Toms can be a pain, because they ring, they pick up everything around them, and the gate is fighting the cymbals the whole time. So here’s how I handle them on the Wing, working through the gate, the EQ, and the compression on each tom.
The gate: key it off the fundamental
The big pro move on toms is using the gate’s key filter, the band pass, to trigger the gate off the fundamental frequency of that specific drum. Set the Q fairly narrow so the gate only opens for the tom and not for all the other stuff bleeding in.
On tom one that fundamental was around 100 Hz. On the lower tom it was down around 80. Set the range around 20 dB, and set the attack around 4 milliseconds. Here’s why not zero: if the attack is too fast, the gate pops when the tom is ringing right around the threshold. Slowing the attack a touch cuts that out. Then set the release to match how long the drum actually rings, which for me landed around 275 milliseconds on one and 422 on the other, since the drummer was doing some fills and I didn’t want the gate slamming shut between hits.
EQ: cut the boxy mids
For the EQ, most toms have a hollow, cardboard-boxy sound sitting in the mids. I cut around 250 Hz and around 500 Hz to clear that out. On the lower tom, which was tuned a little too low and didn’t have much impact, I cut the same boxy areas and then added a wide boost up top to get some general attack back out of it.
Notice what I’m not doing. I’m not adding a bunch of body or low end back in. Once the box is gone, a lot of toms just work.
Compression: get close, don’t obsess
The compressors are on a 4:1 with the knee at 1, attack around 19 to 20 milliseconds to let a little of that attack through, and release around 150 to 170 milliseconds.
And here’s something I want you to notice. I’m not agonizing over whether the attack is 19 or 20 milliseconds. Compression is overwhelming when you don’t understand it, so I want you to see that you can set it in a general range quickly, get close, and then worry more about the overall level and how everything blends together later. Your drums are not going to sound terrible because a setting wasn’t exactly perfect. Find the range, set it, move on.
The takeaway
Key the gate off each drum’s fundamental with a narrow Q, cut the boxy mids, and set your compression in the right ballpark without obsessing. Toms will never be perfectly clean live, especially with a busy drummer, so you’re making the best of it and letting them sit naturally with the rest of the kit.
If you want my full Wing setup with the drum presets already built, it’s in my Wing Worship Preset Pack.
