How to Properly EQ the Kick Drum

If you want to make your kick drum sit right in the mix, you need to learn how to use the equalizer on the kick drum as a surgical tool. The following tutorial will guide you through the proper approach of using the equalizer on the kick drum.

Firstly, we will make a short loop of a kick drum sample on the newly created audio channel within SoundBridge: DAW. We have selected this kick drum sound since it has many low ends, a room reverb layer underneath it, and some resonant peaks that need processing. Here is an audio example of how the kick drum sounds unprocessed.

~Kick Drum - Unprocessed

The next step would be to load an instance of an EQ on the kick drum channel. For the purpose of this tutorial, we have chosen to use a built-in EQ, which can be found among other built-in effects within the SoundBridge: DAW.

Utilizing the Spectrum Analyzer

As you can see from the picture above, a spectrum analyzer is embedded in this EQ. This will come quite handy for us to see which kick drum frequencies have the most energy. As we expected, there is a lot of power in the low frequencies, some on the mid, and some apparent points on the high frequencies.

Magic Frequencies

Maybe you have heard about it before, but there are so-called "magic" frequencies for kick drum sounds, which usually work well for most kick drum sounds. Accordingly, we should eliminate the "boxy" sound, mainly between 200 Hz and 500 Hz. To do this, we will enable the first band of the EQ and search for the mentioned sound in that range of the frequency spectrum. Here is an audio example of how it sounds; you can see it in detail in the picture below. Remember that the dB value for this band of the EQ is highly exaggerated, but it is necessary to find which frequency has that unwanted resonance.

~Kick Drum - Band 1 -Boosted

Attenuate the Problematic Frequencies

The idea is to do the opposite of what is shown in the picture above, meaning attenuating the selected frequency. Consequently, this is shown in the image below. So, let us hear how our kick drum sounds now. We advise you to use a pair of studio monitors or a pair of high-quality headphones to listen to the difference

~Kick Drum - Band 1 -Attenuated

Moving forward, we have another magic spot that appears from 1 to 2 kHz, mainly where the kick drum attack is placed. Let's repeat the same process as above and hear the unwanted frequency first boosted and then attenuated.

~Kick Drum - Band 2 -Boosted `

~Kick Drum - Band 2 -Attenuated

Fine Tuning

The 3rd unwanted frequency we found in this kick drum sound is around 3.7 kHz. It has a resonant peak, which we think needs to be tamed. Therefore,e we will apply the same process as used in the previous two bands and listen to the boosted and attenuated versions of the 3rd equalizer band. To finalize the processing with EQ, we will cut the subfrequencies of this kick drum. This is because it has too much energy in that area. We will use a simple Low Shelf filter, which can be found as the first band on this EQ. You can check that in the picture below.

~Kick Drum - Band 3 -Boosted

~Kick Drum - Band 3 -Attenuated + Low Shelf

Since we got far from the original/unprocessed sample, it will be wise to hear the difference. It will also be good to mention that many different-sounding kick drums are out there. So, not every kick drum will have problematic resonance around 200 Hz or 3000 Hz. Therefore, we encourage you to experiment and trust your ears as well.