Whenever I’m dealing with bleed on a snare and I want to compress the track more, I’ll just add a sample. Next, let’s set our “threshold” to MINIMUM (-50 dB in my case). You can also use a gate to cut the bleed on drum tracks. I will also be showing you a “trick” that will forever change the way you HEAR compression. Just like a bass guitar, our kick drum’s “low-end” will require some compression to provide consistency. In essence, I decreased the tracks “resonance” and increased it’s “transients” in relation. The best solution I could, Perhaps one of the most misunderstood concepts of the mixing and mastering process is loudness. If one “element” is louder than the other, one of them will surely get “lost” in the mix. Essentially, your compressor is “muting” your track, but only AFTER your designated “attack” time. For this reason we’ll use compressors such as the SSL Compressor and the Distressor. Inside, you’ll discover 6 powerful tips that will help you compress drums with clarity and confidence, so you can craft mixes that sound more professional today. To learn how to apply parallel compression to your drum tracks, watch the video below: Managing bleed is one of your main challenges when compressing acoustic drums. I wish I could give you exact numbers, but it varies depending on which compressor you’re using. So we understand exactly what we’re going after, let’s observe our kick drums’ waveform. It’s packed with additional tips and tricks that will instantly elevate your drums. Copyright © 2019-2020 Decibel Peak Productions. This is why we need to focus on the bigger picture, not on any particular track. It is because of the way it has been approached in the audio mixing process. Are you ready to learn how to compress a kick drum? Creating a Kick Drum Bus to Host our Compression Settings Since we want to target the kick drum on its own, we want to route it to an individual bus. Using this approach, you set the release so the compressor pumps in time with the music. As a start, the kick drum EQ settings and compression depends on the song genre. That’s right, dynamic range has a HUGE impact on your final mix. The attack control will determine how much punch the compressor will add or remove on your drums. It’s important that when you’re compressing your drums, you don’t mess this up. Compared to our kick’s “resonance”, it is such a small part of the waveform. Are you ready to learn, So we understand exactly what we’re going after, let’s, Since there aren’t that many instruments occupying, Now I want you to HEAR the difference between, Since we want to target the kick drum on its own, we want to, As much as I’d love having my instruments showcase their full, And remember, if all of this processing doesn’t work, you can always, If you have any questions, please post them in the. By using compression your aim is to add some transients and punch to the kick hits. The easiest way to cut the bleed is by hand. I find this technique works best on acoustic drums, but I’ve successfully used it on programmed drums too. I typically find myself using them on drums in harder genres, like rock or EDM. Don’t use it just because it is … By EQing our bass guitar to complement our kick drum, there should be no collisions. You start with the primer to cover up the previous color. To be more specific, we’re talking about the loudness standards. Feel free to share any of your own personal kick drum compressions settings as well! Sometimes this sounds cool. Gates usually work best for the kick and snare. Fast release times can make drums sound bigger and more aggressive. Kick drum compression recipes. Since all the drums were recorded at the same time, there’s almost always a good amount of bleed on each individual drum track. If you’d rather not use an “auto-release”, then make sure to set it quickly enough to anticipate each “transient”. However, once we add more tracks to the mix, our “transient” will become inaudible. If you’re trying to paint a wall in your house, it’s usually best to apply several coats. Start by applying a layer of compression on the individual drum tracks in your mix. A 5 millisecond attack on one compressor can sound vastly different than the same numerical value on another. We all want our drums to sound massive, hard-hitting, and larger-than-life. Our objective is to EMPHASIZE our kick drum’s “transients” so they can “cut” through the mix. Leave a comment below and let me know. This can make your drums sound flat, lifeless, and unexciting. This is why I take care of EQ first and then use compression to finalize my track. Our kick drum’s “resonant qualities” will most likely “cut” through since we’ve already created a “slot” for them. A slow attack, on the other hand, will tell the compressor to retain and enhance the punch in your drums. Go through the drum tracks and cut the parts where the drum is not playing. As much as I’d love having my instruments showcase their full dynamic range…. You can also use a gate to cut the bleed on drum tracks. Since we want to target the kick drum on its own, we want to route it to an individual bus. Subtle kick drum compression. Applying EQ and compression are one of the most important things you should consider when mixing kick drums. And compression is one of the tools we can use to get there. In the live environment heavy compression with low thresholds and high ratios will only end up bringing up the spill on stage from the other instruments, such as guitars and basses. They also provide for picking up your cymbals as well since they are sometimes left out of individual miking. This is EXACTLY how we will determine our “attack” time, so tweak it until you like what you hear…, Step 1 | Set the “attack” time to let enough of the “transient” through, Step 3 | Set your “threshold” to achieve no more than -6 dB of gain reduction, Step 4 | Set your “make-up gain” to match your original “level”, Step 5 | Set the “knee” to 0 (hard knee) and keep the “auto-release” ON. The sound we associate to the “transient” is the beater hitting the drum head, but even after “boosting” around 1.5 kHz…. And finally, you apply another coat to polish things off. For example, when you solo the snare, you’ll often hear quite a bit of bleed from the hi-hat. In other words, we need to “tighten-up” the “low-end” to bring out the “high-end” of our kick drum. I go through each tom track by hand and remove all the parts where the toms aren’t playing. We wouldn’t want to blow out any speakers (I exaggerate, but still, be cautious). Gates can be helpful, but ultimately, some of the bleed will be unavoidable — especially on the snare. Take a listen to the impact a slow vs. fast attack time can have on a snare: In short, unless you’re deliberately trying to remove punch from your drums, you should use slow attack times when compressing them. Lastly, I want you to set your “attack” to MINIMUM as well (0 ms in my case). If your compressor has a high-pass filter, you can use it to fix this problem. Overwall, the overheads will act as the “glue” making all your drums gel together right. Don’t worry too much about the exact number you land on. Can you hear how much more “presence” the processed kick drum has? Since there aren’t that many instruments occupying the “bottom-end” of the frequency spectrum…. A slow attack, on the other hand, will tell the compressor to retain and enhance the punch in your drums. I don’t find them useful on toms. We need to “balance out” each track’s dynamics because they are all competing for the spotlight. However, done properly a … If you’re struggling to craft drums that sound like the ones in your favorite records, you’re not alone. If you get rid of bleed on the individual drum tracks, you can apply more compression without causing a mess. Use Triggers. All Rigths Reserved. Normally, this isn’t a big problem. Just tweak the knob until your drums have the punch you’re looking for. A fast attack will tell the compressor to reduce the punch in your drum tracks. But when you start adding compression, the bleed can quickly get out of hand. 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