When putting together a mix, it is handy to have knowledge of your sound sources and the frequencies generated by each. This article is intended to be a quick reference (with a table) to frequency bandwidths of various music sources.
Drums
Starting with the traditional left side of the console, drums are usually tuned to resonance from about 160Hz to 800Hz. But the total bandwidth of each drum can range from two octaves below to batter head sounds (click) into the presence bands (2 to 8KHz). For example, a 22-inch kick drum batter head is typically tuned to E3 or 164Hz. But sub-harmonics are given off at 82Hz and 41Hz, with these becoming the chest "thump" that should felt more than heard. And with the second harmonic suppressed (328Hz) to make room for other instruments, all that is left is the "click" around 3KHz Other drums are typically tuned a bit higher, like a 16-inch floor tom resonance at C4 (261Hz), 14-inch floor tom at F4 (349Hz), 12-inch rack tom at A4 (440Hz), 10-inch rack tom at D5 (587Hz) and a snare at G5 (783Hz). If you set drum gates, then the first suboctave below the batter head resonance is usually where the frequency band is set. From the above example for drum tunings, the kick is at 82Hz, 16-inch floor tom at 130Hz, 14-inch floor tom at 175Hz, 12-inch rack tom at 220Hz, 10-inch rack tom at 293Hz and snare at 366Hz. Cymbals
The "sizzle" in most cymbals ranges from 2KHz to 40KHz, but us Neanderthal male soundmen will struggle to hear beyond 16KHz. And if you want to catch some of the "impact" of crashing cymbals, then adding an octave or two below 2KHz (1KHz, 500Hz) is a good place to start. The tough choices is to work mic placement and bandwidth to choose the amount of separation between drums and cymbals. If you are just doing kick drum and overhead condenser mics, then 100Hz to 16KHz wide-open overhead mics are the ticket.
Bass Guitar
Bass guitar of the four-string type ranges from 41Hz (E1) to about 246Hz from a fundamental note range. Adding the necessary octave or two, harmonics should provide at least up to 1KHz on the top end, and more if some finger sounds are desired. For fivestring basses, the low B-string at 31Hz (B0) means that some really enormous subwoofers are required to faithfully reproduce the instrument. Fortunately, we humans can catch the sensation of low frequencies by hearing the second octave harmonic (62Hz) and the higher harmonics. But this means that your sound system needs to be still flat at 62Hz, not trailing off by several decibels.
Guitars
Guitars follow the bass guitar rule, but at an octave higher. So the 82Hz (E2) to 659Hz (E5) are the fundamental frequencies. But with electric guitars with fuzz boxes or overdriven amplifiers, you can expect useful harmonic outputs up to 5KHz and beyond.
Keyboards
A full 88-key piano ranges from A0 (27.5Hz) to C8 (4186Hz) plus harmonics for a very broad bandwidth. And the classic Hammond B3 organ runs from 32Hz rumbles to 5920Hz whistles in blues and rock usage. Then with synthesizers, all semblances of audio noises are possible over the audio range and beyond. With human hearing in the 16Hz to 20KHz range, that is a reasonable bandwidth limit.
Other Instruments
Some other typical musical instrument frequency ranges include the tenor sax at 110Hz to 587Hz fundamental notes. Violin or fiddle fundamental notes range from 196Hz to 2093Hz. And blues harps can range from 196Hz to overblows at 2959Hz. Note that you should add a couple of octaves beyond the fundamentals to catch most of the nuances of these instruments.
Human vocals are given the Italian music prefixes just like instruments with baritone, tenor, alto and soprano designations. Fundamental note vocal ranges are baritone at 110Hz to 392Hz, tenor at 146Hz to 440Hz, alto at 196Hz to 698Hz and soprano at 261Hz to 1046Hz. Since the voice has so many sounds beyond the fundamentals, having good vocal reproduction to 8KHz and beyond is a good idea. And shaving off above 12KHz is a good idea when the vocal has plenty of cymbal leakage in the microphone.
