Getting clarity out of toms

[Genius Gone Insane]

In all my mixes fast tom rolls get muddied up. I'm trying to figure out how to get around this next time. If I solo the drums, the toms sound fine. In the mix however, they get pretty muddy. Generally speaking, how do you get around this? Let me guess:

1. get a better mic position, one that captures more click and less boom
2. compress the fast rolls separately
3. EQ

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

Well there was what andy said about EQing, where you low cut each one differently depending on it's pitch i think he said.

 

[Ermz]

I actually use Andy's C4 compressor setting on the tom group track. Works a treat for removing muddyness.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Notch, not low cut, around 200-300 : the bigger the tom and lower the pitch, the lower the notch frequency.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Notch? What is that, a slow roll-off?

 

[Razorjack]

Notch? What is that, a slow roll-off?

Removing a frequency using a small Q.

 

[Frank'nfurter]

A filter that can add or subtract a very close range of frequencys or even one frequency.
Depends on the "Q" of a filter circuit.
In your audio DAW you have parametric eq's. Normaly 3 knobs as follows: frequency, boost/cut and "Q". The "Q" knob is where you can adjust the bandwith of each filter. Turn it full clockwise (most DAW's) and you got a near "notch characteristic".
Get it...?

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Yeah, I understand, I've just never heard the term 'notch' before...that makes sense What frequency do you use on the high pass filter then? ~65 Hz?

 

[Frank'nfurter]

A 'notch' is a band-pass. Not a high- or low-pass. Never used them to elliminate 50/60Hz. I ensure that there is no humming frequencys at the recording.

 

[Kazrog]

There's a notch happening here at 53 hz (digidesign EQ promo shot):

 

[James Murphy]

A 'notch' is a band-pass. Not a high- or low-pass. Never used them to elliminate 50/60Hz. I ensure that there is no humming frequencys at the recording.

60 cycle hum CAN be heard.. i assure you of that... using a very steep octave notch at 60hz won't hurt much if anything, but the problem is that the hum is also present at the harmonics above the fundamental.

 

[Frank'nfurter]

60 cycle hum CAN be heard.. i assure you of that... using a very steep octave notch at 60hz won't hurt much if anything, but the problem is that the hum is also present at the harmonics above the fundamental.

I know. I didn't tell the contrary. I only tell I try to prevent humming before recording so I have no probs afterwards.