Drums and percussion often provide the backbone within audio projects. Whether digital or recorded live, each part of the drum kit has its strengths and flaws that you’ll want to mold to your liking within your mix. Equalizers are one of the best tools to help you achieve this while also maintaining sonic clarity and balance.
We’ll go through some frequently used EQ practices for drums as well as the frequency ranges to watch out for. Remember that each drum recording is different, and you should judge with your ears on a case-by-case basis.
Why You Should EQ Your Drums
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Even the best percussion recordings can benefit from the application of EQ filters. This is often the case as each hit on a drum kit spills out frequencies well beyond the fundamental tones.
For example, the kick drum predominantly resides around 60-120 Hz, but its harmonics often extend out into the lower and upper range of the frequency spectrum. Thus, it’s important to refine your drums with EQs, so they only emit necessary and sonically pleasing frequencies.
Another factor to consider is the issue of harsh resonances and frequency masking. These two issues often require knowledge ofhow to use EQ filters, filter sweeps, and evenhow to use sidechain compression.
Bear in mind that EQs should not be your only tool to fix clarity issues. Use your panning and level faders to their limit, and only then, see what you can do with EQs.
You should do all you can to get the drum sound you’re after—whether dark, bright, distorted, or clean—before applying EQ changes.
EQs are not a magic wand to make average sounds into masterpieces. Only with a good base can you refine and polish your audio into something great. Also, remember thatdifferent types of EQsmay be better suited to the job than others.
Subtractive EQ for Drums
To get the best sound out of your audio, the first step is sculpting away all unnecessary frequency material.
Low- and High-Pass Filters
These two filters should be your go-to technique to cut out unnecessary highs and lows in your drum kit (and most other instruments).
Your main technique should be to slowly increase/decrease the cutoff frequency of these two filters until it affects the fundamental tone of your drum part. Then, back off a little until you hear all of your desired sounds.
Try a high-pass filter (HPF) around 40 Hz, and adjust until you hear the sound you want. Try a low-pass filter (LFP) around 5 kHz. Again, depending on the style of your kick, you may want to reduce or increase the cutoff frequency to tighten or expand the sound, respectively.
Set a cutoff frequency between 70-210 Hz in your HPF, and push it up as much as possible to remove unnecessary rumbling sounds. This will also make space for your kick drum. Do the same with a low-pass filter, filtering out inaudible and excess highs without overly taking away its presence.
Certain tom sounds can perform well without a HPF, but in general, it’s a good idea to try a HPF around 50 Hz to see if you can tighten up the sound. Experiment with a LPF around 7 kHz to further focus the sound of your toms.
High Hats and Cymbals
Place a HPF around 400 Hz, adjust as needed, and back off when you affect the fundamental tone. This can sometimes be quite a high cutoff frequency value when used on cymbals. This filter will not only remove surplus lows but also carve out more space for the often overly populated range of frequencies below.
Set a LPF around 18 kHz to round off the unnecessary highs, being careful not to suck out all the air and sparkle from the high hats and cymbals.
Remove Mud and Boxy Sounds
Mud refers to a lack of clarity that can impact your audio around 200-300 Hz. It arises from a buildup of frequencies in this range.
Boxy refers to audio that sounds as if it came out of a box. In the case of drums, it operates in a similar range of frequencies to mud around 250–500 Hz, and is a result of too much presence in these frequencies.
As you go through your drum kit, you will want to experiment with subtle cuts in these ranges, for example:
Remember to play it by ear when applying such edits.
Remove Harsh Resonances
For each part of your drum kit, particularly your snare, high hats, and cymbals, you will want to use a filter sweep to identify any harsh ringing or resonances. If you find such resonances in isolation, you may want touse automation in your DAWto fix it without impacting your whole track.
Use surgical edits to remove such problematic resonances, and move on. For example, you may want to remove the piercing sound cymbals can generate by cutting around 4 kHz.
Additive and Corrective EQ
To get the characteristics you’re after in your drum kit, you’ll want to use additive and corrective EQ edits.
Add Body and Depth
To add some thump and solidity to your kick drum, apply a subtle boost around 60–100 Hz. Overdo it, and you risk disrupting the balance of your mix.
Similarly, boost around 140 Hz in your snare drum to give it an extra edge and fullness. For extra thickness in your toms, boost its fundamental tones around 90–160 Hz by 2–4 dB.
Avoid a Thin or Boxy Sound
As we covered above, too much presence between 250–500 Hz can lead to a boxy sound. The inverse leads to a thin sound; so, apply boosts in this range to your drums if you notice a hollow sound.
Adjust Attack and Clarity
For increased attack, boost your kick drum by 2–5 dB around 2–10 kHz. A higher frequency (5–10 kHz) boost will increase the snappy feel, while a lower one (2–4 kHz) will increase the acoustic feel.
Apply a boost of 2–5 dB to your snare around 2–5 kHz to add extra snap and definition to the sound.
Boost your toms around 3 kHz by 2–3 dB to enhance their clarity and attack. Then, boost the frequency of your high hats and cymbals around 9 kHz for extra brightness and definition. you’re able to also boost your high hats around 4 kHz for the, at times, desirable hiss sound of the metallic plates.
Get the Best Sound From Your Drums
After recording the best drum sound possible, further focus the sound of each element in your drum kit with low- and high-pass filters. Then remove mud, boxiness, and harsh resonances, so that your drum kit sounds and sits comfortably in your mix.
Apply additive and corrective EQ edits to accentuate desirable characteristics and tame those that stand out too much. Add in the use of automation and other EQ types for dynamic EQ changes, and your drums will resonate like never before.
