When talking how to EQ drums live, you have a few things to consider that you don’t in the studio.
Reflections can build at any frequency, particularly on the low end, so you always need to be careful about any boosts, particularly on the low end. On the other hand, one advantage about EQing drums live is that you (typically) don’t have nearly as many elements to worry about in the mix.
Because you’re generally limited by the number of musicians and what they can do, most live setups don’t have nearly as many instruments as you’d need to worry about in a studio mix. If you’re dealing with backing tracks, they’ve already been sculpted via EQ to create room for the REST of the actual live instruments.
With those things in mind, let’s talk how to EQ drums live, piece by piece.
How to EQ Drums Live
Let’s go piece by piece in the kit to give a blueprint on every element in the kit and explain why I recommend the moves I do.
Live Kick EQ
Let’s begin with talking how to EQ live kick, the backbone of the live performance.
My live kick drum EQ cheat sheet covers the adjustments (mostly cuts) to get the anchor of your live mix sounding just right:
We begin by high passing up to 40Hz, meaning we’re cutting everything below 40Hz. I like a slope of 24dB/oct for a transparent cut which doesn’t eat too much above 40Hz. Everything below this point is a boomy mess live, even more so in the live setting when the lowest frequencies have a tendency to reflect off the walls and build up.
Next, we need to find the fundamental of our kick (between 50-80Hz) and give it a small boost. This is where the “core” meatiness of our kick resides, and a small boost does wonders for a thin sounding kick. You’ll quickly be able to identify the core if you’ve got a visual representation of the frequencies when the kick triggers.
Create a small cut or dynamic sidechained cut (if possible) at 150Hz for the bass. Note that when I say “small” cut or boost, I’m typically just talking 1-2dB. I rarely like to go anymore aggressive than that, especially live, unless there’s a serious feedback problem.
Getting back to 150Hz, you can create a little space for the bass with a cut here to create a cleaner mix. Likewise you may want to cut on the bass at the fundamental frequency of the kick. If you can do a dynamic sidechained cut which is controlled by the other instruments, these make for more transparent adjustments which don’t sacrifice more than necessary.
Cut between 400-500Hz if you’ve got that “pinging” kind of knock in the live kick. This will also help to clean up the mud from the kick as this is generally an unflattering range for the kick.
Boost at 3-4k to more out more kick transient “click” of the beater on the skin of the kick. This helps that live kick drum cut through the mix which is arguably even more important than in the studio mix when you’ve got all of the reflections to contend with.
Finally, you can low pass at 15k to remove unnecessary frequencies and create space for the cymbals and other high end elements. This is a conservative cutoff point, you can easily go beneath 10k as the aforementioned transients are/is the last practical frequency range on the live kick.
Let’s continue the live drum EQ tutorial with the energy driver of the kit, the snare.
Live Snare EQ
Live snare EQ also requires a somewhat different tact than the conventional snare EQ:
Just like the kick, we want to high pass our live snare, and we can go higher than I would go with a studio snare to ensure we’re really cleaning and carving out the frequencies we want here.
On a live snare, I like to high pass at an average of 100Hz to remove the rumble on the low end, not to mention the frequencies we don’t want or need and bleed from the kick. A slope of 12-24dB at most works well for creating a natural sounding roll off.
This cleans up the low end to create space for the kick which makes that sound cleaner, as well.
Boosting or cutting at 200Hz should be dictated by your needs based on what you’ve got. If the snare sounds too thin or top heavy, try a small boost here. If it’s too boomy which is often the case in a live setting (though this can be affected by the microphone placement) then you should do a small cut here.
I like a small cut around 450Hz on my live snare to remove some of that unflattering boxiness which creeps up at that point. If you’re processing the snare after the fact, on a live recording, you might use a dynamic EQ cut so it doesn’t cut indiscriminately but only cuts proportionate to the degree of each hit.
Snare ringing can be a problem more so in a live setting where you have reflections exacerbating the problem. As I covered in my overview of how to fix snare ring, it exists in that 800Hz region, so a small cut can help to attenuate the problem or mitigate the effect.
We don’t want to cut too much here as this is also the frequency which gives that pleasing roundness to the live snare. In fact we can add in some roundness (when ringing isn’t as much of a problem) with a small boost at 800Hz alternatively.
Snare buzz is another unwanted artifact we get sometimes, particularly in a live setting when we don’t have time to get the snare sounding its best through tuning and tightening.
If you’re hearing that annoying buzzing on the snare, try a small cut in that 3-5k region to smooth this out. Removing it altogether generally requires a much more aggressive cut which kills the transient and snap of your snare, so it’s best to try to manage the problem than remove it outright.
Once again, if you’re dealing with this issue after the fact in mixing a previously recorded live mix, go with a dynamic EQ after you’ve narrowed in on the heart of the buzzing frequency.
I mentioned transients; you can bring out more of the snare’s initial “crack” with a small boost at 5k. This helps the snare to better assert itself in the live mix without having to raise its overall level which sometimes can overpower the mix with too much body and the rest of the snare.
Speaking of which, check out my tips for adding audio transients to virtually any instrument in your mix, including the snare or kick.
One last EQ move for your live snare; likewise with the kick, you can safely low pass your snare at 15k with a 24dB/oct slope to create space for the crispier instruments in the live mix like the cymbals which we’ll cover in a moment.
How to EQ Tom Drums
Let’s talk how to EQ tom drums with yet another cheat sheet to cover both your floor and rack toms:
High passing your toms removes noise and in some cases bleed. High pass at 50Hz and 75Hz for the floor and rack toms, respectively, to remove everything you DON’T need in your toms.
You can add richness in the body of the floor tom with a boost at 70Hz, but if it’s too boomy try cutting here to thin it out when it’s overpowering the mix.
For the body of the racks, you’re looking higher up more in the 300-400Hz range, depending on the size of the tom. Sweep to find the body for your exact tom and boost to thicken the sound out, or you can thin out the sound and add clarity with a cut here on your rack toms.
Floor toms experience that unwanted ringing sound around 400Hz, so you can do a small cut here to mitigate its effect in the mix. I recommend staying conservative, though, as you don’t want to cut too much to the point of cutting the character of the tom.
This is where a dynamic cut works well if it’s a previously recorded live mix you’re working on with the toms.
I find I get a boxiness on the rack toms around 600Hz (give or take with the size) so a small cut works well to help clean up the entire tone.
Similar to the kick and snare, you have that crack or click of the stick on the surface of the toms in the 5-6k range, favoring the lower end for the floor and higher end for the racks.
Just like those other drums, a little boost in this range helps the live toms better assert themselves in the mix by drawing the listener’s ear, saving you from having to needlessly push up those toms that extra decibel and throwing off the live mix.
Lastly and once again, use a low pass filter to create space for the cymbals. Speaking of which…
Cymbal EQ
Live cymbal EQ can help tame abrasive, harsh, splashy frequencies, bring out body, or mitigate (unflattering) bleed.
Here is a snapshot of the best settings to get those overheads and other cymbal mics sounding their best:
High pass your live cymbals at 250Hz to remove bleed and unwanted frequencies from the live reflections and rest of the band.
Moving a bit higher up, that 300-400Hz range is where the body resides.
With that in mind, we can boost or cut 300-400Hz to add body or alternatively clarity via subtractive EQ, respectively.
Overheads in particular are meant to not just pick up the cymbals but an overall live sound of your kit.
With that in mind, you’ll expect some “bleed” if you even want to call it that from the rest of the kit, chiefly the snare. You may want a small cut at 400-600Hz to clean up the bleeding boxy frequencies of the snare to help keep the cymbals and entire drum mix clean.
If you find that your live cymbals are too abrasive, try a small cut at 4k to help tame that sharpness and smooth out the tone.
Jumping up an octave, that 8-10k range is where a lot of the sizzle and, clarity, and transient bite of the cymbals comes through. If the cymbals are too splashy here, you might want a small cut here for a little more control and additional smoothing of that harshness.
Low passing isn’t expressly necessary when there’s no conflicting frequencies up there, especially with live cymbals when we’re not concerned with mixing headroom.
Everything should be sounding a lot better after applying that live drum EQ across your live kit.
Don’t forget to check out my drum panning guide which applies equally to studio or live drums to get everything in the right spot.
Also don’t forget to grab my FREE EQ cheat sheet which will show you the best settings to dial in to every single instrument in your entire mix.
