The drum sound is the backbone of any mix. The bass drum keeps the pulse going, the snare drives the rhythm forward and the feel of the drum beat is what gives the song its groove.

Knowing your way around the EQ is a very important aspect of getting a great drum mix going. The following  three-part series includes some excerpt from EQ Strategies - The Ultimate Guide to EQ on how to get that great drum sound.

Today we'll talk a little bit about kick drum EQ.

Kick Drum EQ

The happy medium in a kick drum sound is a thick bass thump from the low-end combined with a driving click from the mids. Different genres have different drum EQ, but those two areas are universal when it comes to a good kick drum sound.

50 - 100 Hz - Boost to add low-end punch. Beware of boosting too much though as it can clutter up the low-end and get in the way of the other instruments occupying this spectrum.

150 - 250 Hz - If you're worried about boosting the low-end too much because you think the kick drum is already pretty thick, try cutting in this area. It reduces potential boominess from the kick while allowing the lower bass frequencies to breathe. Basically, cutting here gives thickness to the low-end without adding muddiness to the overall sound.

300 - 600 Hz - Here you find the infamous cardboard sound. If boxiness plagues your kick drum sound, cut somewhere in this area. Metal and hard-rock kick drums have a scooped drum EQ at 300 Hz, and some kick drum microphones even have a pre-designed EQ curve that scoops out the mids to reduce boxiness.

2 - 4 kHz - This is where the snap, crackle and pop is. If you have a hard time getting the kick drum to cut through the mix, don't add more low-end, add more mids. A broad boost in this section will bring out the beater sound, Where you decide to boost depends on the genre. A broad boost in 2 kHz is good for any pop/rock style while a narrower boost at 4 kHz will bring out the click you hear so prominently in metal music.

10+ kHz - You don't always need to do anything to the area above 10 kHz. Kick drums rarely need 'air' since most of their character comes from the low-end and the mids. You could even filter out the higher frequencies with a low-pass filter to reduce drum bleed. It can also give your kick drum a thicker, more focused sound.

For an in-depth guide into the EQ spectrum, check out The Ultimate Guide to EQ - Your Blueprint to the Frequency Spectrum(www.audio-issues.com/ultimate-guide-eq)

• • 11 concrete chapters on solving your EQ problems
  • Video tutorials, including a one-hour mix walkthrough using only EQ
  • A rundown of the complete frequency spectrum, showing you the characteristics of each frequency range
  • Dedicated guides to drums, bass, guitar and vocals
  • EQ insights from Grammy award winning engineers
  • When to use EQ and when to use compression

Join us tomorrow as we'll talk more about EQ, specifically about the snare drum.