Kickdrum EQ'ing

[styyn]

he guys,

i'm having trouble eq'ing my kickdrum. the kick sounds good when i'm sitting behind my desk, but when i walk around in my room it sounds really vaque and a little distorted. i've eq'd and compressed it a lot but can't get that full sound everywhere in my room.

i hope you guys know what i mean and have some tips/techniques for me.

thanks in advance!

[jessejames]

It's not an issue with your EQ or compression; it's with your room. I assume you don't have any type of treatment?

As a test, play a sine wave and walk around your room. You should notice peaks and valleys while doing this. Stand in the corner, bass should be overbearing. Stand near the middle, bass probably disappears.

Report back with your findings.

[Rein]

I think that's not caused by your EQ, but by your room acoustics.
The kick's bass frequencies are really low so they have long soundwaves which bounce of your walls and other stuff.

EDIT: I have to reply faster next time

[Stomper]

if you have good monitor placement the best thing you can do without treatment is to work on kicks at the same spot your listening to music. you know how it should sound at that spot and should make thing easier.
if you have the cash, you could spend some money on good headphones (cheap headphones wont be able to give you an accurate low end) with a redline monitor plugin.

[styyn]

thanks a lot for your quick replies! i guess it's indeed my room acoustics. the main problem is, i think, that i made the kick in the moog modular plugin, where it wasn't a 'real' kick, i just eq'd it to a kick. when i listen to other tracks, or just a 909 kick sample, it sounds a lot better than what i made in the plugin. i assume i'll just have to eq it right when i'm sitting in front of my monitors!

[Stomper]

thanks a lot for your quick replies! i guess it's indeed my room acoustics. the main problem is, i think, that i made the kick in the moog modular plugin, where it wasn't a 'real' kick, i just eq'd it to a kick. when i listen to other tracks, or just a 909 kick sample, it sounds a lot better than what i made in the plugin. i assume i'll just have to eq it right when i'm sitting in front of my monitors!

1.thats not eq.
2.for drums its best to use a drum synthesizer. drums in general needs a very fast decay and most subtractive synths dont have those (i assume the moog modular is one of those). check out waldorf attack and rob papen punch. or maybe vintage synth emulation like d16 synths, audiorealism adm and audio damage tattoo.

[styyn]

thanks a lot for your quick replies! i guess it's indeed my room acoustics. the main problem is, i think, that i made the kick in the moog modular plugin, where it wasn't a 'real' kick, i just eq'd it to a kick. when i listen to other tracks, or just a 909 kick sample, it sounds a lot better than what i made in the plugin. i assume i'll just have to eq it right when i'm sitting in front of my monitors!

1.thats not eq.
2.for drums its best to use a drum synthesizer. drums in general needs a very fast decay and most subtractive synths dont have those (i assume the moog modular is one of those). check out waldorf attack and rob papen punch. or maybe vintage synth emulation like d16 synths, audiorealism adm and audio damage tattoo.

i've recorded it and then used eq's to make it sound better. i normally use those plugin's,i love the d16s, but i made this on the moog and find it a great kick, it only doesn't sound that good in my room and i was hoping anyone could give me advice on eq'ing/compression.

[::BLM::]

What sorts of eq settings are people using on their kicks? Is there anything typically you do to your kicks?