Hey guys, David Glenn of davidglennrecording.com, and theproaudiofiles.com. We’re going to continue our path on automation tips and tricks. Today I’m going to talk to you about adding sub frequencies with reverb to your toms. I’ve used this for toms, I’ve used this for, kind of, b-production kicks, or “boomy” kicks, meant to give impact.

We’ve got a ballad, it’s called “Mi Amas”. We used it on the vocal tutorial, it’s from Samantha Encarnacion, and shout outs to them. We’re going to jump right in. I’m going to hit it from the beginning, so you guys can hear it, and then we’ll explain what we’ve got going on.

[music]

So, beautiful song. I really love those strings. Back to it. We’ve got the toms here. You can see I’ve created an aux track — a buss — called toms sub. The toms sub is going out to my all effects. We’ll go after that in a future video. But I’ve got old trusty d-verb, of all the things to put on it, I chose that. Crazy 17-second decay. It’s a [ascend], so we’ve got it all wet. And I mean, jot down those settings if you like the vibe and what it’s doing. But, if you heard it — let me solo through just the…this looks like rack two in the floor tom at the beginning. Let’s solo and see if you guys can hear what this is doing. It’s more of a weighted feeling that you get whenever this comes in.

[drums]

So, the whole point of this, for me, was, if I bypass this, whenever I was mixing the song, I felt like it just kind of felt empty with the toms, and I’m not a big fan of letting the toms ring out, with just a “dooooon” kind of vibe. So, I wanted to create that sustain from a reverb. I wanted it to just kind of trail and and give this impact for a sustaining feeling. Let’s listen to that without the reverb,  actually just soloed for now.

[drums]

You hear the room that I’m sending it to. I’ve got the Bricasti close room. The large, wooden room. I’ve got this going to a snare play. I mean, this is going to all kinds of stuff. I tend to mix with my ears, not my technical knowledge there, or lack thereof. Now, let’s open that back up one more time.

[drums]

You see, you hear that just decaying. And I really love the vibe. So, let’s hear it in the track. Here’s without it, in the track.

[toms with out with reverb in the track]

So the toms, you hear them. They sound good. I like the tom tones, and they do their thing, but I wanted to create that kind of, just, that feeling. You see me just moving my hands. That’s the best way to describe it, right there. Such a…let me see here. I’m making fun of myself. Don’t take yourself too seriously. So, now, in the track, with the tom sub, so you can feel it.

[music]

If I remember correctly, I did, yeah. I cut out just about all the highs out of that d-verb. I EQ’d this reverb, and I sucked everything out that was above 154, and — let me see if this will let me. I’m going to show you. I don’t even know what to say to that. I’m boosting 33 Hz by 10 dB. So, I’m doing that there. 36 Hz by 6 dB. And then, let me see, is there another one? So, those two frequencies, I’m boosting like crazy in the sub-frequencies, but it doesn’t sound bad, and I think you’ll hear that it definitely added some character to it in the low end, to kind of give it that warm … I mean, anyways, it speaks for itself. I’m blabbing about it, but I hope you guys liked that. Try it out.

Feel free to send me emails. David[at]davidglennrecording.com When you try these things out, man, I really want to hear what you guys are coming up with. A lot of you guys are sending me stuff. I love listening, and by all means, I’ll continue to give you guys tips, tricks, and all that good stuff, so be sure to check us out, theproaudiofiles.com. And we’ll catch you on the next tip.