Kick Drum Conundrum

When I was about seventeen or so I turned to my brother and said "someday when I'm making records I'll get my kick drum to sound like a hydrogen bomb in the Grand Canyon." Three decades have passed since I made that grandiose claim, and the game is still afoot.

Recording and drums themselves, for that matter, have come a long way in thirty years. I've learned a great deal and have captured some very satisfying sounds along the way. Perhaps most importantly, I've come to value context - both musically and with respect to how the human brain perceives the size or weight, if you will, of a given sound. The range of human hearing is a fixed quantity. The various elements of a musical ensemble compete for space within this finite spectrum of frequencies. The drum set, with its high highs, low lows, and lots in between, presents quite a challenge.

Musical context is subjective. Is it the right sound for the song? Does it work in the mix and sound good on its own? Do those drums sound fabulous or is the drummer just a pompous gasbag who also happens to be producing this record? Who's right? Who knows? Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one. Keep in mind a recording that you think sounds great and emulate it.

How do you make something sound big? One method is to contrast it against something that sounds small, or at least smaller. Much of this boils down to a matter of give and take. If there are five elements present in a given mix, approximately twenty percent of the total frequency spectrum is available to each element. Some overlap is inevitable and many frequencies must remain open or you'll have white noise, not music. If one of the elements is a woodblock and another is a grand piano, it would likely be in your best interest to allocate a piece of the woodblock's twenty percent to your grand piano. Then again maybe this woodblock is made from a giant sequoia and is sixty feet across. Some subtractive equalization may be helpful. Double the size of the ensemble, and the space available to each element is cut in half.

Here at Darlingtown's Recording Facility, we're always looking for the biggest kick drum sound we can get, and here's the story of our latest Mary Shelley inspired experimentation...

We decided to try two mics, a dynamic (Audix D6), and a condenser (Shure Beta 91), each for their requisite strengths. The D6 for its beefy attack and the 91 for its ability to capture the more resonant qualities of my comparatively large (24 x16) bass drum. Here's where it gets a bit unusual. Do you know what a Sonotube is? It's a trade name for what would be generically considered a circular, cardboard, pre-made concrete form. I acquired one that's the same diameter as my drum and two feet long. I placed it directly in line with my kick, almost touching the edge of the front head's hoop, My intention was to lengthen the drum's depth from 16 to 40 inches, thereby enhancing its ability to produce low frequencies.

I then plopped the 91 on a washcloth inside the Sonotube and recorded examples of various placement options. Soloed out, the 91 sounded like shit. Combined with the D6 it was okay but certainly didn't add anything significant. Disappointed with my first results, I put Digital Performer's Master Works EQ on one of the Beta 91's inserts and boosted 80Hz a bit with a fairly narrow Q. Combined with the D6 it began to get better. I then cut 300 Hz with a 2 octave Q and it got better still. Then I opened up the Q on the 80Hz boost in a way that would make most engineers laugh (or cry). By itself the 91's sound remained unusable, but with the D6 and after a bit more fine-tuning, it was beginning to sound very good indeed.

Please bear in mind that there are many definitions of what constitutes a great kick drum sound. My personal taste leans toward a natural and open sound. If you want a big sound, start with a big drum. Leave both heads on the drum and spend some time tuning it. Resist the temptation to keep the pitch unnaturally low, all drums need some head tension to "speak" properly. I've had other drummers tell me that they're surprised at how high my kick batter is tuned. The reasons are twofold. The "speaking" quality I just alluded to, and the playability of the drum. If the batter head is too slack your pedal will feel like it's playing a giant wheel of camembert in the summertime. I use no internal or external muffling of any kind. If you do these things you should have a drum sound that is big and warmly resonant, with frequency content that can compete with bass guitars and huge synthesizers. And if that's still not enough you can resort to radical EQ and compression and tons of cavernous reverb!

So my youthful desire for hydrogen bomb-like kick sounds was exuberant but ultimately ill-advised. It was a practical impossibility in any musical context. Makes a nice rock'n roll metaphor though.