Drum mixing, any suggestions?

Chirgwin

New member
Hey folks :)

I've got an assignment that I'm unsure of how to tackle. I've been given raw recorded material and a professional mix of said material. My assignment is to mix the raw stuff so that it sounds like the professional mix.

Now I've instantly hit a hurdle because the song is heavily mixed with no real natural sound in mind, there's heavy use of effects all over the place. I can identify some of the effects but I'm struggling with the drums.

My question to you is:

Do you know how to get from this View attachment Raw.mp3 to this View attachment Mix.mp3 ? I'm only struggling with the drums, mainly the kick drum.

I've played around some with compression but can't see to get a good result!

Any ideas? :)

Kind regards
Magnus
 
Start with just the faders and EQ, no compression. Try to figure out the approach taken. Did they start with the overheads and add the other mics, or did they start with the snare and kick mics?
 
Reverb, maybe delay, compression, EQ. You're the one in school, we're just reading online. :) Really though, not too much going on with the drums there but the basic stuff, heavily introduced.
 
What school is this for? A good teacher would walk you through this step by step, showing you the answers, then give you a similar assignment to which you can apply the techniques.
I hope you don't pay money for this....
 
Thanks for the replies! You're focusing on the wrong thing though if I might say, it's not about my school or my teachers. It's about this specific soundtrack and I'm asking for advice! However to satisfy your curiousity, it's a very basic mixing assignment baked in to a university level course where mixing isn't the largest part of the course as much as acoustics, miking and sound engineering is.

Thanks anyway though!
 
...You're focusing on the wrong thing though if I might say, it's not about my school or my teachers. It's about this specific soundtrack and I'm asking for your advice!

Not really. You're asking people who know more than you do, yeah? If not, you wouldn't be asking. Best to hear them out and take what advice you wish. But perhaps something they say will help in a broader sense or in an area you don't realize you need help in. Again, they're the experts, right?

Good luck.
 
With the Kick drum...it's about the low end TUMP with some mid-high CLICK...

...or just get one of those Kick-centric plugins, and pull up a preset that works for you. :D
 
Try:
1) Kick only first. DONT overdo the bass, put some midrange bump in to emphasize the THUMP. Compress to control any major volume discrepancies in the kick.
2) If there are overhead tracks, let them do most of the rest. EQ the overheads to get some sizzle and room.
3) If there are multiple tracks of the snare, try getting more of the THWACK from the rim of the snare, less of any ringing. Compress it and GATE the snare to get more attack, less release.
3) Add effects last and judiciously

Remember mixing is like cooking: too much of anything is usually too much, and it is part science, part art.
 
Thanks for the replies! You're focusing on the wrong thing though if I might say, it's not about my school or my teachers. It's about this specific soundtrack and I'm asking for advice! However to satisfy your curiousity, it's a very basic mixing assignment baked in to a university level course where mixing isn't the largest part of the course as much as acoustics, miking and sound engineering is.

Thanks anyway though!

Sounds like you don't want my reply either. :p

Rory gave some good, general pointers.

Sounds like a fun assignment! :)
 
Mixing drums or any instrument for that matter is all about effective use of EQ & Compression. I have an entire series on the basics of mixing drums if you are interested. Follow link and I believe it's the 3rd course down. I'm here to help if you have any questions

Made Easy Series
 
It's easy to blur the stereo image if you don't pan things properly

Bring up the Overheads on their own and make a note of where in the stereo field each drum/cymbal is panned.

When you bring up the individual mics, pan accordingly to agree with the OH placement
 
What school is this for? A good teacher would walk you through this step by step, showing you the answers, then give you a similar assignment to which you can apply the techniques.
I hope you don't pay money for this....

Jeez. Only a school would hand out an assignment like that. Its actually kind of funny to think about how this could have possibly happened in real life. You'd need an artist that was dumb enough to loose his mixdown file, yet managed to keep his tracking session and master print. Sound like something a god damn rapper would do, but a rapper wouldn't have access to individual drum tracks.
 
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