Need Drums & Bass FX Advice pleas...

Need Drums & Bass FX Advice please...

Posted on Oct 11, 2008 07:42 pm
Musikman
Member Since: Sep 20, 2008

Hello..

I'm a keyboard player and usually use my Triton Studio for bass sounds, and use a variety of Drum Loops for my basic drum trax. The drum loops come in two versions,"dry" or with basic fx already on them. The problem is, the drum loops cannot be separated by each individual drum, so I would like to find a good starting point for a "blanket" fx for drums. Seems mostly when I'm working on a rock style project, the drums get kinda lost in the sauce behind the guitars,and lack space and presence, generally not punching through enough. What can I use to beef up the drum trax without losing the original realistic sound?

Also, same with bass trax, they sometimes sound muddled and lack distiction. I usually master with T-Racks when done recording and mixing, and that helps some, but I also have the "Waves" Fx package to use, but since I'm not a drummer, I'm not sure which fx or fx combinations would sound best, reverb, eq, maxximizer, etc... Been experimenting a bit but could use some direction, at least a starting point to work from. Thanks in advance!

Musikman

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Noize2u
Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002

Oct 11, 2008 08:35 pm

Actually a bit of compression on both the bass and drums would really bring out the punch they have. I prefer a multi-band compressor for that type of thing.

As far as settings for doing that go it is a matter of simply tweaking the settings until you find what works best in the mix.

Musikman
Member
Since: Sep 20, 2008

Oct 13, 2008 10:01 am

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give the compression a try. Only thing I'm concerned about with compression is that after compressing the drum/bass tracks in my project, it will be compressed again when I put the final mix through T-Racks for mastering. I'll try it out & see what I get! Thanks again...

Musikman

CptTripps
Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006

Oct 15, 2008 01:09 pm

Compressing in multiple stages is common, as is overcompression :)

But yeah, compressing the individual instruments should cause no ill effect when it comes to mastering, you want your mix to sound just about perfect before mastering, that would be tough without some comp on the drums for my style of tunes.