{"id":1133,"date":"2015-03-14T08:36:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-14T08:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/talkinmusic.com\/?p=1133"},"modified":"2019-11-20T17:13:35","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T17:13:35","slug":"how-to-get-full-punchy-drums-using-eq-distortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talkinmusic.com\/how-to-get-full-punchy-drums-using-eq-distortion\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Get Full & Punchy Drums Using EQ & Distortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Drum<\/p>\n

For our new music production lesson, I’m going to show you a really neat drum bus eq technique<\/strong> that will help you get full, warm and punchy drums.<\/p>\n

This technique will work well for processing a full drum kit, drum loop, drum bus or group channel. If your drums are sounding thin or lack punch<\/strong> then this tutorial will help you.<\/p>\n

In most of my tutorials I always show you how to use subtrative EQ so I decided to also teach you the other side which is additive EQ because in some cases you might want to boost frequencies instead of cutting them out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drum Bus EQ Settings<\/h3>\n

Remember that you need to use additive EQ only if necessary<\/strong> or else you’ll end up with a muddy mix, that is why a lot of people recommend subtrative EQ because it’s much safer. So use this approach wisely and keep in mind that this is a guideline<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Low-End:<\/strong> For your drum bus, you won’t need a drastic high-pass filter. Create a small high-pass filter till around 30Hz<\/strong> and not more.<\/p>\n

Boominess:<\/strong> Make a small cut in the 60Hz<\/strong> range to remove some bominess. Don’t use a low-shelf EQ, use a bandpass filter with a narrow Q factor.<\/p>\n

Fullness:<\/strong> If you have thin and wimpy drums, make a boost in the 125Hz<\/strong> frequency range. This will add some punch and fullness.<\/p>\n

Body:<\/strong> A really small boost in the 250Hz<\/strong> range will add more body and weight helping the drums sound warmer.<\/p>\n

Boxiness:<\/strong> Since you’re going to add a lot of frequencies you’ll need a big cut around 500Hz<\/strong> to remove mud and boxiness.<\/p>\n

Attack & Presence:<\/strong> 2 boosts, one around 1kHz<\/strong> and another one in the 2kHz<\/strong> range will add attack plus more presence and help the drums cut through.<\/p>\n

Harshness:<\/strong> You need to remove some harshness by creating a small narrow cut around 4kHz<\/strong>, this will also make space for other sounds in the mix. Actually I don’t know what this frequency is (name-wise) so I thought harshness will be a good word, but it’s not really harshness.<\/p>\n

Clarity & Air:<\/strong> To add some clarity, make a boost around 8kHz<\/strong> and to add some air create another boost around 16kHz<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That’s how you use the additive EQ approach to achieve full and punchy sounding drums that cut through nicely in a mix<\/strong>. But situations that require this approach are really rare so be careful when trying this.<\/p>\n

Also add some saturation<\/strong> to make your drums sound warmer and to add more weight.<\/p>\n

For a more visual approach check out the video below where I demonstrate how to get Fat & Punchy drums by using an equalizer and some distortion<\/strong>. Also check out my tutorial about how to eq vocals<\/a>, you’ll find it useful and it will help you improve your EQ skills.<\/p>\n

Mixing Technique – Making Drums Punchy With EQ<\/h2>\n