Eqing Multi tracked drums (Noob question)

Valcin

How's it going?
I make music at home and I use Superior Drums software for my acoustic drums. It has me wondering a few things about eqing drums.

What do you do in regards to eqing overhead drums? Are you just meant to leave them natural? Or do you do some mad multi eq across all the frequencies?

A lot of the time I'll want the snare to be high passed but cant work out what to do with the overhead cause it doesnt mix well with all the close mics. I dont have a clue what is normally done in a studio so any help is appreciated.

Cheers.

studiorat

Hmmm! There's no hard and fast answer. But I'd say your best bet is to try and make it work within the track as a whole. Don't solo the drums just work on them as part of the track.

I have not heard the drums you are talking about but my guess would be to leave the overheads alone eq wise for the moment and just sit them in a place where they work with the rest of the kit in the whole mix. Usually the only thing I do with the overheads is tame the bottom and mids down a bit, so they don't sound so roomy and leave a bit of space for the kick and snare to sound a bit dry. Apart from that it's really down to a bit of trial and error I'm afraid.

When you say hi-pass the snare what are you looking for in the snare sound? The last stuff I mixed I ended up lo-passing the snare at around 8 to 10kHz, maybe a bit higher. That way I was hearing the top of the snare through the hi-hat mic and overheads and the bottom end from the close mic. But then again every time it's different!

PaulBrewer

Good question Valcin but one that's difficult to answer definitively.

EQing doesn't stand by itself as a process but is in relation to what's around it.

So say you have a track with a lot of high end content , maybe 12 string guitar or bright percussion you might look at your overheads differently than on a darker detuned electric guitar track.

I guess one thing you might try is compare your work to similar-ish commercial tracks as a guide.

PaulBrewer

Ha ! The Rat beat me to it.

Valcin

Cheers lads for the replies. Just knowing that there is no one way is help enough because I was wondering was there just some way its generically done.

I listen to rock records and say the snare and hi hats seem to not have too much low end taken off them on them and they always seem to sound beefy and roomy, i guess from overhead mics.

The style of drums I like though is the 70's breakbeat sound like James Brown stuff etc. and I like to try and recreate that sound with superior drums. It seems like the snare and hi hats all have a good bit of the low end taken off them. When I try to recreate this and add the overheads the close miced snare and kick mix very badly with the overheads no matter how much I try and eq.

Did they leave out overheads in those old recordings?

Thanks again.

PaulBrewer

Ah, there are often room mics involved too, which in the JB type thing might be a lot of the sound . So not just overheads.

Valcin wrote: »

Cheers lads for the replies. Just knowing that there is no one way is help enough because I was wondering was there just some way its generically done.

I listen to rock records and say the snare and hi hats seem to not have too much low end taken off them on them and they always seem to sound beefy and roomy, i guess from overhead mics.

The style of drums I like though is the 70's breakbeat sound like James Brown stuff etc. and I like to try and recreate that sound with superior drums. It seems like the snare and hi hats all have a good bit of the low end taken off them. When I try to recreate this and add the overheads the close miced snare and kick mix very badly with the overheads no matter how much I try and eq.

Did they leave out overheads in those old recordings?

Thanks again.

madtheory

Buy "Mixing with your Mind" instead of posting on the interweb. You'll get your answer much quicker.