How to get a Kick out of the Bass Drum using EQ
The bass drum, which many know as the kick drum, plays an important role in music. It stirs emotion in the audience, making them want to dance as it thumps through their bodies. This is of course, what it’s supposed to do but if the kick drum is mixed incorrectly, it will leave the audience feeling pretty bored - no matter how good a song might actually be. Don’t worry though, because that’s why I wrote this post. To help you learn from my bad experiences…
Okay, so it’s called the bass drum… So, if you’re anything like the younger version of myself, you’ll be thinking that the more bass the better, right? Well, I’m afraid not, but I won’t just tell you, I’ll show you. Below is a picture of the EQ settings for a kick drum. It is evident from the picture that only the bass frequencies (100 - 200 Hz) have been boosted.
EQ for a kick drum, where only the bass has been boosted. Click on Image for full size.
One would think this would make your kick drum more lively. Don’t get me wrong, it does give it some thump, however, when added to the rest of the instruments, the bass gets lost and the beat with it. Below is a link to an .MP3 extract from a song where the above EQ has been used.
kick-with-only-bass.mp3 (588 KB)
Okay, you might be thinking that it didn’t sound too bad, but if you play around with some of the higher frequencies (3000 - 5000 Hz) you will find what many call “the Click”. The Click is the sound of the kick pedal’s beater hitting the drum head, and it gives the bass note more definition. The picture below shows the EQ setting used to get the Click.
EQ for a kick drum where both the low (100-200 Hz) and high (3 - 5 kHz) frequencies have been boosted. Click on image for full size.
When this EQ is used, the bass drum cuts through the mix in a good way and if you look carefully, you might even see your audience clapping their hands. You can hear what this EQ sounds like by listening to the .MP3 extract below:
kick-with-3kHz-boost.mp3 (588 KB)
If you have trouble believing my theory, you can go listen to almost any well-produced song out there and you’ll hear the famous Click cutting through the mix. Sometimes it’s really quite emphasized but hardly ever in a bad way. In recent productions they even overlay each bass note with a MIDI kick drum sound to improve the fullness and to get more Click… so get creative and go crazy!
March 26th, 2009 at 11:28 PM
That’s a great tip Brian. Makes a big difference! Just a suggestion here… maybe you could do a post sometime on the importance of tuning your guitar before recording ;)
March 27th, 2009 at 2:06 PM
Haha… funny boy. Yeah, I know the guitar’s out of tune but I needed a song to show the kick sound and I lost the backup of all my previous recordings. Hence you get some pretty ear-wrenching tunes. Oh well, I’m gonna have to refer to my timeless saying of: “If you want a professional show, pay me!” :)
March 27th, 2009 at 10:49 PM
Hmm, from what I understand every band that’s not 0dB requires computing power so if you’re on a slow CPU it’s probably better to boost 100 and 156Hz and leave the others at zero.
Just make sure you adjust the volume of the track to avoid distortion.
March 28th, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Hey Peder,
Thanks, that’s an interesting point. I didn’t know that and will keep it in mind in the future.
Later,
Brian
March 31st, 2009 at 7:08 AM
If you’re recording it helps if you’re moving the microphone closer to the beaters - the nearer it gets the more click you’re hearing.
March 31st, 2009 at 5:52 PM
Hey Bernhard,
Thanks, that’s an excellent tip.
Later,
Brian
May 14th, 2009 at 4:47 PM
Question about recording hydrogen into ardour. I know it’s easy to record the entire drum track from hydrogen into a single ardour track.
But how would one go about splitting all the pieces of the drum kit into different tracks in ardour (ie - bass drum would have it’s own track, snare would have it’s own track etc…)?
May 14th, 2009 at 5:36 PM
Disregard my last post, I found your previous blog entry. :)
May 14th, 2009 at 10:23 PM
Hey Aamir,
I only just saw all your comments now. That was pretty funny - but I ‘m glad you found what you needed :)
Later,
Brian
July 17th, 2009 at 4:22 AM
Great post. EQing kicks is huge! I have all too often lost my bass line by adding way too much bottom end to a kick.The “click” that you speak of, can it be brought to the front with a delay? I wish to get a “Korn” sound out of a bass kick, but how? I think the bass guitar comes into play too, but so far so bad….
Great post, Thanks!
July 17th, 2009 at 8:19 PM
Hey Kern,
Thanks for the feedback. Delay can help because it doubles up on the sound, but you need to be careful when using it because too much can be a disaster. What might help is to add a MIDI track to your song which overlays the drums with a sampled kick. EQ this MIDI kick to be purely click and no bass. Also, your bass guitar needs click too - boost around 3-5 kHz on the bass track but never boost the exact same frequencies for bass and kick. Apply the same idea of EQ to both bass and kick, i.e. boost bass and click, but never apply the exact same EQ because the two instruments will be fighting for the same definition. If these two instruments merge too much, you might want to play with panning to give them their own space.
I hope that helps. Later,
Brian