These are my favorite videos you do. They're so practical. So many mix engineers will tell you there are no magic frequencies for various instruments and that everything is on a case-by-case basis. But then those same mixers make similar moves on every single track they do. Part of the reason they're able to move fast is because they have their go-tos. I'm not sure why they act so coy and secretive with their knowledge. Maybe it's because they're trying to sell you expensive tutorials or something. I appreciate that you just put this knowledge out there.
Because it’s their bread. In an industry where litteraly your best friends will steal from you to get ahead, the thing that gives you a competitive edge is your money maker. In an engineers case, it’s his/her ears. Giving away simple tricks, especially if it’s helpful in an industry which has macro & micro/trends come and go like fast food customers, it always results into stealing from the ones you tell your secret to and perhaps they feel like they’ll lose their customers and/or uniqueness… that’s how I would reason if I were in that position.. does that make sense ?
It *is* case by case basis, though. Jordan is very upfront about what his use case is (hence the channel name), and let's be honest, there is definitely a strong consensus around drum sounds (and a lot of other sounds) in heavy music. If you EQ a tom like this for a western swing band, it will sound like shit. If you EQ a tom like this for a jazz band, you're fired. Having some go-to frequency ranges to check for specific types of information is great--ESPECIALLY for live music. But the best thing you can do for yourself is to train your ears to identify specific frequencies and map those to the sound that's in your head. Notice that's the first thing that he does in the video--big boosts on a bell EQ to demonstrate the frequency ranges that he intends to carve out to get that big, scooped metal sound.
That A/B at the end of the video… just WOW 🤯 I’ve been using your PDF Mixing Cheat Sheet for almost 2 months know and it has been a game changer for me. I already used to mix great but just having a guide to focus on those specific frecuencias really helped a lot and cut my mixing time by almost half. I also use that cheat sheet while recording so my recordings enter Pro Tools already sounding professional then Later in Pro Tools just some simple light touches. Thanks 🙏🏼
I love these magic frequency videos! I come back to reference them a lot... Would really like to see some kinda "magic compression settings" thing for different instruments
WOW. I was skeptical about SO much EQ, but I can't argue with the result. I usually don't EQ toms (except for HPF) because they sound "good enough" in the mix to me, but from now on I'll come back to this video and try these tips. In the last mix I did, my biggest problem was that they were overwhelming in the car. The solution was compression and gating to control the tail.
Only thing that I would add (if you need help finding sweet spots) is to use a tune bot to find the drums fundamental frequency and a RTA to find it's resonant frequency. If you happen to miss these marks then your boosting and cutting won't help to much.
I'm seeing your tutorials, really very effective. What do you think of a timely preventive equalization that removes the resonances? Do you happen to do it?
Great video. Also wondering the same as the other commenter - do you gate your drums or leave the cymbal bleed in? A video on drum gating would be amazing.
They sound gated, with a long-ish release on the gate and/or not a lot of reduction in the range. He is not killing the bleed altogether, at least it doesn't sound like it.
Narrow boost the fundamental, wide cut the 2nd and/or 3rd overtone, shelf boost 5k and above, slow attack (~25ms or slower), fast release (~120ms or faster), notch out some harsh "pokey" frequencies (2.5k - 6k, depends), hard clipping to shave off the hardest hits, lastly sidechain compress the fundamental if it's a dense mix. That's about it.
Hey man, Im super grateful for your videos- thanks so much. Direct, clear cut, and to the point. There are a lot of mixing styles, philosophies, and ethos on youtube- but I resonate very much with yours; in my experience when I follow some of your workflow tips I just enjoy the sonic result. Taste goes a long way Thanks so much 🙏🏽
Do a frequency analysis on drums (also bd and sn) and find the lower frequencies. Often these instruments have a strong foundation note. Say 150 Hz for a tom. (or 50 Hz for a BD, 180 Hz for a snare). Don't relay on "around 150 Hz magic numbers"! Adjust the EQ to this frequency! Not Not 120 Hz, exactly 150 in our example. Also snare: not around 200 Hz, but exactly 180Hz. Then there are some (btw. nonharmonic!) overtones. Usually around 250-300Hz and 300-400Hz. Use an additional EQ to these frequencies to adjust muddiness and lower boxiness. Stop thinking frequencies below 300 Hz as an continuous spectrum like in the mids and highs where overtones so clustered and near and noises have no discrete sprectrum at all. But low frequencies are more or less discrete frequencies. For drums fixed. For bass guitar moving. So thats why EQs for bass should be wide to affect all notes. Except the bass stays on one note. or you have a resonance.
Awesome material. Ive done your cheets to BD and Snare and the diference is incredible. The toms goes to a bus or you treat them separately? thanks in advance.
I remeber a video you did where you seperated the tom signal into two tracks. one for the initial transient and the other for the rest of the resonance. Can you republish that video or make it public? it was awesome but I forgot what to do!
Question: Are such aggressive EQ curves necessary for very high end toms recorded with really great mics? From my experience better and more expensive drums (tuned correctly) almost never need a lot of EQ.
Anyone else ever create a great mix and then keep messing with it to the point to where it sounds worse and then you can't get it back to where it was ? Lol
I have a song I never finished because I started mixing and got the guitars super heavy , drums really punchy with right amount of low end . Now it sounds hollow and scoopy and I can't repair it
Nope! You are ignoring the drums fundamental note/frequency! There are no "magic" frequencies lol. Find the fundamental frequency and BOOST it! (which will mean lowering the gain to compensate) THEN cut the octaves above ACCURATELY! You are cutting way more than you have to with those wide arbitrary cuts. When you said "trust me, I've been doing this for ten years" I held my breath... Get caught up on what's been learned in the last ten years bro. To anyone reading, use an RTA to see where the fundamental frequency is. Where ever it is, lets say 100Hz, double that frequency and you have the first octave above the fundamental. Cut it with a narrow cue at least 7-9 dB. Now double THAT frequency and you have the second octave above the fundamental. Cut it in the same manor as the first octave. Add a little 4-6k for snap if it's a rock band and use a gate for dynamic control. You are cutting the overtones ACCURATELY this way and can let the power of the drum remain instead of cutting the crap out of it. BEST eq trick for toms I've ever been shown!! In over 25 years of gigging.... Cheers to all!
Yeah, the source material dictates where one is going to apply equalization … it also is matter of taste … what aesthetic are you trying to achieve …. I’d love to hear 3 top mixers mix a track … one would be surprised at how different they will sound
who gives a shit dude about the goddamn octaves dude, people just wand to listen to a good sounding record. this guy's been at it for like 20 years now and mixed a lot of well known records in the genre, where we can listen to your magnificent work?
I love that cheat sheet! It's great because it's definite rules and guidelines so you're not just shooting in the dark, but it's also not too specific so you still need to decide for yourself the Q's, the slopes, the ratio, the knee, filters, etc. etc.
just fyi, google chrome does not like your website. Something about the connection being secure. But I used a different browser and it worked. Great content, btw. Thank you for your efforts to educate us
As a drummer who spent a lot of money on a decent kit, I feel like this takes away from the characteristics of the drum itself. Like guys who trigger samples, then why spend the money on it if you're just replacing it? I assume on some occasions this is necessary but all the time on all drums? Different heads, tunings, woods, mics... i don't think so.
These are my favorite videos you do. They're so practical. So many mix engineers will tell you there are no magic frequencies for various instruments and that everything is on a case-by-case basis. But then those same mixers make similar moves on every single track they do. Part of the reason they're able to move fast is because they have their go-tos. I'm not sure why they act so coy and secretive with their knowledge. Maybe it's because they're trying to sell you expensive tutorials or something. I appreciate that you just put this knowledge out there.
Because it’s their bread. In an industry where litteraly your best friends will steal from you to get ahead, the thing that gives you a competitive edge is your money maker. In an engineers case, it’s his/her ears. Giving away simple tricks, especially if it’s helpful in an industry which has macro & micro/trends come and go like fast food customers, it always results into stealing from the ones you tell your secret to and perhaps they feel like they’ll lose their customers and/or uniqueness… that’s how I would reason if I were in that position.. does that make sense ?
It *is* case by case basis, though. Jordan is very upfront about what his use case is (hence the channel name), and let's be honest, there is definitely a strong consensus around drum sounds (and a lot of other sounds) in heavy music. If you EQ a tom like this for a western swing band, it will sound like shit. If you EQ a tom like this for a jazz band, you're fired.
Having some go-to frequency ranges to check for specific types of information is great--ESPECIALLY for live music. But the best thing you can do for yourself is to train your ears to identify specific frequencies and map those to the sound that's in your head. Notice that's the first thing that he does in the video--big boosts on a bell EQ to demonstrate the frequency ranges that he intends to carve out to get that big, scooped metal sound.
@@Whanworld Jerry Finn is rolling in his grave after reading that
Because you still shouldn’t do it mindlessly. You need to understand why you are doing it for the exceptions where it doesn’t make sense to.
@@timnordberg7204why wouldn't these frequencies work for jazz o swing toms? Just curious
eq on toms always looks busted, but man does it make such an insanely massive difference. Great video!
That A/B at the end of the video… just WOW 🤯 I’ve been using your PDF Mixing Cheat Sheet for almost 2 months know and it has been a game changer for me. I already used to mix great but just having a guide to focus on those specific frecuencias really helped a lot and cut my mixing time by almost half. I also use that cheat sheet while recording so my recordings enter Pro Tools already sounding professional then Later in Pro Tools just some simple light touches.
Thanks 🙏🏼
I love these magic frequency videos! I come back to reference them a lot... Would really like to see some kinda "magic compression settings" thing for different instruments
Even just a video on compressing toms would be great!
You saved my life. Yesterday I tryed to EQ Toms on my mix and it works parfectly. Really thank you 😍
WOW. I was skeptical about SO much EQ, but I can't argue with the result.
I usually don't EQ toms (except for HPF) because they sound "good enough" in the mix to me, but from now on I'll come back to this video and try these tips.
In the last mix I did, my biggest problem was that they were overwhelming in the car. The solution was compression and gating to control the tail.
yeah toms always seem to need more cuts than other signals! I am definitely not crazy. Thanks for the confirmation on this.
Very useful EQ tips! I never imagined you could carve so much in the 1K region! I tried it and it sounded awesome!
Try experimenting with a transient designer as well! It's a great way to control the attack and sustain of your toms.
Thank you for this video
this is the best and most straightforward mixing vid ive seen in a while. Thank you, will grab that mix sheet too
Great tutorial! It works.
Amazing Bro.. Absolutely Amazing..
Dude thank you so much
So helpful - thank you!
Thank you, this is a great one!
Thank you!
Awesome! Thsnk you!
Wow great tutorial. Really thank you, these evening I'll try it
Goodness - what an efficiently delivered & insightful video, thank you!
thank you! people don't talk about toms! all the videos out there are about kick and snare!
I'm not a sound engineer, but your videos give me great pleasure - dopamine!
I am going to try this method on my church live stream. thank you very much and God bless you.
Please Electric Guitar EQ video as well :D, all the previous EQ videos are so useful, Many thanks
thanks for the mixcheatsheet - great
Thanks Jordan. I have loved this series! Even though there is the cheat sheet, it’s nice to have a proper run though of how/why and a sound example.
These video's have helped beyond what you can imagine, thank you!
Thanks!!
Only thing that I would add (if you need help finding sweet spots) is to use a tune bot to find the drums fundamental frequency and a RTA to find it's resonant frequency. If you happen to miss these marks then your boosting and cutting won't help to much.
Absolutely! Finding the fundamental then cutting the octaves above it accurately is WAY better than this approach. This video is nonsense!
You mean when physically tuning the drums before recording, or is your suggestion for mixing?
Mixing. You can tune a drum to whatever you feel the music needs. Within the drums capability of course.@@marq_8976
I'm seeing your tutorials, really very effective.
What do you think of a timely preventive equalization that removes the resonances?
Do you happen to do it?
Great video. Also wondering the same as the other commenter - do you gate your drums or leave the cymbal bleed in? A video on drum gating would be amazing.
They sound gated, with a long-ish release on the gate and/or not a lot of reduction in the range. He is not killing the bleed altogether, at least it doesn't sound like it.
Would love to know this too @Hardcore Music Studio
In my case I HAD TO bring up a gate during mix revision because the floor tom was overwhelming in the car!
My trick is to use shit ton of slow attack compression on them and fast attack limiter after it to round the transients.
Interesting. Gonna try, thanks for sharing!
Hey Jordan! Do you have videos on how to eq/compress
Snare top/bottom and kick in/out/sub? Thanks!
Narrow boost the fundamental, wide cut the 2nd and/or 3rd overtone, shelf boost 5k and above, slow attack (~25ms or slower), fast release (~120ms or faster), notch out some harsh "pokey" frequencies (2.5k - 6k, depends), hard clipping to shave off the hardest hits, lastly sidechain compress the fundamental if it's a dense mix. That's about it.
can you explain the "sidechain compress the fundamental" part? thank you :)
Been doing that eq type a lot
Thanks, the advices are really works! Cool stuff on this channell
This videos are super helpful. Wish there was something like this but for hiphop
If you mix a lot of hard rock/metal every other genre of music (like hip hop) becomes so much easier to tackle.
Are you applying this EQ curve before compression? Is there any merit to doing boosts on a separate EQ post-dynamics?
Hey man,
Im super grateful for your videos- thanks so much.
Direct, clear cut, and to the point.
There are a lot of mixing styles, philosophies, and ethos on youtube- but I resonate very much with yours; in my experience when I follow some of your workflow tips I just enjoy the sonic result. Taste goes a long way
Thanks so much 🙏🏽
Agree
Thanks for video!
I love toms that sound similar to a snare. Your toms sound amazing! There's none of that fake "doooooom" sound. 😎
Thanks so much
Do a frequency analysis on drums (also bd and sn) and find the lower frequencies. Often these instruments have a strong foundation note. Say 150 Hz for a tom. (or 50 Hz for a BD, 180 Hz for a snare). Don't relay on "around 150 Hz magic numbers"! Adjust the EQ to this frequency! Not Not 120 Hz, exactly 150 in our example. Also snare: not around 200 Hz, but exactly 180Hz.
Then there are some (btw. nonharmonic!) overtones. Usually around 250-300Hz and 300-400Hz. Use an additional EQ to these frequencies to adjust muddiness and lower boxiness.
Stop thinking frequencies below 300 Hz as an continuous spectrum like in the mids and highs where overtones so clustered and near and noises have no discrete sprectrum at all.
But low frequencies are more or less discrete frequencies. For drums fixed. For bass guitar moving. So thats why EQs for bass should be wide to affect all notes. Except the bass stays on one note. or you have a resonance.
Awesome material. Ive done your cheets to BD and Snare and the diference is incredible. The toms goes to a bus or you treat them separately? thanks in advance.
podrias darnos una segunda lista con mas instrumentos diferentes?.,.. saludos inje
It's majik!
I remeber a video you did where you seperated the tom signal into two tracks. one for the initial transient and the other for the rest of the resonance. Can you republish that video or make it public? it was awesome but I forgot what to do!
The smaller the area the higher resonace, applies to speaker dimensions as well
I was curious if you cut all the bleed before and after or gate them?
As you can se in protools around 4:00, gate comes before EQ
Can’t believe I missed it. Thank you!
my toms sound godly now
What are your thoughts on processing all toms at the bus level, as opposed to treating each tom individually?
I doubt many people use that approach at all TBH. You really want to hone in on recorded drums individually per track for many reasons.
How to tom still boomy when snare, floor tom and kick hit at the same time?
I find this works incredible on the rack toms, but the second you do that 70-90Hz boost on the floor toms..., it's just a muddy mess.
Can you do this with a normal mixer?
Wow
Jordan: The toms always sound horrible, super boxy, like hitting a piece of cardboard
Me: shit that toms sound’s freakin awesome!!!
what is that eq plugin??
What EQ plugin is that?
WOW…simple!
Question: Are such aggressive EQ curves necessary for very high end toms recorded with really great mics? From my experience better and more expensive drums (tuned correctly) almost never need a lot of EQ.
Probably not so much needed.. but, you won’t be mixing DW drums captured with C414’s all the time …
True. In fact I don't like DWs. They don't sit well in mixes, too "mushy". Tama and Sonor sound much better within any mix. From a drummer.
@@MrNickDrummer yes… i like tama better than DW … 🤘🏻🤘🏻
no highpass at all?
Thats what i thought too..
cant download the sheet :(
Such dramatic sweeps! I otherwise agree with everything.
Anyone else ever create a great mix and then keep messing with it to the point to where it sounds worse and then you can't get it back to where it was ? Lol
Personal hell lol
I have a song I never finished because I started mixing and got the guitars super heavy , drums really punchy with right amount of low end . Now it sounds hollow and scoopy and I can't repair it
La correzione dell'EQ sembra davvero troppo esasperata! Per il genere musicale magari può funzionare... Però preferirei tagliare meno!
Nope! You are ignoring the drums fundamental note/frequency! There are no "magic" frequencies lol. Find the fundamental frequency and BOOST it! (which will mean lowering the gain to compensate) THEN cut the octaves above ACCURATELY! You are cutting way more than you have to with those wide arbitrary cuts. When you said "trust me, I've been doing this for ten years" I held my breath... Get caught up on what's been learned in the last ten years bro. To anyone reading, use an RTA to see where the fundamental frequency is. Where ever it is, lets say 100Hz, double that frequency and you have the first octave above the fundamental. Cut it with a narrow cue at least 7-9 dB. Now double THAT frequency and you have the second octave above the fundamental. Cut it in the same manor as the first octave. Add a little 4-6k for snap if it's a rock band and use a gate for dynamic control.
You are cutting the overtones ACCURATELY this way and can let the power of the drum remain instead of cutting the crap out of it. BEST eq trick for toms I've ever been shown!! In over 25 years of gigging.... Cheers to all!
Yeah, the source material dictates where one is going to apply equalization … it also is matter of taste … what aesthetic are you trying to achieve …. I’d love to hear 3 top mixers mix a track … one would be surprised at how different they will sound
who gives a shit dude about the goddamn octaves dude, people just wand to listen to a good sounding record.
this guy's been at it for like 20 years now and mixed a lot of well known records in the genre, where we can listen to your magnificent work?
instructions to made a nice sounding tom terrible...
Grab your free Mixing Cheatsheet to learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes: hardcoremusicstudio.com/mixcheatsheet
I love that cheat sheet! It's great because it's definite rules and guidelines so you're not just shooting in the dark, but it's also not too specific so you still need to decide for yourself the Q's, the slopes, the ratio, the knee, filters, etc. etc.
just fyi, google chrome does not like your website. Something about the connection being secure. But I used a different browser and it worked. Great content, btw. Thank you for your efforts to educate us
As a drummer who spent a lot of money on a decent kit, I feel like this takes away from the characteristics of the drum itself.
Like guys who trigger samples, then why spend the money on it if you're just replacing it?
I assume on some occasions this is necessary but all the time on all drums? Different heads, tunings, woods, mics... i don't think so.
I agree. I think those heavy EQ curves might be needed for cheap, not well tuned and not well played drums.