EQ settings will vary *massively* depending on the kick drum and the degree and 'curve' of the pitch modulation.

It is counterproductive to suggest all purpose EQ settings to soften kick drum attack transients because they simply do not exist.

If you are building your kick drums from scratch you will be in a better position to know what needs EQ and where, especially if you run a spectrum analtsis of the final sound.

If you use ready made kick drum samples, you still probably need to do the spectral analysis if your ears arent good at picking out frequency ranges. My ears definitely arent up to scratch yet without some kind of visual aid to point me in the right direction.

But my initial point still stands - You should not pile on the EQ on kickdrums too soon. EQ is a finishing touch - it helps the final sound sit in the mix better. Do not use EQ to shape the tone and transient hit of the drum. Thats what the pitch modulation and filters are for.

yea a cut at 80hz will kill the bass but its a bass drum! I want bass on my kicks!

Otherwise 'BOM BOM BOM BOM' turns into 'put put put put''

If the sub is so overwhelming without EQ then its a pretty good sign that you fecked up when building the kick. Try generating a sine wave with a higher frequency or change the degree of the curve.

nice post deriv thanks and very cool links too
great thread

Heres another kick for you. It is quite reminiscent of the kick drum in 'For an Angel'

[[ LINK REMOVED ]]


Made using the same method near enough. Pitch bend this one twice and compressed the upper mid and treble ranges hard with a multiband compressor. Short reverb tail using SIR and the 'Nice Drum Room.wav' impulse which can be found in one of the Voxengo free impulse packs. Overdriven using Voxengo's free tube amp simulator.

Shortend the envelope window and length of the sample until it gives the kick drum just the right amount of release and lowered the wetness to around -16.5 dB so its just enough to make the kick seem more 3D without overpowering it with an obvious reverberation.

Ill post the mod curves later. Also, I am beginning to use reverb alot on kick drums these days. Ill make a classic Underworld 'Born Slippy' type kick because that one has a plate reverb tail on it which contributes to that huge 'Booom' that it has.

Last edited by Derivative on May-20-2006 at 13:53

hollow kick...............make it into two layers...being "hollow"...i usume its missing its mid makeup. double the kick track. eq track 1 so you only have the first half of the spectrum (lows+somemids) then track 2 eq so you have some mids+highs. this should be done easily with lowpass/highpass. then find a kick thats not hollow......remove the highs and lows....combine it with the hollow kiick...compressed and eq to taste.

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