Inconsistant Kick Drum..

[inmyheartx]

The drummer I recorded was inconsistant with how hard he hit his kick drum, making it so when I mix it sometimes it's too loud, sometimes it's too soft, and sometimes it sounds different. Any way I can get it to sound the same volume / tone without changing the Gain on each kick? Any help is appreciated, thank you.

Take care,
Adam.

[tourettes5139]

Compression.

[noisewreck]

Drumagog.

Or, you can use ReCycle to chop the part up, and get the MIDI info out of it (you may need to cut the drum track in smaller chunks so you don't end up with 10 gazillion slices). Then whip out a sampler, load some of the "good" hits in it, and trigger it from the ReCycled part. Note that you'll need to edit the notes in the MIDI parts generated by ReCycle to coinside with whatever notes you've mapped in your sampler. I say load several of the good hits in it instead of just one so that it doesn't sound mechanical, obviously sampled. You follow?

[tourettes5139]

oops. I screwed up. Comression will help with the levels, but to get strictly uniform tone sans rerecording, go with Drumagog, as mentioned above. At this point Drumagog would probably be the better choice.

[mixsit]

Originally Posted by tourettes5139

oops. I screwed up. Comression will help with the levels, but to get strictly uniform tone sans rerecording, go with Drumagog, as mentioned above. At this point Drumagog would probably be the better choice.

Good save.

[peopleperson]

All good suggestions. It's true that when a drummer changes how hard he hits something (especially snare too), the tone will change. If it's that bad, I'll cut copy paste a good sounding hit over the parts that need it. Drumagog, and samplers are a great way to do that as well.

[tourettes5139]

Originally Posted by mixsit

Good save.

It was the best I could do to make up for my crappy reading skills.

[Robert D]

If it's not terrible, I usually pick one I like and copy it, and then paste it over any really weak ones. Compression does the trick for the ones that are in the middle.

-RD

[inmyheartx]

How much compression do you add to it? I really suck at using the compressor. I have no idea what to do with it, what would an ideal Raio, Attack, Release, Etc set up be for a kid drum? I'm using Cubase LE if that matters. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Take care,
Adam.

[Strave]

Originally Posted by inmyheartx

How much compression do you add to it? I really suck at using the compressor. I have no idea what to do with it, what would an ideal Raio, Attack, Release, Etc set up be for a kid drum? I'm using Cubase LE if that matters. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Take care,
Adam.

Compression won't make the kick uniform... like everyone said, go download the free drumagog demo at www.drumagog.com and see if you can understand it... it's a great program and worth it's price.

[FattMusiek]

I'd recommend hard limiting instead of compression for this, even though they're basically the same thing.

[mixsit]

Originally Posted by inmyheartx

How much compression do you add to it? I really suck at using the compressor. I have no idea what to do with it, what would an ideal Raio, Attack, Release, Etc set up be for a kid drum? I'm using Cubase LE if that matters. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Take care,
Adam.

A couple of ways to go;
Try the quickest attack and release (or limiter function if available), 10/1 ratio. Start with the threshold above the highest peaks and work your way down. As you work the threshold down, bring the track back up. Somewhere between chopping off the few wild ones, and digging down into the 'average' ones, the hot ones that used to have the nice attack will start to sound worse, but at least closer to the mushy, bassier soft ones.
Another tack is to always allow some attack to poke through, then clamp down on the body of the tone -slower attack and releases. Try 5-20ms/20-100 ranges. (These are learning excise settings to get your ear connected to drum envelope Vs attack/release.)

Perhaps use a combo and run the peak reduction' ahead of the slower treatment.

Now I got to go wrap cords to make room for the bird'.
Wayne

[inmyheartx]

Originally Posted by Strave

Compression won't make the kick uniform... like everyone said, go download the free drumagog demo at www.drumagog.com and see if you can understand it... it's a great program and worth it's price.

I tried DL'in the Demo but after it installs it just puts a sample and a few .gog files, no actual .exe file, or on my mac a .dmg. I've tried it on both. Any suggestions?

Take care,
Adam.

[Strave]

What program are you using to mix?

[inmyheartx]

Originally Posted by Strave

What program are you using to mix?

Cubase LE.

Take care,
Adam.

[Strave]

If you downloaded version 4 it should create a .dll file in your vstplugins folder.