Compressing drum kit

T

thesobe

New member
Ok I'm thinking of adding a compressor to my setup, so im able to compress before going into the soundcard. The obvious choice is the FMR RNC which everyone seems to talk about...

However, if im recording drums, can/should i use it to compress the overheads, or the kick and snare. Is it possible to compress to seperate parts of the kit ie the snare and kick, or would you need two compressors for this? I can only afford one at this time, so is it a worthwhile purchase? I'l be using it for vocals and guitars also.

cheers :)
 
It Depends

So much depends on the drummer and type of music, as well as the room and how close you are micing the kit.

I am making a few assumptions here that you are close micing just the kick and snare.
Generally the biggest culprit that needs compression (in my opinion) is the snare. I have a pretty soft kick foot compared to the thrashing that happens at the snare . I never compress the overheads. Doing so can kill the clarity of the kit sound and add unwanted swimming in the cymbals.
So if you can get by with just compressing the snare the the RNC would work fine. It certainly has proven itself to be an excellnt choice for voice and acoustic sources.
I guess you could even strap it across the kick too if you were generally hitting the kick and snare alternating as opposed to simultaneously. Due to the fact if 1 channel triggers the volume reduction the other channel reacts as well, the channels cant act totally independantly.

Hope that helps some.
I am a recording drummer myself and I have several RNCs, but I tend to like my ART Pro VLA on my kick and snare. (no compression elsewhere) I picked mine up new for about $250 delivered. I picked another one up used for about $180 delivered which is not much more than an RNC. For me an optical based compressor sounds more natural on drums. The RNCs are still my first choice for vocals and acoustic guitars though.

Tom
 
Thanks alot for your quick responce Tom. Apreciate it. Out of interest, do you raise the level of the signal through the pre-amp before or after going into the compressor?

cheers
 
I'm going to agree with Tom, the ART PRO VLA is a good one for compressing drums and is quite affordable. I also like DBX 162 on the drum buss, a compressor made back in the 1970's. A great unit for drums in my opinion is the Empirical Labs Distressor with the Brit mod, especially if you are doing double bussing and/or want to smash the drums in a big way. But you are talking about a fairly serious amount of money to get into a pair of Distressors.

As far as the preamp, I'm assuming you are talking about compressing the drums live, on their way to the recorder? You would put the mic through the preamp as usual, to get the signal to line level, then go to the compressor.
 
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