Techniques to widen your kicks and snares

[DesertEase]

I don't think I've ever shared some decent tips or tricks on my own other than replying to other threads so hope this helps some people out.

A good drum mix requires an evenly balanced stereo field & soundstage. Many amateur productions have narrow, almost mono, drum mixes. These narrow drum mixes further throw off a song's overall balance where instrument tracks sound too wide in comparison. An effective way to remedy the problem is to apply a few widening tricks to the kick & snare mix:

1) Starting with the kick, create a stereo field by layering the main kick with an secondary background kick. The aim here is to create ambience with the newly added background kick. The quickest way to achieve ambience is to route the background kick through a short room reverb (stereo).

Also, you can route the background kick through a low pass filter which can remove unwanted high end created from the reverb. By triggering the ambient background kick in time with the main kick, you're able to maintain the original timbre & feel while also widening the kicks field & depth.

2) Snare tracks can be widened by layering stereo claps & snaps on top of main snare hits. To avoid monotony, experiment with alternating 2 or more clap/snap combinations throughout the song.

Additionally, more stereo width can be obtained by layering two different groups of claps/snaps in time together while panning each group separately, hard left & hard right.

Securing a solid kick & snare foundation from the start allows for more creative flexibility when mixing in hats, shakers, & cymbals later on. Effectively widening your kicks & snares can inspire a better mix entirely!

[Fyre]

is this ur writtin or a article u found?........ just askin good stuff hea

[bknot1]

Originally Posted by Fyre

is this ur writtin or a article u found?........ just askin good stuff hea

i think from now on we need to post example when we post techniques,,,MHO

[BillyBo]

very good. i like using a lot of the ambient drum kits that i have for FL (i have the complete MPC and Illon kits). even then, i layer kicks, snares, claps, rimshots... anything i have to to get the sound i want. and of course pan each appropriately.

i might do something like this:

kick: L-15
bass/kick: L-25 with reverb to pickup sound in the right channel

snare: L-5, reverb
snap/rimshot: R+40
clap: L-60

then do the same sort of thing for hats, open hats, crashes, and any other percussion i feel like putting. the values for panning arent exact, just an estimate. i mix and pan until it sounds good. tho i do try to keep the bass more centered, and the snares and hats separated more.

can someone remind me of a "rule of thumb" when panning sounds? i remember reading something like don't pan like-sounded instruments to the same channel? something like that. cuz they'll basically cancel each other out if they share the same freq's? meh - i don't remember. just don't be dumb when panning, lol.

[BillyBo]

let me add something...

i've also learned myself the FX panel in FL. i've been using different FX channels for each instrument. (right now a good screenshot would be nice, unfortunately, i dont have FL at work)

say i have a kick, a snare, and a hat loaded for a drum loop in FL. click on the kick to open it's properties window. to the top right, you'll see "FX" with "--" in the box. click and drag your mouse to any number (1 would be assumed for the first instrument, lol) then go to the FX button in the main FL window and click it to open the FX panel. make sure the first FX panel is "highlighted" and you will see drop menus to the right. click the down-arrow and choose from a long list of preset FX.

say you'd like a simple reverb added to the kick. go to the first drop-down menu and choose something like "Fruity Reeverb, or Reeverb 2" (i forget exactly what mine are called, i have 2 reverb options tho, i know that). when the reverb settings window pops up, play with the settings with the loop playing. solo the kick for best results at this point. you can adjust the room size, the volume, the amount of reverb, etc...

close the windows when you are satisfied with your settings.

proceed to do the same with the snares and hats, soloing each one as you add FX. if you'd like to cut frequencies or add compression, do the same thing, just selecting different FX from the drop down menu. you would be using "FX 02" and "FX 03" for different instruments, UNLESS you decide to apply the same FX settings to more than one instrument. then you would assign (example) kick and snare both to "01" and then the hats to "02". understand? (MAN, screenshots would help me not have to type so much)

if you want to add more than 1 effect to the same instrument, just select a 2nd, 3rd, 4th option from each of the following drop-down menus to the right of the FX panel.

NOW - just because everything sounds good solo with the added FX, doesn't mean the mix will sound good. nor does this negate the need for panning and adjusting levels. when you are satisfied w/ each solo sample and its FX, play them all together and tweak them to optimize the sound you're aiming for.

using this method, you can apply a variety of various FX to any amount of loaded samples or instruments you'd like. hopefully this helped and wasn't too confusing. i will definitely post screenshots tonight.

[DesertEase]

That was an article from a newsletter i receive weekly.

[ammarg89]

modernbeatscom correct? They have alot of good stuff, especially for mxing bass and drum

[DesertEase]

it was either that 1 or the recording producer

[BillyBo]

Screenshot:
http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/6959/1yg9.jpg

In the screen shot you can see several things I was trying to explain.

First, you can see the FX button in the upper right corner that will open the FX panel. You can also see where I've taken, in this case, a sample called "Space loop" and applied several FX to it. I opened the properties box by clicking on the sample, and set it to FX channel 1.

Then, with the corresponding FX channel selected or highlighted in the FX panel window, I've applied 3 different FX to the "Space loop" via the drop down menu's . I've actually muted the bass boost cuz I cloned the sample, and cut all but the bass, boosted the bass, and panned the entire FX channel about 75% to the left for an underlying bass track. (look below the 2nd FX channel to see pan and volume adjustments).

Um, so, hopefully this screenshot helped me out a little... er, helped YOU out a little. I used the FX for a sample in this case, but you can apply it to any channel you wish. You can even apply FX in the same fashion to the entire mix if you make sure "Master" channel in the FX panel is highlighted.