1
Dynamics
While compression can tame hats and balance the levels of different hihat articulations, remember that it’s always nice to retain
a good amount of dynamics for the hihat, as this can contribute a lot to the feel of a groove. Therefore, try not to over-compress
hihat channels. You can, of course, adjust the levels of individual hihat articulations in the kit-piece inspector, something which is
sometimes vital as EQ-ing in particular can pronounce the energy of non-closed articulations.
Toms
EQ
The bass energy of toms tend to lie in the 50-120 Hz range. Obviously, larger toms have much more bass energy than smaller
ones.
The main body of the toms, in the 120-500 Hz range, can be very troublesome - there is a danger of them ending up sounding
too thick and heavy. Some good use of a narrow-bandwidth EQ cut (tuned to taste) helps the toms to sit in the mix better without
overpowering everything else.
The attack of the toms lies in the 1-7 kHz range - this contains ‘the bite’ of the tom. If you remove a lot of mid-range, then you’ll be
left with this frequency range, with the toms having very little apperent sustain.
Tom selection
If you want thunderous toms, use larger ones! Don’t stick to preset conventions on tom selection. BFD2 allows you to mix and
match toms, so you can assemble custom tom sets. Two floor toms and a rack tom can be great, even if the 2 floor toms are not
from the same set - once they are EQ’d and compressed in the mix it is very hard to tell that they’re from different kits. Replacing
the high tom with a mid tom is often a good idea, as many high toms are too small (and therefore high-pitched) for some applica-
tions.
Damping
Using BFD2’s damping controls on toms is a great alternative to using gates to ‘tame’ the toms. Most of BFD2’s toms are re-
corded undamped to allow maximum flexibility. For certain types of music, they can last too long in their untreated form. Use large
amounts of damping (over 50%) for funk and other groove-based music, where an excessively resonant set of toms would take
over the mix. The same applies to metal, where the beats are just too dense to accomodate undamped toms.
Panning
Try not to heavily pan the toms – there aren’t many drummers with arms 12 feet across. Also, toms with lots of low-end (such as
floor and large mid toms) usually sound better when mixed in both speakers.
Cymbals
EQ
Like the hats, it’s very useful to high pass filter the cymbals heavily. Again, it gets rid of ‘gongy’ tones and low-end ‘bark’.
Don’t be afraid to cut too heavily, even all the way up to 2 kHz or more - this is a very common technique in the context of modern
rock or pop production.
Take care when boosting treble on cymbals, as it very easy to overdo it and up with an cymbal track that is too bright and messy.
Mic channels
It can be good to use more ambience than direct signal with cymbals. Using the overheads makes cymbals sit in the mix more
realistically. However, try and retain a good amount of the direct channel for rides, as this helps the attack to cut through.
General guidelines for EQ and compression
Remember to read the ‘Approaching EQ and compression’ topic in section 12:1. This contains some important general guidelines
when using EQ and compression on your sounds.
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