DnB EQing and producing drums!!!! O_O

A

AnthonyDNB

New Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Location
Decatur, Georgia, United States
Can anybody link me to an tutorial about the hertz for kicks and snares. So far I been EQing but don't no my what range of hertz are good. I normally for my kick I get two within the same frequency range and cut some of the lower frequencies to leave room for the sub bass and bass. And same with snares I reverse reverse polarity to get the real punch then side chain to a drum channel that it side chained to a reverb channel. Or any other effect I'm looking for. :wave:


DAWS: FL10
Genre: Liquid DNB
 
sounds like u know what ur talking about, i usually cut kick at 50hz and try and keep it to one kick, but will use a second if for instance ones got a good low end but i need one for the higher frequencies.

snares, usually cut em at 100Hz... layering them is all personal preference!
 
Hey there, I did two tutorials lately which might be useful to you. It's not about Drum & Bass but it shows how I handle drum EQing. The first is about the kick, in the second I talk about the snare.


 
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Personally, I cut the kicks around 80-100Hz depending on what key the bassline is written in. I apply a smooth rolloff (~12 or so) so that I still get the "chest" hit, but leave plenty of room for sub and low bass harmonics. Same with the snare–I cut around 150 - 180Hz (again depending on the key and if you're seeking to layer up) an apply a gentle rolloff. However, sometimes a sharper cut can yield some pleasant resonance with the snare hit.

It's all about trial and error for the most part.

Cheers.
 
You said you pick two kicks that hit around the same frequency? Stop doing that is my 1st piece of advice, it's pointless! By having two kicks hit on the same frequency, they will almost cancel each other out, leaving a lot of muddyness in the mix, and also causing a loss of impact.

I usually pick one kick that has a nice low frequency thump to it, and another that has a higher frequency crunch to it. Take the lows out of the crunchy kick, and the highs out of the subby kick. Then mould together with some subtle compression then I add a final EQ, where I will cut anything below 50hz, boost slightly around 120hz, and maybe make a sharp notch cut at around 1khz
 
Mr Fletch said:
You said you pick two kicks that hit around the same frequency? Stop doing that is my 1st piece of advice, it's pointless! By having two kicks hit on the same frequency, they will almost cancel each other out, leaving a lot of muddyness in the mix, and also causing a loss of impact.

I usually pick one kick that has a nice low frequency thump to it, and another that has a higher frequency crunch to it. Take the lows out of the crunchy kick, and the highs out of the subby kick. Then mould together with some subtle compression then I add a final EQ, where I will cut anything below 50hz, boost slightly around 120hz, and maybe make a sharp notch cut at around 1khz
Click to expand...
Thanks!!
 
There is a plugin that u might wanna get especially when layering
Its called the smexoscope I think.
I actually use it on every track,aux n master
 
like the others have said I usually cut my kicks around 60-100hz applying a small boost where the hit peaks (usually around the 90-110hz mark). I cut snares around 120-180hz depending on the sound, boosting around 200hz. However i take notch cuts and boosts all over the place elswhere on the snare as i usually go nuts with layering when it comes to snares. I usually play with filter rolloff till i find a sound I like. For breaks/percussion I use a steep low cut around the 400-5/6k mark (depends on the sample!) and high cut everything that arent rides or wishy washy type percussion at 14k to get rid of any high end harshness and apply cuts on any particularly horrible frequencies I find. I'll usually layer up loads of breaks, shakers, tambourines etc (I make liquid too) but have been trying a "less is more" approach to percussion recently...

processing wise i'll usually send snares to one bus, kicks to another and percussion to another. on kicks and snares i usually just use a little bit of psp vintage warmer for some very light soft knee compression to give them a little more punch and to glue the hits together. sometimes i'll put a little bit of reverb on the snare (very short decay, very dry) and/or some overdrive, always eq after every plugin to cut out and extra rumble and crap they always create. With percussion i'll usually apply a subtle delay/reverb and maybe use izotope alloy's exciter to get the beat rolling a little more, I often also sidechain the percussion bus to the kick and snare using 2 compressors to help the kick and snare poke out the mix more.

Finally i route those busses to a master drums bus where i'll then use alloys multiband transient shaper to really give the drums some poke, maybe some more excitation on the midrange... then vintage warmer again to glue everything together and bring out some detail in the sound as a whole, thennn a little eq maybe to brighten up the top end of the drums if required. If i dont use a compressor at this stage i may use a limiter with a very low threshold, so that the limiter is cutting off very little if anything from the overall sound, just for a little loudness really.

I said usually alot but fuck it, hope that helps :)
 
Dom!Reavers! said:
like the others have said I usually cut my kicks around 60-100hz applying a small boost where the hit peaks (usually around the 90-110hz mark). I cut snares around 120-180hz depending on the sound, boosting around 200hz. However i take notch cuts and boosts all over the place elswhere on the snare as i usually go nuts with layering when it comes to snares. I usually play with filter rolloff till i find a sound I like. For breaks/percussion I use a steep low cut around the 400-5/6k mark (depends on the sample!) and high cut everything that arent rides or wishy washy type percussion at 14k to get rid of any high end harshness and apply cuts on any particularly horrible frequencies I find. I'll usually layer up loads of breaks, shakers, tambourines etc (I make liquid too) but have been trying a "less is more" approach to percussion recently...

processing wise i'll usually send snares to one bus, kicks to another and percussion to another. on kicks and snares i usually just use a little bit of psp vintage warmer for some very light soft knee compression to give them a little more punch and to glue the hits together. sometimes i'll put a little bit of reverb on the snare (very short decay, very dry) and/or some overdrive, always eq after every plugin to cut out and extra rumble and crap they always create. With percussion i'll usually apply a subtle delay/reverb and maybe use izotope alloy's exciter to get the beat rolling a little more, I often also sidechain the percussion bus to the kick and snare using 2 compressors to help the kick and snare poke out the mix more.

Finally i route those busses to a master drums bus where i'll then use alloys multiband transient shaper to really give the drums some poke, maybe some more excitation on the midrange... then vintage warmer again to glue everything together and bring out some detail in the sound as a whole, thennn a little eq maybe to brighten up the top end of the drums if required. If i dont use a compressor at this stage i may use a limiter with a very low threshold, so that the limiter is cutting off very little if anything from the overall sound, just for a little loudness really.

I said usually alot but fuck it, hope that helps :)
Click to expand...
Hey thanks the more the better I prefer in depth answers not just cookie cutter short answers without out any substance in the answer. Really good read and nice song:ditto:
 
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