How to EQ Metal Toms to Sound 10x Better in the Mix

Are you struggling to get a fat, punchy tom sound that cuts through a heavy rock or metal mix?
You don't need to spend an hour triggering or pasting in tom samples.
It's actually pretty easy to get a great tom sound even when the toms sound flat, muddy or boxy to begin with.
Here are the GO-TO frequencies to cut and boost to make your toms sound 10x better in the mix.

[chrise]

Your willingness to boost and cut in large swaths is a damn inspiration. :) So glad I found this channel. \m/

[ChristianIce]

When it's about pushing the low freqs of the toms, I usually work with the specific note produced by its resonance..
Low frequencies in drums are very tuning related, so if a floor tom resonates at, let's say, 120 Hz, it would be better to push those 120 Hz, for the best result, exactly like you would do when you look for the body of the snare, which is not always 200 :)
When you pick a freq to push which is not the natural one, you need more Dbs to start feeling the punch, rising some muddines around it and eventually having phase problems

[JoelDubay]

You have a pleasing teaching style. Confident, and you deliver great results. I’m happy you aren’t loud and boisterous like so many other youtubers.
Thanks for helping us all!

[settingfiretogiants]

I love getting a notification from this channel on a new mixing tip. Great video!

[consumer]

IT'S TRUE, we made our toms sound 10 times better. Thanks man

[mikesperling]

I mostly work with midi drums because I play e drums in on my yt videos. And I also play in a band were I play acoustics... Now I really love to record guitars in my studio but I can't record drums xD so this happens in our recording room. Now I took the drum tracks to my studio at home and was trying out to mix em myself. Now what else do I have to say... with his cheat sheet we have now a KILLER drum sound with no sample replacement.
I don't use any fancy plugins mostly the stock vst's from reaper... and one seperate fror time alignment and phase. Thats it.
I also was thinking about making a audio engineer degree... but the more I get into this thing the more I think I maybe don't need that... many people say that because it's the practice what makes you good.
Thank you man! You really made a huge change in my mixing!

[The_Absurdistt]

Samples just don't give authenticity. Proper eq and comp for the win. Love your keep them coming.

[rickblackers]

Thanx man, now i'm cleaning my toms the way i always dream of.Your channel is the channel!!

[grman]

Was literally just looking for a tom mixing video. Thanks!

[TrevorOkonuk]

Siiiick video. I always agreed that tom's dont need sample enhancement often, but I can't say I got them to sound this good that easy.

[peterarbour]

Jordan, thank you so much for these tutorials! It's really helped my mixing go to another level, given me confidence and motivated me to keep trying to do what I love! Keep up the good work!

[Donato]

On my phone when you boost midrange sounds incredible nice!!!

[aureliengarcia]

Your mixing videos are helpful! Thanks so much!

[KenWatson]

This is gold, thanks Jordan. I had been do this type of EQing for a while, and getting fair results. The key from this video? "You can't be shy about this". I need to be more aggressive with exactly what I am doing, and it works. Thanks!

[jaredepstein]

I feel like I was cutting way more than I needed to be... I like this.

[normannutbar]

Everyone else:
“Only ever cut, or boost a maximum of 3db.”

Jordan:
Used 2 EQs because the 15db maximum wasn’t enough, on the SSL strip alone!

Sounds amazing!

[andreysavelev]

Thank you, very clear and informative. The most useful channel for musicians

[xaosnox]

Thank you, Jordan! These videos are so valuable for those of us just starting out. It's so great to have these guide lines from which to start. Has it really become such common practice to use samples now, even with real music? I would have thought this genre was safe from that kind of stuff. Doing that would feel like I was stepping on the musicians' work. Don't think I could go there. But these tip are so appreciated. I've got more experience "sweetening" mixes, and often have only one mostly finished file to work with, so I know what sounds I'm wanting. I'm just starting to work from the stems up, which is great because I'm not doing what feels like repair work tools like Pro-MB, but I sometimes feel a little lost getting things off the ground—especially since I didn't have any input on the recording. These vids help so much!

[gearforest]

This was very helpful for a current mix! Thank you!

[musicbySTIX]

Hey, Jordan! I was curious as to what compression settings you aim for on the SSL channel for toms/floor toms? I was unsure of the ratio and gain reduction!