Brahms: Symphony No. 2 / Abbado · Berliner Philharmoniker

How to create a realistic bass drum with a lifelike texture

Bass drum samples tend to sound more like samples than the proper way a bass drum should sound. So how can they be given a more lifelike texture?

By David Mellor, Course Director of Audio Masterclass

 

Since the sampling boom of the 1980s, now such a long time ago, we have become used to mechanical drum tracks. So much so that many drummers sound more like drum machines than real players. But the time is ripe to return to a much more natural sound, the way drumming used to be in the pre-digital era, hopefully with a 21st century twist of some kind.

So let's start with the bass drum, or 'kick drum' if you prefer (Google seems to prefer 'bass drum'). Here is the bass drum that inspired this article...

the-wanted-chasing-the-sun.mp3

This is from a guest performance on one of the results shows of Britain's Got Talent, a popular TV talent competition in the UK, masterminded by Simon Cowell. The band is The Wanted and the track is Chasing 
The Sun.

Notice the bass drum at the beginning. This is definitely a bass drum with character. It sounds as though it was recorded live (though probably pre-recorded for the show) and is indeed a real drummer's foot pounding a real bass drum pedal beating a real bass drum. And if it actually is sampled, then a hearty 'well done' to the person responsible.

So what does this bass drum have that other bass drums do not have?

Well firstly it has the expected bass drum thud. There's nothing unusual about that; that's what we expect from a bass drum. And it has a click too - being able to record a bass drum with a click is an art that combines the skills of both drummer and engineer. But where a sampled bass drum with click would still sound mechanical, this one lives and breathes. There is a slight irregularity that is human rather than computed.

Also, there is the feeling of other sounds being mixed in there. I swear I can hear the swish of the bass drum pedal. I swear I can hear the squeak of the leather that connects pedal to beater. (If you can hear the rattle of a chain, then I respect your preference.) I can hear a squeaky metal bearing that needs lubrication. I can hear the rustle of the drummer's trouser leg against his sock, the rattle of the loose change in his pocket...

OK, this is moving into the realms of imagination. But sometimes it's the feeling that is of paramount importance, and I feel all of this for this particular bass drum.

Another featured of this bass drum is that it doesn't sound quantized. It sounds played. I tried to check this by measuring the time between beats, but I couldn't get an accurate enough view of the waveform to be sure. Still, it sounds played, and that's the important thing.

So in conclusion, it's a great bass drum sound and I like it. The bass drum might be a small component of the overall sound of a track, but attention to small details can be vitally important.

 Publication date: Wednesday May 09, 2012
Author: David Mellor, Course Director of Audio Masterclass

Brahms: Symphony No. 1 / Rattle · Berliner Philharmoniker

How to achieve a huge bass drum sound with EQ, reverb and compression

An RP reader hears a huge bass drum on a hit record. He wants to know how to achieve it himself.

By David Mellor, Course Director of Audio Masterclass

A question from a Record-Producer.com reader...

"Please in your spare time check out the song called 'Promise' by Ciara. There is a huge bass kick at the beginning of almost every bar.

"I would like to know how this bass kick was EQed in such a way that it stands out in the mix and it sounds so powerful. I have problems mixing bass frequencies and trying to make them stand out and still sound like a bomb."

We need to listen to the track, so here it is...

http://youtu.be/UcGWy7xUZQE

Firstly I'll say that anyone who can make a video like this will probably get their music listened to, which is a fantastic achievement in itself. But back to the bass drum, or 'kick drum' if you prefer.
There are three basic techniques involved here...

Technique No. 1 is EQ. If you want to make any bass drum recording or sample sound bigger, then EQ will be your friend. Clearly you will be boosting the low end, but bear in mind that boosting anything below around 50 Hz probably won't add much to the effect, and may cause problems for those who listen on small speakers. To get this exactly right, you might listen to just the bass drum on a range of playback systems to try and achieve the optimum EQ balance to get a big sound.

Also, whatever you find yourself boosting in the bass drum, you can cut in the rest of the track, thus making room for the bass drum rather than having the rest of the instruments compete.

Technique No. 2 is reverb. Clearly there is reverb on this bass drum. Perhaps it was recorded or sampled this way, but a reverb plug-in is a lot quicker to use. But don't be too quick - take care to try out lots of options, and don't settle for a standard program without tweaking the parameters.

Or... maybe it isn't reverb. Maybe the drum is tuned to sound like that, and not damped too much. It's difficult to tell in the context of the mix, but the ability to tune drums is a good skill to have. If however you tuned the drum and didn't quite damp it enough, you can always shape the envelope by various means. But that would be an article in itself.

Technique No. 3 is pumping. Put the whole track through a compressor except for the bass drum, and perhaps the vocal. But have the bass drum trigger the side chain of the compressor. By doing this, the rest of the instruments will duck down when the bass drum strikes, then come back up as it decays. You can do this for obvious effect, or keep it subtle and hardly noticeable.

I don't think there's anything in this track that couldn't be achieved through a combination of these methods. But if you have any other interesting bass drum techniques, we would love to know. Offerings below please.

 

Publication date: Tuesday May 08, 2012
Author: David Mellor, Course Director of Audio Masterclass

Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead / Dudamel · Berliner Philharmoniker

Achieve multiband compression WITHOUT a multiband compressor

Multiband compression is one of the most powerful techniques used in mastering. But you don't need a multiband compressor plug-in to use it.

By David Mellor, Course Director of Audio Masterclass

 

If you want to make your music sound louder, then a multiband compressor is an excellent tool for the job. Basically, it splits up the frequency range into several bands, four would be a good number, and compresses each band separately. Thus, the full frequency range can be packed with energy with less wasted space.

It should be realized that such a powerful technique can really mess up your sound, so multiband compression should be used with taste and good manners. Or not, if that's the sound you want ;-)

So you might feel tempted to reach for your credit card and shell out for a multiband compressor plug-in. But you don't have to - you can do it with the plug-ins that came as standard with your DAW. Here's how...

Let's suppose that you have some mixed stereo music that you want to process. Load it onto a track and make three copies of that track (there are other ways, but this method is easy to explain).

Insert a filter plug-in (or an EQ plug-in that has filters) into each track. If you don't have filters, then you'll have to try and approximate the effect with EQ. It isn't quite as neat a solution, but you can still get interesting effects.

Set the cutoff frequencies of the filters so that each track represents a single band of frequencies. These are good settings to start off from...

• 20 Hz - 200 Hz
• 200 Hz - 700 Hz
• 700 Hz - 2.5 kHz
• 2.5 kHz - 20 kHz
• In each case use a slope of 24 dB/octave

Ideally you would want to have approximately the same amount of energy in each band, but of course this will depend on the audio you are working with. Don't regard these frequencies as set in stone therefore, but tweak them to your liking.

Next, insert a compressor into each track and adjust the settings so that compression is clearly audible in each band. Don't forget to compensate for any level that is lost with the gain makeup control, if your compression plug-in has one.

You should straight away be able to hear that the music is much stronger and more powerful. With careful tweaking of the settings you should be able to go much further with this.

Here's an example, with quite mild settings. This uses the frequency bands given above. The song is The Woodcutter's Wife by Audio Masterclass Featured Artists Chandelle.

uncompressed.mp3

multiband-compressed.mp3

 

 Publication date: Monday May 07, 2012

Author: David Mellor, Course Director of Audio Masterclass

Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 15 / Fischer · Berliner Philharmoniker