think we should encourage Red Crown to be creative and aware and not rely on presets or "magic" frequency curves. And besides, how much time and effort does it take to roll an EQ cut/boost through a drum bus to find a starting point? Posts like RC's "really get me" because they don't post any info about the room, gear, mics, drum set, player, style, and so on, and that makes me believe that the original poster doesn't think any of that stuff is important, and any problems can be fixed in the mix. And that will always result in the inspired response "use your ears" (while tracking).

[curtiswyant]

Oh, and you can all suck my dick

[akg414]

I disagree. It's the "teach a man to fish" idea. I think we should encourage Red Crown to be creative and aware and not rely on presets or "magic" frequency curves. And besides, how much time and effort does it take to roll an EQ cut/boost through a drum bus to find a starting point? Posts like RC's "really get me" because they don't post any info about the room, gear, mics, drum set, player, style, and so on, and that makes me believe that the original poster doesn't think any of that stuff is important, and any problems can be fixed in the mix. And that will always result in the inspired response "use your ears" (while tracking).

Nope...

I can't speak for the guy personally, and to what he knows and doesn't know, but to me, all he asked was if people can post some of their settings so that he could try something else.

He never said he didn't know how to EQ drums. Sometimes people get diminishing results and need something different to try. A different perspective. I think all he was looking for was some people's settings they use to get great results. My guess is that he was looking for something like this:

"...try some cut at 580 to remove unwanted snare rim-shot, it works for me every time..."

[signorMars]

I disagree. It's the "teach a man to fish" idea.

...except a lot of you are just telling a man to fish. "each lake is different. each fish likes a different kind of bait. now go figure it out on your own." not really teaching him to fish.

when i first started, someone responded here to a similar question with this link: http://recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php I printed it out and kept it by my mixer and it was very helpful for getting good starting points. As I progressed and learned to listen and learned what different frequencies sounded like, I used it less and less until I was able to throw it away a few years ago. Yes, using your ears is the most important thing, but EQing is not easy when you first start out and it's REALLY easy to over-EQ, especially when you don't have any kind of guidelines or starting points. So my suggestion, Red Crown, is that you print out the EQ primer and use it as a starting point. Remember, of course, that the primer is a list of suggested frequencies and that different instruments, different mics, different sounds will need to be boosted or cut at different frequencies sometimes, but at least you'll have a starting point!

[rwc]

We all know that drums take some basic (and yes "general") EQ settings. Bass drums like a boost at 100? Snares fatten starting around the 250 area? Overheads become more sparkling with some 10K boost. Does this work ALL the time for EVERY drum kit? No fool believes that.

This is why it _IS_ asinine!

a perfect tape-op example, for a song of infopimpster's I mixed I removed 240 on the snare because it lacked life. and hit the phase button.

Now, maybe his drums do need that very treatment.

but how would we know or be able to advise him on it?

Not providing a sample of the drums makes it asinine because you can't give advice on how to liven up tracks that don't exist. It's impossible. Have you ever used an EQ on a muted track before?

People in the listen to my stuff forum ask for advice but also provide something to work with. IMO, not providing a track but asking for advice on it, with no specifics whatsoever on the sound of the instruments is kind of like saying suck my dick.. to the people you're asking advice of.

...except a lot of you are just telling a man to fish. "each lake is different. each fish likes a different kind of bait. now go figure it out on your own." not really teaching him to fish.

have you ever taught a man how to fish without him being on the lake? then maybe you're up for EQing stuff you've never heard.

[akg414]

This is why it _IS_ asinine!

a perfect tape-op example, for a song of infopimpster's I mixed I removed 240 on the snare because it lacked life. and hit the phase button.

Now, maybe his drums do need that very treatment.

but how would we know or be able to advise him on it?

Not providing a sample of the drums makes it asinine because you can't give advice on how to liven up tracks that don't exist. It's impossible. Have you ever used an EQ on a muted track before?

People in the listen to my stuff forum ask for advice but also provide something to work with. IMO, not providing a track but asking for advice on it, with no specifics whatsoever on the sound of the instruments is kind of like saying suck my dick.. to the people you're asking advice of.

...except a lot of you are just telling a man to fish. "each lake is different. each fish likes a different kind of bait. now go figure it out on your own." not really teaching him to fish.

have you ever taught a man how to fish without him being on the lake? then maybe you're up for EQing stuff you've never heard.

BZZZT! Wrong again...

Use your EARS and "listen" to the question. Or, in this case, use your EYES and take a closer look. Red Crown said the following:

"...Anybody got any good eq settings that they rely on for their drums, can you share?..."

Hmmm... I see a guy asking for people to share some settings that people rely on, to get good sound on THEIR drums. Not for lesson on how different every situation can be. I love this whole, "I can't possibly answer this question without knowing more detail..."

Why not ask what the drummer was wearing, or where the song was written? It might even help to know what the bass player's cologne was, because it might have had a dulling effect on the mic's diaphragm.

What about people who write engineering books? They list out COMMON EQ guidelines, mic techniques and other practices. Guess they're asinine too.

Sorry if that offends all the "EQ innovators" out there, but there ARE guildlines, there ARE starting points and things that DO work - most of the time, for most people.

Yawn... We all KNOW that not every EQ setting will work in every situation. The same way we know not every mic-position willl work every time. Read the damn question and try giving the info being requested. He just wants to try something that he hasn't before. I will say that if he does post a clip of his drums, yes, people can advise him on correcting a particular problem, but it sounds like to me, he's just asking a simple question of people's personal practices. So let's all give the "fish" and "dick-sucking" a rest.

Now that's what I call, using your ears.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i dunno.

if you are frequently applying the same kinda eq to different drummers playing different kits in different rooms on different songs in different styles of music.....i dunno. that would make me think you have serious problems with either the acoustics in your room, or your aesthetic. or both.

i pretty much never cut 200Hz from my snare tracks (me playing my kit in my room recorded by me). i mixed a project recently that was recorded elsewhere and i had to cut a bunch of 200 outta the snare cause it sounded like it was in a sleeping bag otherwise.

you see people talk about adding high end to overheads. well, yeah, ok great if you're using 4038s. if you used an akg c33e and you're turning up the high end, you did something very very wrong during tracking.

you might say "oh i usually cut blablabla on the kick drum". well ok, is that with a D12 or a D112? metal band or a roots rock record?

i mean, how do you like to eq room mics? is that an answerable question? no, it isn't.

i really think the only worthwhile advice here is
1. eq as little as possible
2. do it in context in the mix

anything else is just saying "this worked for me this one time"....

[0-it-hz]

Post some examples of your drum tracks, raw with no EQ and I'll be happy to screw with them and send them back.

You probably won't like it, but I'll tell you EXACTLY what I did with the EQ.

Pre-sets don't help. Just keep working the EQ and listening and you'll know what to do with the EQ to get the sound you want. Eventually you'll be able to recognize when you can fix it with EQ and when you can't.

It's not hard, just keep working it and listen. At this point I can hear a track in playback and I have a good idea of exactly what I want it to sound like and what I want to do with an EQ to get that. That ability is NOT talent, it's just experience.

If you're clueless on what you want things to sound like (this happens to me sometimes as well) then go ahead and try some pre-sets, but that exercise will stoke your inspiration rather than being a magic bullet.


Maybe this is simpler:

1.) Have a goal (what should it sound like?)
2.) Decide how to reach goal (what makes track sound like whats in your head?)

If number 2 evades you, seek inspiration or just start dicking with things... you're bound to find lot's of stuff you don't like or just doesn't work so you can at least narrow it down.


A case in point: I love to add all kinds of slappy high-end nonsense to close mic'd toms. Love it. I can get the soloed track to sound like a huge apocalyptic death drum. But 99% of the time this track is now worthless in the mix because it doesn't play nice with the overheads and makes everything else dull in comparison. So I tend to solo close toms with the overheads/room and work it that way. Generally I end up with relatively bassy tom tracks tucked under the attack and room sound from the other mics. This is a huge generalization to indicate my process of trying shit out and deciding what doesn't work.

I don't have a long list of "techniques" to make things sound awesome. I do have a long list of screw-ups that I tend to avoid and bad workflow habits that I've shed after realizing they suck.

[roygbiv]

[rwc]

"...Anybody got any good eq settings that they rely on for their drums, can you share?..."

Hmmm... I see a guy asking for people to share some settings that people rely on, to get good sound on THEIR drums. Not for lesson on how different every situation can be. I love this whole, "I can't possibly answer this question without knowing more detail..."

no bzzt. the settings i rely on for drums change with every drum kit I ever encounter live and in the studio.

I imagine the same goes for most other engineers out there too.

The only way to answer this would be to go to eveyr mix I've ever done and paste the EQ settings, because to my knowledge they've never once been the same. Never have I said "let's do the typical -5 @ 800 hz on that snare with a Q of 1.. there, that's the go-to sound!"

Instead, I'd rather point out the flaw in the question, in order to get a better question, such as - "here are my drums, what would you do to them?" Or even better, "here's a full track, what would you do to these drums in the context of a mix?"

because anything else is just spooging in your soup.

there are too many "what preamp do you go to for recording cymbals" kind of threads going around to let it sneak through.

[wedge]

Dang that was funny!!!

[dynomike]

why does this thread suck so much dick?