Ever wonder how to apply the EQ and compression to kick drums? Applying EQ and compression are one of the most important things you should consider when mixing kick drums.
As a start, the kick drum EQ settings and compression depends on the song genre. For example, your kick drum sounds different in rock versus jazz or country music. It is because of the way it has been approached in the audio mixing process.
This short guide put more emphasis on mixing of kick drums with respect to the following genres:
a.) Rock/alternative/metal
b.) Pop and Country
c.) Jazz
These are not one-size-fit-all solutions and you need to further experiment on the suggested settings to get the best kick drum sound out of your mix.
Kick drum photo
Credits: chidorian
Suggested EQ Settings for Kick drums (targeting rock and pop music genre)
Using a high quality parametric EQ such as Waves Paragraphic EQ, you can start applying the following EQ settings to your kick drum:
Cut -9dB Q=3 Center Frequency=400Hz
Boost 9dB Q=1.4 Center Frequency= 100Hz
Cut -6dB Q=1.4 Center Frequency = 50Hz
The purpose of having to cut -9dB on 400Hz is to reduce the cardboard sound of the drum and to make the drum sounds more bass. Of course since you are mixing for rock and pop music, the heavy bass guitar sound should occupy the sub bass frequencies (less than 100Hz). To increase clarity of bass guitar sounds, the kick drum is cut at -6dB, Q=1.4 at a frequency of 50Hz.
In rock and pop genre, bass guitar and kick drum should be properly mixed. This will increase the punch and overall clarity of your bass frequencies (which a combination of kick drums and bass guitar.)
It is highly important you should also be paying attention in mixing bass guitar properly to get a good sound out of your kick drum.
EQ settings for kick drum in country music mix
In country music, the overall objective of the mix is to convey a much stronger punch in the kick drum and to make the bass guitar more defined instead of making it sound heavy like in rock and alternative music.
In this case, the bass guitar is mixed above the kick drum in most cases. I would recommend the following EQ setting:
Kick drum:
+6dB boost at 80Hz Q= 1.0
Low shelf filter at 50Hz, -3dB reduction
Bass guitar:
Low shelf filter at 150Hz -6dB
+3dB boost at 200Hz
Explanation of the above EQ settings:
As you have observed, the bass guitar is reduced in the sub-bass frequency range by cutting using a low shelf filter starting at 150Hz. So the sub-bass would be primarily composed of kick drum fundamental frequencies. If you do not know how to determine these fundamental frequencies you might want to read this tutorial on musical instrument frequency range analysis.
The kick drum spikes are aimed to be at 80Hz and the bass guitar is centered at 200Hz. The result of this mix is that the kick drum appears strong in the sub-bass while the bass guitar notes is still providing the necessary groove in the mix (bass notes clearly audible even in smaller speakers due to the boost at 200Hz).
The resulting kick drum sound is very common in country music genre.
EQ settings for kick drum in jazz music
In jazz music, the sound of kick drum and bass guitar combination is different compared to pop, rock and country music.
For example, it is normal for the jazz music to have a complete absence of sub-bass guitar frequencies as jazz bassist and drummer tends to be an instrumentalist/soloist so they would always be playing solo/emphasized notes all the time (instead of playing in common time/rhythm aspect). And the main objective of the kick drum audio mixing process is to give clarity to these two instruments.
Heaviness is not important in jazz so the low end can be completely reduced to give way to ambiance and clarity of the sound. You can start with:
Kick drum:
Low shelf -6dB at 70Hz
Cut -9dB Q=3 Center Frequency=400Hz
Boost +3dB at 150Hz
Boost +3dB at 2000Hz
Bass guitar:
Low shelf -6dB at 200Hz
Boost +3dB at 400Hz
Boost +3dB at 800Hz
As you have observed, the kick drum spikes would sound like a “thump” instead of having a boom/deep sound common in rock and pop music. The boost of +3dB can be changed to +4dB or so on (let +6dB be the maximum), until you can hear a clearly defined kick sound.
If you want to know the EQ settings guide for all of your instruments in the mix at one glance, you can refer to this tutorial: Complete EQ settings to Start when doing Audio Mixing.
Suggested Compression Settings for Kick
Personally in my own music production projects, I do not compress kick drums often in the mix because compressing it can reduce its power during the mastering stage. However if you need to compress kick drums, below are the suggestions:
1.) Set compression ratio to around 4:1
2.) Set release time to 100ms.
3.) Set attack time to 70ms (e.g. 75ms) to have that fat kick drum sound.
4.) Set threshold to 1/6 of the maximum peak kick drum level. So if the maximum peak of your kick drum is -6dB set the threshold to -30dB in your compressor.
This is an example screenshot of the compressor (Waves C1 Comp mono) illustrating a typical kick drum compressor settings (for fat kick sound):
Fat kick drum compression settings
Below are some important related tutorials relating to compression:
a.) Snare Compression- How the Drum Sound Changes with Different Settings – see how a snare drum sound changes with compression. You can apply the same concept with kick drums.
b.) How Compressor Attack and Release Works? – attack and release times are one of the most important parameters in compression that can have a significant impact on the kick drum sound
c.) Audio Compression tips – a general guide on compressing different elements in the mix.
Content last updated on June 14, 2012