Arts >> Music >> Recording Music

How to Make Your Drums Hit Hard

Drums are the backbone of any pop song. They establish the rhythm, and in many cases, give the song its individual style. Whenever you hear a record producer say, "I need the drums to hit harder," he's saying several things at once. He's saying the drums need to sound brighter, deeper, louder and more dynamic. While this seems like a loaded request, you can achieve that dynamic sound through implementing equalization, dynamic effects and good mixing techniques.

Things You'll Need

  • Studio headphones (optional)
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Play back drum tracks in your recording setup. Listen for immediate irregularities in the drum mix. Ask yourself a series of a qualifying questions. Is the kick drum too loud? Are the tom drums too "bassy?" Does the snare drum sound a little thin? Are the cymbals overpowering the drum kit?

    • 2

      Mix the drums accordingly. Adjust volume faders on your studio's mixer to balance the drum mix. As a general rule, the kick and snare drums should be prominent in the mix, while the cymbals and tom drums should sit farther back in the mix. As the old recording engineer adage goes, listen with your eyes. Think of the drum mix as three-dimensional. Much of the problems in a drum mix can be solved by mixing the drums properly.

    • 3

      Listen to the drum tracks for frequency irregularities. This can be tricky due to the fact that many factors influence your listening environment as a mixing engineer. If the kick drum sounds shallow in the mix, boost the low-end frequencies on your mixing board to around 80 to 100 Hz. If the snare sounds too weak, boost low end frequencies about 125 Hz. Likewise, increase the low-end frequencies on the tom drums about 300 Hz if if they are sounding weak.

    • 4

      Add compression to the drums. Most major recording studios provide high-end compression units. But if you find yourself recording at home, several new audio recording programs come with compression plugins that emulate studio compressors really well. Locate the ratio knob on your physical condenser or the virtual condenser on your recording program. Set the compression ratio at 4:1. This should be the setting for all drum tracks. However, in most cases, the kick drum and go without being compressed at all, though this is hotly debated in record production circles.

    • 5

      Set the "attack" and "release" knobs on the compressor according to each drum. Every compressor is wildly different in this regard. Set the "attack" knob on the compressor to a low setting. Then set the "release" knob somewhere between 150 and 500 ms (milliseconds). Play with a different compression combinations until you have achieved the desired sound.

    • 6

      Try alternating different combinations of compression, volume mixing and equalization until you have achieved the desired drum sound.

+:
+:

Recording Music

Related Categories