FXpansion BFD Premium Acoustic Drum Module Mixing with BFD - Manual (Page 25)

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Mixing with BFD www.fxpansion.com
5. How to approach mixing each part of the kit
5:1. Kicks
The ‘low end thump’ of a kick lies in the 40-80 Hz range - many engineers refer to this as
the ‘chest’ region - because you can feel it in your chest, rattling your ribcage!
The main body of a kick exists in the 80-10 Hz range, with the the fundamental
frequency of most kicks, depending on size, being at around 80 Hz.
The body and resonance of the drum shell is found in the 160-500 Hz range. Cutting
these frequencies (‘scooping the mids’) leads to a cleaner, modern kick sound, which sits
well in the mix. Leaving these in is suited more to an old-school sound.
The beater sound lies between 1 and 6 kHz depending on type: harder beaters tend
to have more energy in the higher frequencies. Accentuate this frequency range for a
modern ‘clicky’ rock kick sound.
Alternatively, roll off some of the top end for a more relaxed, ‘woofy’ sounding kick, more
suitable for jazzy or funk music.
The inside and outside kick mic channels sound very different to each other. The inside
kick sound gives you the brighter, more aggressive sound with less low-end and some
‘shell resonance’. This is because the mic is pointed much closer to where the beater
strikes the skin. The outside kick sound is much more like the kick sound as we hear
it while standing next to the kit. It is often deeper in bass and less ‘attacky’. How you
balance these signals is up to you, but just remember that the outside mic gives you the
depth and weight while the inside gives you the attack and definition.
On faster songs, choose a tighter kick and use more damping. The quicker the tempo of
the song, the less bass you can get away with on the kicks.
A common mixing technique is to process the bassline with a sidechain compressor,
using the kick as the sidechain key source. Therefore, the bassline will be compressed
more during kick sounds, leading to a cleaner, tighter low end in the mix.
Tuning the kick drum to the key of the track can also help to make things gel together
nicely. This is a common solution to situations where a bassline and kick are not sitting
nicely together.
5:2. Snares
The low-end ‘thump’ of a snare is usually around 100-140 Hz (depending on its size and
tuning as always). Rolling off the very lowest frequencies can help a snare to cut through
a mix. Also, lowering the amount of bass will affect the response of any compression
applied to the snare. Less bass energy means the compressor will respond better to the
the transients of the drum. Side-chain compression is an alternative way of dealing with
this.