Metal Kick Drum sound/editing drums

[mastermorris]

Hello everyone...I have a few questions and I appreciate everyone's feedback

1. How do I create a metal kick drum sound?
2. When editing drums do I need to cut the bleed out of each individual drum track?
3. If yes, then how do I do that?

Thanks

Beartoes Studios

[albee1952]

Bleed across drum mics could be considered part of the overall sound so I wouldn't be in a hurry to "fix" it unless its really a problem. Getting a good metal drum sound starts with the drums and the player. Is this a project that is already recorded, or are you getting ready to record? That will determine the kind of advice you get. The drums should have fresh heads, proper tuning and proper muffling. If the drum sounds like crap to your ears.....well, you get the idea. Use a good kick mic for metal such as the Sennheiser e902 or Audix D6. Even better is to also mic the drum with a Yamaha SubKick (or make your own using a foam-surround woofer of 6-8"). Or plan ahead and have SoundReplacer or Drumagog on hand to replace the sounds with some killer samples. Listen to some metal CD's and let that be your guide.

[JFreak]

How do I create a metal kick drum sound?

more emphasis on the beater than the oomph --> place the mic closer to the beater and boost that 2-3kHz

[drumkid]

adding some to alot of 10k also helps bring out the beater

[JFreak]

adding some to alot of 10k also helps bring out the beater

yes, but it also helps to bury snare and cymbals under the hammer tweak the eq in the context of a full mix -- solo channel eq tweaks tend to make it worse.

[recordlovelife]

this works too....

I had a metal/rock band I just finished producing and they had this one tune that was a "balls-to-the-wall", 128bpm 6/8, totally invein of Iron Maiden. The drummer brought in a 9 piece 2004 Pearl Masters Custom (because when you're endorsed....why not?) Something to keep in mind about the "more is more" philosphy we live by- These kick drums are beautiful and full-bodied. They have an extremely rich tone. The problem is, - in some situations, you don't want all of that, expecially in metal.
Also, this is something to keep in mind beforehand. Is the drummer using a double bass pedal or does he actually have two kick drums? This makes a big difference. In a single kick drum with a double beater, the membrane has half the amount of time to return to zero inertia when the drummer is playing straight 16th or 8ths or whathaveyou. So if the first hit is at 0 inertia, the immediate hit after it wont be, resulting in a different tone (normally weaker). Believe it or not though, this helps to make the fast rhythms more discernable, because the sound isn't as full because of the heads position (and playing fast you will never attack with the same strength as, like, whole notes...you'll have more energy in all the partials) In the case of two kick drums, you get to divide the amount of hits on each drum in half, allowing for double the time to return to 0 inertia and fuller sound and more strength (aha)! But, (this next comment is something I've noticed, feel free to argue it or agree-->) when you mic two kick drums, there is an inherent amount of phase between the two mics, especially around 60Hz and below. This actually helps to scoop out some of the bulk and allow for clarity.

(for those people who don't agree - if you happen to have a session where you miced two kicks, solo the two kicks, throw a low pass filter on the master buss. Now solo only one kick and let me know if you hear the difference, should be more energy)


...now here's what I was really getting at....


for this tune... i ran the vocals and snare through a bus with a de-esser on it, which was being triggered by the kick drum. So instead of increasing the beater energy in the kick, I decreased the same energy the beater was at on the vox and snare. It worked for me... you gotta be subtle about it. If you hear the kick clearer, great. If it takes away from the snare or the vox, not so great. Use the ears!

In addition, some other simple stuff...faster attack of the kick comp, bump the 500hz stuff or there around, it will have more of that gut feeling you want that will actually hold up in your mix. Pull down the low octave (low shelf...i think hi-passes are too harsh), and you can do well to pull alot out of like 650-1K (that'll give you that nice "in your gut feeling" while acentuating the low bump at 500Hz, put a lil boost right at the end of the pull just mentioned...like around 1.5k-6K (that really depends on the drum and mix) keep it a subtle bump with a high Q.

...let me know if that gets you going somewhere.