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Rather than try to do all your compression while recording vocals,
save some for the mix. This takes a little pressure off of finding the
“ultimate” compressor with perfect settings and you have the option
of compressing the vocals as a group.
Real Drums: Typically need lots ‘o’ EQ because we typically close-
mike individual drums. Big shelf boosts on the Massive Passive are
particularly good. When EQing watch out for leakage so have the
drummer play the whole kit alternating with a drum you are working
on - keep those other faders up. Sometimes, boosting too much highs
on a snare or toms may boost the hi-hat and cymbals out of control.
Gates may be needed in profusion when the close-mic style and
drastic modification is desired. Another consideration is EQ ringing
and time smear. Drums particularly are good at showing off bad EQ
settings. The transients "trigger" ringing, so big narrow bell boosts
become obvious EQ. Usually this is to be avoided. Steep filters bring
group delay which smears the time clues and transient accuracy,
especially when the filters are nearer the mid band. Watch out for
this. Occasionally these "effects" can be useful especially if used for
their effect-value such as transforming a click into a drum.
Spend a little less time working on individual drum sounds and get
the mix up sooner and get the groove going earlier, then go back to
adjust EQ as needed. Keep in mind that the hi-hat and snare work
together, which should fit with the bass drum and bass, and that most
people hear the drums as one instrument and mostly engineers hear
them as several individual sounds or tracks. The blend and groove
are most important, the image or room sound is what sets the “tone”.
The EQ and processing may be used to ensure the best overall
groove and image rather than make each drum “perfect”.
Yes, it is legal to EQ and Limit overhead and room mics. EQ both
sides of a stereo pair identically and “link” limiters. If you are lucky
you can almost get most of the drum sound from the overheads or
room mics, with some bass drum and maybe snare snuck in. You
should also consider suggesting to the drummer to bring lighter,
brighter, smaller cymbals in than what he or she uses live. Either you
know why we say this or you will find out.
Some engineers use a combination of a filter (set between 25 an 50
Hz) and a shelf boost (between 100 and 200Hz, roughly). It almost
approximates a standard bell boost, but sounds drier and tighter and
still huge. The shelf tends to ring less or decay faster than bells, while
the filter keeps it clean and under control.
Sampled Drums: Probably pretty good right out of the box. Try
using a strange sample and using EQ, compression and clipping to
turn it into something totally different. You can turn a click track into
a bogus kick drum. It is fun and you might never run out of sounds
this way.
Some of the genesis of the rap kick and “808” rediscovery was some
NY engineers who would use a drum machine part, to trigger a noise
gate on the studio’s oscillator set at 40 or 60 Hz. Others found it
easier to get similar results with an extinct vintage 808 drum
machine sound sampled and EQed. Many went all the way back to
using purely the 808s and these little drum machines became sought
after, which then sparked an industry of 808 clones and sample
disks. These things seem to start off cool and clever and became a
bit mindless and overused, then sneered at for a few years, then
makes the cycle again. Fashion... At least we don’t have Rodeo
Drive and Milan suggesting we replace all our gear every season
Percussion: There are two big tricks. The first is don’t trust VU
meters - use peak meters and don’t get too close to full scale. The key
word is percussion and the peaks or transients are very short and
impressively hot. When in doubt, turn it down. Actually when in
doubt, listen to a short bit recorded, then turn it down if it was
crunchy. The second trick is to EQ these tracks in the mix, not
soloed. We tend to make things bigger by themselves, but the
function of percussion is to fit in the track and work with the other
instruments. They don’t have to be loud to work. Be aware that
boosting mids or highs will make peaks easier to clip too.
Bass: Good spot for a reminder. The bass and kick are usually meant
to work together musically yet remain separate and distinct. The
usual idea is if you have a deep bottom kick then the bass guitar
doesn’t cover that space. Put it in the low mid part of the spectrum.
Or you can make the bass guitar extra-deep and the bass drum in a
higher part in the spectrum. You also want to watch where you place
the kick’s attack and the harmonics of the bass. If you use a mic on
the amp plus a DI, expect that when you mix them, they very often
sound half out-of-phase. You can use a delay to try to compensate
the DI or just use the Massive Passive filters to get the DI lows (filter
from the mids up) and mix in the mic/amp highs (filter or shelf cut
the lows). What is easier, simpler and can be best is, using only the
amp with a damn good selected mic and using the Mini Massive low
shelf to nail the bottom.
Guitar: My favorite difficult instrument to EQ. So many different
guitar sounds and so little time. Filtering the high freqs on loud amps
can make them more amp-like, natural and kills that “studio” buzzy
distortion. Check out what filtering highs does with any low pass
filters you have. The low-pass filter is one of the main functions of
speaker simulators. Feel free to play with the simulator’s controls
along with your LP filters. The mids are especially critical and
might take some drastic EQ. This is where you get “singing” lead
solos or biting ones or more unusual sounds and its how you can
separate a few parts from each other. To get that big bottom you hear
in the studio but not in the control room, means that you should have
used a ribbon mic and/or miked the cabinet back too. You may still
need to EQ but be sure you have some solid lows to work with. The
secret to acoustic guitar is no EQ. Getting the sound with instrument
choice and with careful miking is how the professionals do it. Again
you can dip mids or shelf boost the highs. Sometimes a notch and/
or HP filter is absolutely needed.
Leslies: This reminds us of a trick question. When you have a
rotating baffle for the lows and a rotating horn for the highs, what is
the most critical thing to EQ. Answer - the mids. If you somehow
lose the mids, it will sound weak. You can make it bark or bite or
soften it into a smooth pad, but the attitude should fit the song, not
some memory of some legendary B3 unless it was playing a similar
part in a similar texture.
Piano: Different engineers have different ideas on how a piano
should sound and how to mic and process it. So much depends on
the piano, the player and musical style. Rockers generally want it
hard and brite, jazz guys like it warm and classical guys expect
distance and perspective. We might suggest starting off with a gentle
dip in the 200 Hz to 500 Hz area. The piano may benefit with a shelf
boost in the upper mids and highs, but be gentle in the recording
stage. Remember it is a percussion instrument and a boost may make
it harder to record without clipping. Being such a full range &
dynamic instrument, leave yourself options for the mix.
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