
A peaking band works well on the click (Q around 1.5) but a high shelf can be used to enhance the bleed of the snare wires in the kick drum mic. You can find the click up around the 6-8kHz range. This is the sound of the beater actually hitting the drum head. Click works in conjunction with smack to help bring a kick drum through a dense mix. At first thought you might not attribute click as a quality desired in a kick drum sound. I always use a peaking band for the smack and keep the Q parameter in the 1 to 1.5 range.Ĭlick is exactly what you think it is. Microphones specifically tailored to kick drums will often have a bit of a presence bump somewhere in this range. I like to start my search for smack in the 3-5kHz range.

This is the frequency range that helps the ear identify individual kick drum hits. Smack is the primary attack of the kick drum. Be careful not to overdo it with the shelf though, things can get blurry fast in the sub frequency ranges. I typically use a normal, peaking band for the boom but you can experiment with a low shelving band here if your kick drum is lacking girth. A more traditional, ringing boom will be found a bit higher, perhaps in the 100Hz range. You can find a cleaner, modern sound boosting around the 50-60Hz area. These are three key elements that can be used to describe the sound of a kick drum.īoom is where the low end thud of the kick drum comes from. All you need in your home studio is a four band eq to start shaping the kick drum sound of your dreams! The kick drum big three: boom, smack, click


Start by trying a few of these eq and compressor settings and tweak them in to suit your specific starting drum sound and desired results. While every kick drum has an individual sound there are some general guidelines you can follow to get a great start in shaping your drum’s sound. This article explores some great mix recipes for equalizing and compressing your kick drum tracks. There is no reason to settle for lackluster kick drum sounds on your home recording.
