Recording drums in personal environments
such as rehearsal spaces,
garages, and living rooms can be a
bitch. Big-studio engineers often
have marvelously tuned acoustic
areas and cabinets full of sexy microphones
at their disposal, and, along
with their years of audio training,
these benefits can yield tremendous
drum sounds. You, however, probably
have a couple of inexpensive
dynamic mics and a recording space
that’s awash in the debris of everyday
living. But you’re not a whiner or a
quitter, so you barrel in and use who
you’ve got, and you record your
drum tracks the best you can. Bravo.
But when you audition the sounds
during the recording process—or
later on when you’re in mixdown
mode—you start getting a tad paranoid.
Perhaps the kick drum sounds
thin, the snare is dull, or the hi-hat is
piercing. Mic placement isn’t solving
any of the problems, and you don’t
want to stop the creative surge,
break down the kit, and start from
scratch in another room—or, worse
yet, bail entirely on the session until
you can beg or barter for a bettersounding
recording space and/or hipper
microphones.
Keeping the studio energy flow
rocking may sound like something a
porpoise-loving, crystal-worshiping
flower child might advise, but when
you’re attempting to keep the flames
of creativity burning, any setbacks
can douse one’s personal inferno of
inspiration, and that’s not good. To
that end, the home-studio owner
needs to juggle the option of a quick
fix that keeps the session moving
(but may not deliver transcendent
results) against the possibility of
rescheduling the recording in order
to acquire better tools.
My vote is obvious—keep working
feverishly until the beatific hellhound
of inspiration turns to dust. You
never know when you’ll be lucky
enough to get a return visit from a
benevolent muse.
Of course, in this instance, keeping
the momentum going means you still
have those problematic drum sounds
to deal with, and they have to be
dealt with immediately. Here, then,
are some tonal bandages worthy of
Florence Nightingale. Your drums
might not sound as glorious as Chad
Smith’s or John Bonham’s, but the
patient won’t die, either.
Flabby Kick Drum
Use your channel EQ or an EQ
plug-in to cut 80Hz or 100Hz by
3dB–6dB. If that doesn’t work, try
cuts from 40Hz to 200Hz until the
muddy lows dissipate.
Wimpy Kick Drum
Need some beef? Carefully boost at
100Hz until you love the boom. Usually,
a 3dB or 6dB boost should do the
trick, although I’ve sometimes been as
bold as to dial in a 10dB boost. Take
care not to go boost crazy and produce
a flabby timbre—you don’t want
to ping-pong between the previous
EQ tip and this one!
Where’s the Impact?
Sometimes, the snap of the beater
pedal against the drumhead gets
mushy or indistinct. To bring back the
punch, boost 2kHz or so by 6dB.
Depending on the size of the kick
drum and the material used for the
beater, you may also want to explore
boosts from 1kHz up to 5kHz to get
the desired result.
Bloated Snare
Get more thud and swack by cutting
500Hz by 3dB or so. If there’s an
annoying low-midrange ring, try cutting
around 900Hz.
Not Enough Wood
Zero in on 120Hz–240Hz to dial in
some warmth and fullness to the snare
drum. A 3dB boost should do it.
Where’s the Crack?
For a crisp snare attack, boost anywhere
between 1.5kHz and 3kHz. To
add some snap, boost at 10kHz.
Dead Floor Tom
To up the rumble, boost around
80Hz–120Hz, and cut the same frequencies
to reduce mud. For attack,
boost in the 3kHz–5kHz range.
Puny Rack Toms
Pump up the wallop with boosts in
the 240Hz–400Hz range. Articulate
those stick-to-skin hits by boosting
around 3kHz–7kHz.
Piercing Hi-Hats
Calm the sizzle by cutting 3dB to
6dB at around 3kHz, and again at
10kHz–12kHz.
Indistinct Overhead Cymbals
Bring back clarity and dimensionality
by boosting 10kHz by 3dB.