Best Eq for Hip Hop Kick Drum

Does anyone know the best way to get a phat sound out of Kick Drums particularly for Hip-Hop Tracks?

layer more than one kick drum up. one dirty and one low sub hit, or one snappy and one low muddy one, whatever just experiment with using more than one. use the layered one for the kicks you want the emphasis on and use either of the other 2 sounds that make it up for the ghost notes and other kick hits.

You usually don't want to boost anything under 100hz. A lot of people like boosting 250hz. This can give kicks a hollow like prescence. A lot of people also like cutting the mids 400-800hz for a more cleaner thinner sound. Sometimes you cut all the highs off a kick to dullen it up. Great if you want a dark dirty sound.

Also like the previous reply you might have better luck layering or compressing a kick before eqing.

You might not want to eq individual kicks.

As I been in studios I realize most engineers eq sounds to complement each other in the mix. Also my one engineer kind of hinted the key to a good kick sound is finding good samples and mixing them to make a kick sound. I played some of his kicks on a 4000 and they almost blew a hole thru my chest.

-1@100HZ for bottom, -2@300 - 500HZ for posterity.

* Sometimes if your using some deep basslines in a lead or from a sampled hook, you might want to even dip as low as 40HZ on your kicks. (40hZ is usually the lowest I can get without affecting the groove too much)

Kick Drums are not exactly a Bass sound, although what you hear is the bass overtones or bass region of the drum. I have damaged my computer monitors trying to EQ kicks in the past. Sometimes on my system and little monitors- I struggle with the overall finished Kicks and Bass sounds in my seuences.. I usually have to put my headphones on and experiment with different things.

Ghosting is a nice way to handle Kicks.

I'll take a Kick sample and:

*Reverse it - Add Reverb - Add Chorus - ReReverse it - and then EQ it.

*Make a copy of a Kick - Change pitch -2 - Time Stretch it - and lower the freq just slightly.

*Make several copies of a kick - Adjust each one -5HZ starting at 250HZ until you get down to 50hz - Slightly add flange/Chorus to all the kicks below 125HZ (NOT MUCH). Now try to tap out a beat just using those kicks and see if you can come up with a groove. Some will be so horrible- Isolate those from your memories, and you'll learn the sounds real fast.



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Here is something that might be useful to you:

100Hz Increase to add harder Bass sound of the lowest inst. Peak EQ 1.0-1.4Q
Increase fullness to guitars,snare Peak EQ 1.0Q
Warmth to piano Peak 1.0Q
Reduce Boom on guitars & increse clarity Peak EQ 1.0-1.4Q

200Hz Add fullness to Vocals Peak EQ 0.7-1.4Q
Add fullness to Snare or Guitar Peak EQ 1.4Q
Reduce to decrease muddiness of Vocals or mid-range Instr. Peak EQ 1.4

400Hz Increase to add clarity to Bass “when speakers are at low vol.” Peak EQ 1.0

800Hz Increase for clarity and punch of Bass Peak EQ 1.4Q
Reduce to remove “cheap sound of guitars". Peak EQ 1.0 Q

1.5 KHz Increase for clarity and “pluck” of Bass Peak EQ 1.4Q
Reduce to remove dullness of Guitars Peak EQ 1.0Q

3.0 KHz Increase for more attack/hardness on piano/Voice Peak EQ 1.0Q
Increase for more attack on El/Aku. Guitars Peak EQ 1.4Q
Reduce to increse breathy soft sound on background Vocals Peak EQ 1.0Q
Reduce to disguise out of tune Vocals/Guitars Peak EQ 1.0Q
Increase for more attac on the snare or other Drums Peak EQ 1.4-2.8Q

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I'm going to trust Egokilla on this one, your samples sound nice enough. And i like how you Santa Claus them all over to us as well. Many thanks.