Good Kick Drum Sound...

[Daniel_Isaiah]

I can can get every drum on a kit to sound downright awesome...but I can't get a good kick sound to save my life. I've tried EQ'ing a hundred different ways. they all sound like crap. Is there a tried a true way of getting a great kick sound without using sound replacer???

thanks for any replies.

[8string]

What kinds of mics do you have?

[pk_hat]

http://www.studiocovers.com/articles.htm

[pk_hat]

http://www.sospubs.co.uk/search/query.asp
scroll through the hits on the pages, good info.

[da BaSsTaRd!]

i dont' remember which microphones we were using, but the last time i went to the studio to record drums we used 2 mics: one inside the drum right on top of the beater for the slap and one about 2 feet in front of the sound hole for the boom. together they sounded great.

[dcarlson247]

Try the JOE MEEK Compressor. If you don't have it you can download a demo from Bomb Factory.

[metaltim]

i know this prolly isnt your solution you want to do.. cause nothing replaces playing drums..
but use the bas drums off a sound module or keyboard.
I play drums, and it sux cause i have no room, or micing equimpment to mic up a kit, but i bought the roland xp-30, and i LOVE the GM kit on there. Im as well into the music you listed, and that kit on there i think sounds better than most kits ive heard. the kick has that bang in your chest your talking about. at a loud volume, with my event 8" sub, it rattles the sh*t on the walls..
record your drum tracks without hitting the bass drums, then throw in the bass drums on midi...
kinda wierd, but there are no rules remember.
my 0.2 pesos.
tim

[mjames08]

Lately I have been making an aux track with a bus input, and sending the kick track to the aux. On the aux I will put a gate and then a signal generator. On the signal generator I will use a low freq. and set the external key to the gate. This will add a nice low end to your kick.. try it for toms also, it works great. (I hope I explained this OK.. )

[The Caine]

I know this is getting back to the basics but what do you tune your kick to? This can make a hell of a difference especially if you are recording low tuned guits. The temptation is to tune the kick lower but really its gets quite floppy and doesn't resonate a note properly.
Maybe? [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[J. FO]

sounds like the first step would be tuning combined with mic placement. i would say that your mic is too far inside the drum. tune both sides of the drum to get proper resonance. compression can be used to get both tight and boomy kick sounds, as well as toms. just play around with the attack times, threshold, and ratio.
a side note, i'd say boosting at 40hz will add more mud to your mix than you need. you probably don't need to mess with anything below 60hz, and even then most kick's fundamental frequencies are around 80 to 100.
if you have the waves bundle, try using the maxx bass plug, it defintely adds some thump.