Recording drums in personal environments such as rehearsal spaces, garages, and living rooms can be a bitch. Big-studio engineers often have marvelously tuned acoustic areas and cabinets full of sexy microphones at their disposal, and, along with their years of audio training, these benefits can yield tremendous drum sounds. You, however, probably have a couple of inexpensive dynamic mics and a recording space that’s awash in the debris of everyday living. But you’re not a whiner or a quitter, so you barrel in and use who you’ve got, and you record your drum tracks the best you can. Bravo.

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Flabby Kick Drum

Use your channel EQ or an EQ plug-in to cut 80Hz or 100Hz by 3dB–6dB. If that doesn’t work, try cuts from 40Hz to 200Hz until the muddy lows dissipate.

Wimpy Kick Drum

Need some beef? Carefully boost at 100Hz until you love the boom. Usually, a 3dB or 6dB boost should do the trick, although I’ve sometimes been as bold as to dial in a 10dB boost. Take care not to go boost crazy and produce a flabby timbre—you don’t want to ping-pong between the previous EQ tip and this one!

Bloated Snare

Get more thud and swack by cutting 500Hz by 3dB or so. If there’s an annoying low-midrange ring, try cutting around 900Hz.

Where’s the Crack?

For a crisp snare attack, boost anywhere between 1.5kHz and 3kHz. To add some snap, boost at 10kHz.

Dead Floor Tom

To up the rumble, boost around 80Hz–120Hz, and cut the same frequencies to reduce mud. For attack, boost in the 3kHz–5kHz range.

Indistinct Overhead Cymbals

Bring back clarity and dimensionality by boosting 10kHz by 3dB.

Via EQ Magazine