How to EQ Drum Overheads and Cymbals (for Rock / Metal Drums)

[@4dmind]

You're a smart dude. I love this channel. I've consumed a lot of mixing training, and burned a huge amount of hours learning my fundamentals, trial and error etc, and I have to say three things about this channel. 1. You say some of the things I had to learn the hard way, and while that is just confirmation, that is still extremely valuable to me. 2. You've taught me a few things that were extremely valuable in unexpected ways. 3. While I have many training sources and mentors across general genres, I never found anyone who is dedicated to the heavy genre in a way that has value for me. This is it.

[@dustinray1840]

I agree. Isolating the cymbals helps with all that feedback

[@TauntingGlaciers]

This is so well recorded that I kinda like both (eq, bypassed) lol

[@eatmapewpew]

Wow, this cleaned up my drum mix soooo much! Great video, like always!

[@sbanville4761]

Man, what a great tip! I couldn't figure out where my mud was coming from. I added this EQ curve to my overheads and suddenly my drums cleaned up. thanks!

[@SPACYtunes]

Dude, I've been procrastinating on updating my drum presets from like a year ago and your videos have really been pushing me in a good direction. I'm using FL studio and finding a good reverb for the snare has been my biggest challenge, but I seriously appreciate these videos. You rock :D

[@theripper3731]

Thanks man! You’ve helped my mixes out a ton!

[@RiqueDropsBanter]

oh wow thanks so much for your content dude, I make backing tracks to jam along with and always use the logic pro studio kits and your videos really help me out getting them to sound way better! 🙏

[@PachMusic]

This series is killer. You just made sound my latest project much better, thanks so much!

[@TheEggdogg]

I have been chewing through your content the past couple weeks and wanted to say thanks. I picked up a handful of techniques I was not using…fast attack on the bottom snare being the biggest one so far. I’ve always had the same issue with OH that you described…I want them to be a nice full drum set image but it never sounds good that way. Reminds me of an interview with Scheps where he talked about all his peers micing guitar cabs with multiple mics and he loves the way their guitars sound but when he tries multiple mics it never sounds good to him so he just puts one mic front and center and rolls with it. Gonna try your OH eq today. Thanks again for your work.

[@chrismonaut]

I think this approach with OHs representing the kit as a whole is more for genres where drummers just don't hit that hard and/or that go for a very natural acoustic sound overall. Heard great jazz recordings with 2 OHs, 1x Kick, 1x Snare and maybe some room mics. It just doesn't work for metal. Even the most old school metal already had quite a few mics on the kit for it's time.

[@Ryan_hey]

I was expecting the difference in cymbal sound, but not how much more the rest of the kit snaps/cuts. Very cool.

[@jeffdean277]

This video helped me so damn much. I kept trying to utilize my overheads as the whole kit picture but it always sounded really cloudy and muddy. Done this on my overheads and holy crap what a difference

[@lithius5107]

Awesome work, thanks for sharing!

[@philippeltz4363]

Nice tips - one thing though - I learned that using a linear eq on the overheads for such extended high passes might preserve the overall time relationship to the other mics better. As with all things, experiment ;-)

[@xsonicassassinx]

i also tend to look around 2k and 6k for cheap and annoying frequencies. the gongy frequency that you dipped can determine the weight of the cymbals. it's great for controlling thickness, which as you said, is determined by tempo.

[@kevinbohen3172]

I can't wait to dive into my next mix with this knowledge. Great stuff man

[@royalwalter]

Even cymbals are sounding silky smooth by that eq as well ❤️

[@mariomaslik]

Jordan this is amazing, thank you. As for room mics, do you prefer recording both stereo and mono and use both in the mix or how do you go about it?

[@muncham]

Thanks Jordan! Appreciate the continued content :)

[@peacespirits1014]

I use Crown PZM Mics, and get a great drum sound with cymbals .

[@roxnroll8050]

I'm new, so I'm confused... The 'honky' stuff seems to me is what made a HH sound like a HH. After taking it out and the rest of the EQ, the HH now sounds like a crash and just sounds like washed out static that stops/starts here and there. Just trying to learn.

[@TheEmmanuel12]

Can you make a video about "Layering" Clean Vocals and Harmony?

[@Ryan_hey]

He just released an "Inside the mix" video on Silverstein's Late on 6th track. There's some talk about layering vocals there, although it's mostly for background.

[@GoldenProductions2019]

Thanks for the tip man for drum overheads drums sound great man

[@jeffdrazin5514]

Yes.. For rock.I use the overheads for cymbal sound. Then parallel compression for the rest of the kit.

[@4dmind]

Yep. That's what I do. I'm still working out a decent & consistent technique for hihats, but I'm getting the sound I want for everything else. Hats almost never cause me a problem though, if they are well recorded.

[@GTORT]

what's the point of a mono room if you already have a stereo one?

[@tedgerard333]

Thanks for the video I struggle with overheads I think I have them sounding really good doing pretty much what you say then only to check on other speakers to ear piercing cymbals. No matter how much I turn them down. I feel like I recorded them proper and they sound good I also have no plugins on my Master bus. If I do any type of limiting forget about it, its just annoying. Anybody have some suggestions?

[@heyimdalton1]

luckyrobotgamer DOGE notch out ringing frequencies, tame harsh regions that may have built up due to room/ mic choice/ cymbal choice, etc. Saturation can also help. Also check out Nolly’s mixing masterclass here on KZbin to see how he approaches mixing cymbals. OekSound’s Soothe plug-in is a miracle for this, but I figured I’d list free options first :)

[@ricc333]

+1 with what Dalton is saying. I usually put VTM at the end of my drum bus specifically to tame the harshness from the cymbals and other transients. A dab'll do ya.

[@mikeweiser2210]

Couldn’t agree more with these answers. Also, try out the Oeksound soothe plugin. Ultimate game changer for taming high end sibilant frequencies for any sound source

[@tedgerard333]

Great advice thank you. I'll let you know how it works.

[@tedgerard333]

Equing out the offending frequencies really did the trick. Thanks again for the help.

[@muratiskl8923]

Realy ımpresıve kick and snare sound

[@NicoOrtizDrums]

absolutely great man.

[@matthill263]

It seems like it's technically impossible to get all of the close mics in phase with both overheads if you have an A B pair. Steve Albini points the overheads over the drummer's shoulder rather than have them over the kit which I've found improves the tone. It makes sense as, as you point out, no one listens to a drum kit from three feet over the top of it.

[@thedayones4918]

Nah I dun think so Steve Albini doesn’t talk about over the shoulder mics for metal. That’s more for rock, funk and soul type of sounds ✌🏽

[@tylerjackson296]

How would you alter this method if you don't have room tracks?

[@maliciousmalicke]

The one walk through I cannot find is a step by step on mixing spot mics... There's nollys videos but those are mixing ggd drums not live. And dynamics are different because of the giant rooms he uses. Anyone know of any spot mic mixing tutorials?

[@capitalregionsuperstar6754]

THANK YOU

[@PaulEubanks]

I didn't think about this until watching your video, but all the care people put into shaping their kick/snare close mics ends up getting stepped on by the OH tracks if they're not HPF'ing them out like you're demonstrating in this video.

[@jyun7360]

I also put a limter on overhead channel to kill the snare，I wanna know if anybody out there use same trick？

[@israelroy7077]

Dynamic EQ sidechained to the original snare I find works wonders for this.

[@jyun7360]

@@israelroy7077 I certainly would try this one out.

[@xsonicassassinx]

L1, EQ, L1 again, tape saturation. simple overheads for me

[@jyun7360]

@@xsonicassassinx May I ask why using 2 L1？

[@xsonicassassinx]

JyunSyut _MEos first to tame skins. Then to tame cymbals. Keeps China’s and stuff good and even. Just barely kiss the tops off of them.

[@01left]

is it real drums or samples you used? Sounds amazing!

[@ScapezMusic]

It's real drums, there's no way it could be samples

[@lordhammerwind]

@@ScapezMusic It's a real drum track WITH sample replacement on the close mics.

[@hausersmusic]

it! super! you do it great!

[@vanechka222]

4:49 lol 😂

[@TonyMacaroni69_]

unfortunately this does not work if you only have a kick mic and 2 overheads :(

[@Timetofly8888]

Unless you have something like an SM98 on every cymbal from below pointing up with the phase reversed...... . Just High Pass, 800hz and..., UNLESS you're in the studio and know what you're doing ........... Hone your Gates to the specific attack frequency of your Drums, Ie, your Snare, your Toms, your Floor Tom's, Especially hone your Gating Dynamic Processing on your Kick Drum and ALWAYS Add EQ AFTER your Dynamic Processing to Shape your Kick Drum Sound, . research Ohms Law if you're not too sure how to use Dynamic Processing ... As long as it took me to type that, id have established a true STARTING POINT for a Real kick Drum for ANY Genre of music, for a Sound Check. .. Done, you're welcome!

[@morbidez7066]

I gave the thumbs up number 666.

[@frottery]

you've never heard a good kit image in your OH tracks? Perhaps its because you are recording cymballers and not drummers. If you want cymbal recordings just spot each cymbal, why bother with OH? OH is really just "stereo image of kit" and can be in front of kit or behind it, pointed at whatever you want to emphasize. People don't listen to drums floating 3 feet above a kit, they also don't have 12 ears that are a few inches away from each drum. If "what people hear" was the basis you could just do a stereo pair at 6 feet off the ground a dozen feet in front of kit to emulate that. Or just emulate what the drummer hears with delay and stereo there.

[@Lucidaydreamer]

What is the point of turning the overheads into a cymbal track AND using actual cymbal tracks? at that point just mute the overheads, no?

[@JaniJSzentkiralyi]

Its pretty "wrong" to say that this is a method for rock, metal etc ....... Im not trying to be disrespectful at all. Using this method the whole kit sounds unnatural and also pay attention to the cymbal sounds too, with that highpass they got thinner !!!

[@guitarstorm91]

andy sneaps megadeth mixer/producer also uses this method

[@nicholascowan1731]

probably the worst video i’ve ever seen for mixing overheads

[@israelroy7077]

Care to explain why ?

[@nicholascowan1731]

Israel Roy the fact that he’s trying to completely separate the cymbals from the rest of the drums just makes it sound so unnatural. although the drum samples already make it sound unnatural anyway so i guess it doesn’t really even matter. overheads should pick up the whole picture of the kit. A tracking session i worked on last weekend, i didn’t even need to bring toms into the mix, and only a small amount of snare and kick cause the overheads sounded so full. that being said they were nice mics in a nice room with a nice kit and a balanced drummer. i just feel like everything he says in this video is a no no. but it’s all opinion

[@israelroy7077]

@@nicholascowan1731 Yes it could be more nuanced. I usually find I get better kick definition for metal by rolling off low end but sometimes it does sound better with low end OH mixed in.

[@SoundcastStudios]

i'll believe the guy making the big records and take any advice from anywhere. Everything is always with context.

[@israelroy7077]

I remember also many others who suggest to highpass by default. Been stucked with this ideology for a few years and suddenly when I found out, warmth was back in the mix ! Thing is many mixers who have been at it for a while, they know by listening what to rectify even though they could be saying otherwise. What they say and what they do is 2 different things.

[@johnwalter6410]

Jordan and his damn renaissance eq. Bro, there is better plugins now. get ProQ dude.