Saturday, April 08, 2017

How Do You Tune Your Kick Drum?

I've been asked how I tune my kick drum, especially on the song "Starin' At The Wall" by Sonny Koozeman.  I like a pretty low "splat" sound with some decay.  A sound that kicks you in the chest if you turn the studio monitors up, yet it still has some content up a ways in frequency that plays well on a smaller speaker system.  Both batter and resonant sides are really loose, just at the point of getting rid of the wrinkles.  I use an Evans EQ4 batter head.  I have even checked the frequency after tuning and it turns out to be a low D1 or 36.71 Hz.  On the resonant head I cut an off-center 5" hole and still use my old Electro-Voice RE-20 about half way in the hole and at an angle toward the center.  If it's a slow ballad I might use a Neumann TLM-170 (cardioid) out 18' from the hole.