Thumping Kick Drum?, drum processing Options

[catherine]

how can i achieve a thumping kick drum like the one in deepest blue (and generally that whole drum sound), does anyone have any processing tricks?
thanks

[lepetitmartien]

- a good sound… (half joking)
- layering
- accurate monitoring to know what going on
- compression
…

[PristineRec]

I'll second the recommendation for compression. The two things I use gobs of on kick tracks are compression and EQ.

To begin with, I'm assuming the use of a large diaphragm dynamic mic that is designed for capturing the low frequencies of a kick drum. Or even a large diaphragm condenser that can take the abuse. Without it, it's pretty difficult to get a solid thump, at least without creating the sound electronically.

First play with the EQ to zero in on where the big fat peaks are, also getting rid of any undesirable higher frequencies or buzzes or rattles or rings. Boosting the lowest frequencies (under 60Hz or so) can help with the feel-it-in-your-belly effect.

Then apply compression using a high compression ratio with plenty of gain. Try a bit of reverb with a short decay to smooth it out and make it sound "bigger".

This should be a start to help you give the subwoofers a blast.
Good Luck!

This post has been edited by PristineRec: Fri 23 Jan 2004, 07:40

[CrankThat]

iirc, specifically around 50-80 hz for the oopmh sound, adding in a bit around 2kz to get that all the aspects of a real bass drum.

[Jeff Pelletier]

HEY!

Here's a little "cheat" you might like for the kick!
Use an oscillator and a gate!
-Set the oscillator nice and low (tweak around to find what you like)
-Put it throuhg the Gate and bring it up another strip on the console or track in ProTools, whatever.
-KEY the gate with a copy (from a send, or patch, or bus)
-Set the gate to "listen" to the key input
-Set your threshold accordingly
-Set the release of the gate to follow of the decay of the kick

Just a quick explanation...ask if you have questions.