Getting Toms to "boom" more

[KingAenarion]

So I have these really smooth, smacked hard tightly tuned toms that I want to have a bit of boom to them, but not to take over the low end of the mix.

Any tips?

I have them running through Slate VCC, a compressor with a somewhat slow attack and not reducing them too much because the drummer hit them pretty consistently (just enough to get them to smack hard) and then EQ'd taking out nasty resonances and adding a little bit of low end and high end crack.

These are then run at about -25dB to the parallel compression channel, the Tempo verb and the medium room verb that I'm using on the snare as well.

 

[Cynic]

axefx

 

[Cynic]

bump so kurk can see this thread. he can probably help

 

[TheDepthsWillRise]

I've heard of people using 808 hits at various frequencies to add a little low end body without overwhelming the tone of the drum. I do it all the time on the kick, but never tried it on the toms. Might be worth a shot.

 

[iceythe]

Even the Almighty King asks!

Multi-band compression with a band range from lowest floor tom the highest rack tom, or use a separate band for rack toms. For values, anything above 2 ratios and then adjust gain compensation to fit.

Dark sounding reverb before any compressor. I used this trick for snares before.

RBass set to the median range of the drums, presuming that all toms are on a stereo or dual mono track. Excites harmonics for around 1.5 octaves.


On my current session I use quite a bit of Dominion (transient shaper) to extend the booms on my toms and then a multi-band compressor to tame the outer frequencies 800Hz and up.

Getting that boom sounding natural may also require boosting those natural resonant frequencies with an EQ.

Edit:
Since toms tend to drop in pitch you'd want to accentuate those boosts not at the initial spike in the spectrum but rather at where it falls down towards. Those narrow boosts doesn't have to be that big, since whatever compression applied will bring them out more, just like it would on a snare ring.

 

[KingAenarion]

I've heard of people using 808 hits at various frequencies to add a little low end body without overwhelming the tone of the drum. I do it all the time on the kick, but never tried it on the toms. Might be worth a shot.

Even the Almighty King asks!

To not ask would be completely arrogant. I mean when it comes to Jazz I will hands down be able to be able to do it faster, easier and better. But Metal... got a lot to learn.

Multi-band compression with a band range from lowest floor tom the highest rack tom, or use a separate band for rack toms. For values, anything above 2 ratios and then adjust gain compensation to fit.

Are you talking across the whole kits stereo channel?

Dark sounding reverb before any compressor. I used this trick for snares before.

I haven't used direct applied reverbs in ages. I'll play with that.

RBass set to the median range of the drums, presuming that all toms are on a stereo or dual mono track. Excites harmonics for around 1.5 octaves.

Interesting idea

On my current session I use quite a bit of Dominion (transient shaper) to extend the booms on my toms and then a multi-band compressor to tame the outer frequencies 800Hz and up.

Getting that boom sounding natural may also require boosting those natural resonant frequencies with an EQ.

Not in these Toms... there ARE none

Edit:
Since toms tend to drop in pitch you'd want to accentuate those boosts not at the initial spike in the spectrum but rather at where it falls down towards. Those narrow boosts doesn't have to be that big, since whatever compression applied will bring them out more, just like it would on a snare ring.

Thanks man, all really helpful ideas. I'll play and see what works in my mix

 

[aturaya]

If there's no bass to boost, make a channel with each tom that has a sine wave at the frequency you want in the tom, and pan them the same as the toms. Put a sidechain gate on each channel with the respective toms as input and set the threshold so it only plays the sine wave when the tom is playing and set the release time so that it rings out similar to the tom.

 

[iceythe]

Are you talking across the whole kits stereo channel?

For multi-band comp on toms, yes.

Not in these Toms... there ARE none

Bummer. I've still heard some really kicking toms even without any significant natural boom. They'll still have some kind of body that distinguishes from each other.

If it fails, there's always the option to replace or blend with with re-triggered tom samples.

 

[Chri]

Did you record a room mic(s)? If so, lo-pass them pretty far down (maybe 4k?) and smash the shit out of 'em with a fast attack comp. This should really help add some "oomph" and "boom" to most of your kit's shells!

Hopefully you haven't already tried this and I'm not just rehashing failed ideas