compressing drums
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Posted on Apr 11, 2003 03:01 am
stinkyjoe
Member Since: Mar 20, 2003
when i read about compressing drums, i notice that it is recomended to compress the pieces at different ratios...My dbx 266 xl has two channels, so should i buy two insert cables and use them on the individual inserts of say the kick and snare, set each value to what i want, and not worry about compressing the overheads? or should i use a more general setting for the entire set (2:1)and compress it all by putting the compressor between the mixer and soundcard?
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juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Apr 11, 2003 06:06 am Try this one out for size:
Rather that compressing individual elements of the kit, send the whole drum mix to a compressor, set the ratio to 10:1 + and push the threshold right down - you should now have a massive chunky mess.
Mix this in with your original uncompressed drum sound et volia.
jues.
Apr 11, 2003 06:20 am ahh.. as in a whole new channel (or two). Right on, that's different. That reminds me of a tip I read in MC2 a while back where, I think it was Dan the Automator from Deltron 2020 and Heiroglyphics mentioned getting his drum tracks "phatter" by having two separate tracks, one compressed and one not, and just messing with the mix of the two until they really start to pump. Of course this is concerning hip hop drums and other music containing synthesized beats, but in theory it's all the same.
Isn't 10:1 a little extreme? Or i guess that's the point. I guess I'll turn out a Fruity drum track make another exactly like it, only squashed. Then I'll play with 'em in Cakewalk and see if that breaths any life into my beats.
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Apr 11, 2003 11:04 am 10:1 is exactly the point, go more extreme if you can, the more trashy the compresison sounds, the better it will work when you mix the two together.
jues.
Apr 11, 2003 03:20 pm that sounds cool. so would i use the auxilary send and recieve, and then use the auxilary knob on the mixer to add the amount of compressed signal i want? i guess i dont understand how to actually mix the two signals.
Apr 11, 2003 05:57 pm in software, on mixdown i presume. that's what i'm playing with
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Apr 12, 2003 01:23 am It does work like jues said. I have done the same when I get a bass track that is kinda lame, even a guitar track. If you mix it in just right, it really does add a whole differant bit of sound to the audio. I use the same extreme with DSP saturation emulators, leave one track fairly subdued, and then mix in a track that is so overly saturated it borders on ugly distortion, but not quite.
Apr 12, 2003 10:50 am Can anyone give an example of this somehow? Maybe direct to a track that has had this done to it. I'm really curious as to what it sounds like. I'm gonna try it anyways but if I could hear it now it would be cool too.
Apr 12, 2003 11:51 am From what I understand alot of rap music does this. I guess it's why the drums have such power and presence without sounding squashed dull and lifeless.
Apr 12, 2003 02:39 pm if you use the software to do this, i assume youre using a plug-in. is there a way to use my outboard compressor? I was thinking i could use a bus but i cant visualize exactly how i would route this.
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Apr 12, 2003 08:32 pm Hey
Listen to the music in the HRC intro - I used that technique there to get that phat drum sound.
As for using an external compressor - why of course, infact this is the easiest way to do it - here's how I set mine up.
In this example I have 8 drum tracks.
Route all the drum tracks to Busses 1 and 2.
Route Busses 1 and 2 to the main mix
Take the output of Busses 1 and 2 and run them into your compressor
Take the output from the comrpessor and run it into a free pair of channel on the desk
Route these channels to the Main mix (NOT to busses 1 & 2 or you will create a feedback loop)
Easy peasy :)
jues.
