6 Magic Frequencies for Mixing TOMS

making your Tom sound big and Punchy and modern is actually pretty easy at least it is if you know how to EQ them properly so I'm going to show you exactly where to boost and where to cut on your Tom tracks and this is going to work on your drums every time trust me I've been doing it the same way for over 10 years all right let's dive in okay Tom's always sound horrible off the mic before you EQ them sounds super boxy almost like you're hitting a piece of cardboard or something and so the first place you want to look at is cutting out that boxiness between 700 and 900 Hertz so let's pull up an EQ foreign there's 900. [Music] right around there sounds a lot better to me already and sometimes you only need that cut in the Toms but often you also need to cut out some muddiness a little lower so that's the second magic frequency around 150 to 300 so let's grab around 200 [Music] it's not a ton of muddiness in this Tom [Music] all right that's already sounding much better you just can't be afraid to cut out a ton of stuff when you're mixing Toms it's the only way to get that sound but still cutting alone is not enough we still need to add some energy and attack and brightness by the way this cheat sheet that I'm using is something I created for you you can go grab it for free at mixcheatsheet.com so in terms of the brightness and the top end attack let's start by adding 8K and this is a really common area to boost on drums you'll see me boost it a lot on Kick and snare [Music] usually using a shelf on it I wouldn't boost as much 8K on a Tom as I would on a kick or snare partially because of the symbol bleed but also because I like to boost at Magic frequency number four which is 4.5 K so let's try that foreign that gives a nice extra smack to the Tom that's going to cut through nicely in the mix but we still need to add some some low end to it so magic frequency number five this is for rack Toms specifically 120 to 200 Hertz [Music] foreign so let's make it a little narrower so here it is around 200. to me this Tom sounds better around 120 and the smaller the Tom the higher the frequency so you just have to sweep it around in this area and just feel and hear where that low end of the Tom seems to resonate and really sing [Music] foreign pretty happy with that we haven't even touched the floor tom yet and that's where magic frequency number six comes in 70 to 90 Hertz for the floor tom now let's just copy the entire EQ over all the boosts and the cuts onto the floor tom track give you an A B so it already sounds pretty good let's just check our low end boost here [Music] and see we get a nice low end punch around 85 there and you don't even really need that much of a low end boost on Toms just a little bit to give it that fullness and on this one I think we just need to cut out a little more of the muddy frequencies all right let's check it out both Toms without EQ [Music] and with EQ [Music] there you go I'm from song to song from kit to Kit these frequencies are not really going to change just the amount of boosting and cutting that you have to do and you want to follow this up with some compression slow attack fast release that's going to emphasize the punch or if you want your Toms to sound a little more mellow and fatter you can use a faster attack on the compressor like I said it's pretty easy to get that fat modern Punchy Tom sound just with EQ and once you know this you should almost never have to use Tom samples again if you want to see my magic frequency videos for mixing kick and snare I've got those right here for you go check it out and if you've been watching for a while but haven't subscribed yet go ahead and click that button alright see you next time

Channel: Hardcore Music Studio

Views: 44,389

Keywords: jordan valeriote, hardcore music studio, mixing toms, mixing toms drums, eq for toms, eq toms drums, how to mix toms, how to eq toms, how to eq toms drums, mixing drums, drum mixing, drum mixing tips, toms drum mixing tips, toms drum mixing tricks, mixing rock toms, mixing drums in pro tools, mixing rock drums pro tools, drum mixing basics, home studio, home studio mixing, how to mix music like a pro, how to mix heavy drums, mixing metal drums, mixing metal toms

Id: iJOW7knCXjs

Length: 5min 31sec (331 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 24 2023