# Mixing Toms



## toolsound (Aug 3, 2009)

I'm not sure the best way to describe this, but how do you make tom drums sound more like a kick drum? 

Take Machine Head's drummer for example. His tom drums almost sound like extra kick drums. When I'm using superior drummer though, all of the tom drums sound very musical. They each produce a very distinct note and it sounds like I'm running down a scale when playing them in order (e.g. tom 1, tom 2, tom 3, tom 4). 

Does this make any sense? When I listen to Machine Head I wanna say that they're just completely scooping the mids out of the toms. Is that how they achieve that sound? 

Thanks!


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## Purist (Aug 4, 2009)

Hmm i would say that u've answered ur own question....u gotta eq and comp to taste. I'm not a drummer myself so i can't say for sure but after comping, my floor toms(4,5) in superior 2 sounds pretty bassy like a kick drum but not as tight.BTW IMO the toms in the avatar kit blows, get the metal forge expansion!


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## toolsound (Aug 4, 2009)

I know it comes down to personal taste, but I was wondering if someone could advise a general method for achieving that kind of sound.

I'm currently using the Sonor kit, but yea, I'll probably upgrarde to Metal Foundry one of these days.


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## thadood (Aug 19, 2009)

Kill the mids, add 3db @ 2.5khz for attack, find the resonant frequency of each tom (should be starting at 150hz or so for the highest tom) and add 3db or so of it in. Then, if you want to get rid of some of the tom's decay, use an expander to drop off after a certain threshold is achieved. In front of the expander, add your compressor. Use 5:1 or so, sunk in to attenuate 6db or so. Start with the attack at around 15-25ms, and the release at 50ms or so. This will allow the attack of the stick to come through, then will release quickily, but still musically.

This should give you a quick, aggressive hit that dies quickly (to mimic a muffled kick).


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## 7 Strings of Hate (Aug 28, 2009)

thadood said:


> Kill the mids, add 3db @ 2.5khz for attack, find the resonant frequency of each tom (should be starting at 150hz or so for the highest tom) and add 3db or so of it in. Then, if you want to get rid of some of the tom's decay, use an expander to drop off after a certain threshold is achieved. In front of the expander, add your compressor. Use 5:1 or so, sunk in to attenuate 6db or so. Start with the attack at around 15-25ms, and the release at 50ms or so. This will allow the attack of the stick to come through, then will release quickily, but still musically.
> 
> This should give you a quick, aggressive hit that dies quickly (to mimic a muffled kick).



Whats an expander?


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## All_¥our_Bass (Aug 29, 2009)

^The reverse of a compressor, literally.


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## thewildturkey (Sep 9, 2009)

thadood said:


> Kill the mids, add 3db @ 2.5khz for attack, find the resonant frequency of each tom (should be starting at 150hz or so for the highest tom) and add 3db or so of it in. Then, if you want to get rid of some of the tom's decay, use an expander to drop off after a certain threshold is achieved. In front of the expander, add your compressor. Use 5:1 or so, sunk in to attenuate 6db or so. Start with the attack at around 15-25ms, and the release at 50ms or so. This will allow the attack of the stick to come through, then will release quickily, but still musically.
> 
> This should give you a quick, aggressive hit that dies quickly (to mimic a muffled kick).



Win. Do this.


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## Teaboy (Sep 25, 2009)

I'm quite happy with the Superior 2.0 toms. Let the drums speak, don't take all the tone out of them


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