Drum Mic Tutorial - Part 4: EQ Settings

This video explains what "EQ" means for drums and audio, and also explains the settings I use and why I use them.

***Higher quality audio***
Be sure to watch these videos in HD, because there is a significant improvement in sound quality over standard definition - however, YouTube's codec processing has recently started really muddying up the lower end frequencies (like the bass drum and floor toms), so HD sound is still not as good as the source file. Hit this link if you want to hear the audio at its best: http://vimeo.com/10393843

If you are already familiar with certain aspects of this tutorial, feel free to skip around to other parts using these links:

Introduction - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvqLVo_HeqU

Part 1: Equipment - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRCJQosS-7M

Part 2: Mic Placement - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp1LEhZMITE

Part 3: Recording Preparation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8BIJEbV9mY

Part 5-1: Compression and Reverb - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwxf3Zmdh2g

Part 5-2: Compression and Reverb - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFKzbbX5uOo

Part 6: Noise Gates - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fpm2Dm8DR0

I hope you enjoy these videos, and more importantly I hope they help you become better at recording drums!

Background music: "Mother and Child Divided" by Porcupine Tree

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mic
• Tutorial
• Introduction
• Part
• settings
• equipment
• JD
• Drum
• Drums
• Cover
• How
• to
• make
• drums
• sound
• good
• record
• EQ
• Compression
• Reverb
• Noise
• Gate
• Gates
• microphone
• CAD
• pro
• pro-7
• Presonus
• Firepod
• recording
• toms
• snare
• bass
• kick
• Snarespectre
• Snare
• Spectre
• DMT

[ginito97]

I have the Presonus hooked up to a powere amp. I would like to hook up my ipod to the Firestudio so I can listen to the music Im playing with my drums through my load speakers and I would like to record the song as well as the drums at the same time. Can I connect it to one of the 1/4" jack in the back without losing any of my 8 mic inputs in front? I hope this makes sense. Thank you!

[SnareSpectre]

@ginito97

Hmm. I honestly don't know! I'd imagine there's a way to do it, but I've never tried it myself. I've always either just listened to the iPod separately without hearing the drum audio as I play, or put the songs into Cubase and routed the sound through the headphones. The drums are already loud enough for me to hear, so I don't generally listen to the audio of the drums when I record - sorry I couldn't help you out here!

[ginito97]

By far the best explanation on the web. Good Job. I have 2 questions:

1. are all mics on phantom power or just the overheads?

2. how can I hook up an ipod to the Presonus while utilizing all 8 mics?

[SnareSpectre]

@ginito97

1. Just the overheads need phantom power because they are condenser mics, but that means you still have to turn on phantom power for some of the dynamics (at least in my case).

2. I'm not sure I know what you mean by this - could you elaborate?

Thanks for watching the videos; I'm really glad you found them helpful!

[bboypinoy21santos]

I have that smaller mixer in your video........can you tell me exactly how you EQ all your drums? im having a hard time looking for good sound...Especialy on my snare and bass. Can you please show me,tell me, or send a picture of the exact mixer with the EQ settings the way you want it?

[SnareSpectre]

@bboypinoy21santos

I don't use a mixer any more, so I don't have exact settings; you have to make sure the drums are tuned well, then mess with the EQ in moderation until you shape the sound you want. In my opinion, toms and the bass drum sound good when you cut out mids, but the snare is a different beast; you really need to mess around a lot with minor tweaks to make t sound like you want it. A little reverb helps fill out the snare sound, as well.

[raudelmarquez]

Can you connect all 7 mics to that mixer?

You know how you roll off the mids on the toms,What do you roll off on the snare, bass, and overheads



[Nlogan668]

Hey man you mentioned what the EQ settings were for your toms on the mixer, do you think you could let me know what they are for your snare? (As in, what you have the highs, mids, and lows set to on the mixer.) I've been trying my hardest to get a sound like in this video and just can't get it EQ'd right.

[oN1NJ4o]

Trying to find out how to EQ my kit and there are billions of sites but they all have really specific KHz and Hz to boost/reduce when the Behringer mixer I have (similar to one shown) only has a USB input which turns all your tracks into ONE track on the computer. This means I can't EQ each drum part seperately and have to do all the EQ with just the preset "high", "mid" and "low" which isn't great.

[frooto2]

@TheRozzaB yeah man! no problem.

[thedoctorofchem]

Mother and Child Divided!!! Fuck yes! Dude, I love Porcupine Tree. great videos, dude.

[TheRozzaB]

@frooto2 Thanks Man, Appreciate it! I needed to activate all the Buses etc and Select mono! I was attempting it with Stereo I think. Again thanks a lot!

[frooto2]

@TheRozzaB after that, line up the tracks you just added to the mic. once you do that, select all the mics. click the little record button in each track to enable recording and after select all tracks by press ctrl and clicking on all of them. then your ready to record. if you have a headphone jack in your device then you can use that to listen to yourself after recording but if you want to listen to it on your computer your guna have to go back to device setup and change your device again.

[frooto2]

@TheRozzaB hey im new at this too and i had the same exact problem. what you do is you go to devices > device setup > vst audio system > choose recording device (ex. TASCAM US-1800) click ok and it will ask you to switch something, just click switch. then after that go to devices > vst connections > and from the scrolly bar pick 16 mono. line up the inputs that are being used and not connected. after that go to edit and add audio track. make sure its mono and it is as many mics as you have.