Compression On Drums

S

Stratoman79

New member
I have no idea about compressing drums other than knowing people do it. Do you just compress cymbals? Do you wait until post-production to do it? How much should you use? What should it accomplish? Can you get good drum recordings if you don't compress drums?

I sit at the masters' feet waiting to be teached.
 
I would have to say that in my opinion, any time you can avoid compression, do it. Now a lot of people are going "What? Screw that!"

The key to not having to use compression on drums is solely based on the talent of the guy behind the kit. A guy who smacks the skins steadily won't need compression for the most part. Sure, sometimes it'll fatten up a thin sounding track - But again, if it's a really good sounding kit and it's miked up well, it won't sound thin in the first place.

All that on the table, if you're short on compressors and you need to compress on the way IN, I'd suggest using a high ratio and very little gain reduction. You just want to reel in the peaks a bit. Once you get the "meat" into the compressor, it's there and there's nothing you can do to change it. With light limiting, you can still add that "thick" compression during the mix later if it's needed.

Compressing the room can be effective if done very carefully, but do BE careful. It's very easy to get it pumping and can sound very crappy very fast. I like to use a ridiculously long release (several seconds) in cases such as this.

On ratios and levels - It's entirely dependent on the levels recorded or the levels mixed at. Start with all the controls at the default position and go from there. Twist some knobs and pay attention to what happens. Go WAY overboard so you know what's happening, so you can do the same thing to a lesser extent and barely perceive it.
 
A lot of guys compress drums at the recording stage. However, most of these guys have 2-inch tape decks, and are driving the drums to tape rather than using outboard compressors.

If you are in doubt as to whether you should use a compressor, DON'T USE IT. However, if you want drums to pump, as some styles of music demand, don't be AFRAID to muck around with compression. Maybe even try compressing ALL the drums in a group (I'm talking in the mix stage here). Try parallel compression, this involves mixing a compressed signal with an uncompressed signal.

TRY some stuff out rather than talking about it in audio forums.
 
I do a lot of parallel compression on drums. This kinda' gives you maximum control over the amount of compression used while mixing, so you don't necessarily have to commit to anything right away and dig yourself in to any holes later on.
 
Don't mean to jack this thread...but
I have been thinkin bout adding a little compression just to control transients mostly from the snare. Any recommendations for a decent compressor in the $100 per channel range?? I need 4 channels.

Kick: e602
snare: sm57
OH's: Oktava 012's

Thx

Chad
 
when ever possible I record to 2 inch for tape compression, plus compress the overheads and rooms to tape and then do parallel compression in the mix. what goes into the parallel buss depends on the tune and drummer. i will usually spank the kick a little to by itself in the mix as well. Overheads usually get a few dB of compression and the room can get anywhere from about 6dB to about 20dB. depends on the drummer, the room and the part.

i always keep my attack times slow!! and my release time pretty quick.

I have never met a digital compressor I have liked on drums.

I compress a lot, but massive master is right, that its safer not to do it. I am pretty confident about compressing to tape because I have recorded a few hundred drummers and my compressor collection cost more than my car. Crappy compressors will screw up your drum sound really fast, and you can not undo it. While you are learning it is much better to not compress when you record and experiment when you mix. If you are recording to digital you do not need to worry about the noise floor.
 
ElDangeroso said:
Don't mean to jack this thread...but
I have been thinkin bout adding a little compression just to control transients mostly from the snare. Any recommendations for a decent compressor in the $100 per channel range?? I need 4 channels.

Kick: e602
snare: sm57
OH's: Oktava 012's

Thx

Chad
Click to expand...

The RNC is nice, but it's liked stereo only. Won't help on your kick & snare.

This actually just came up in another thread... Try an RNC and an Art Pro VLA tube El-Op. Best of both bargain worlds.
 
maybe i'm in the minority here, but i'm not a real big fan of the RNC on drums. it seems to be a little "too slow" IMO. i've gotten some ok results with it on snare, but that's about it......it's nice for a lot of things, but drums are not my favorite use for it.

i've been wanting to pick up a ProVLA now that musiciansfiend is practically giving them away. although, it makes you wonder what component changed for ART to drop the price so much. or did they simply just not sell enough at the prior pricepoint, and now they're just looking to get rid of em?

i've got a symetrix 425 that i like running kick and snare (and bass guitar and guitar and....) through. fattens them up pretty well. in fact, there's very few things that i put through that thing that i don't love its sound on (even with everything on bypass). sometimes if you get it just to the point where it starts to clip on the output, there's some sort of distortion in there that imparts a little extra richness to it too. can't explain why, but i can tell you it does. :D YMMV.


cheers,
wade
 
can someone explain more about parallel compression?

is that taking a track, copying it, and compressing the original, while not compressing the copy? ...or vise versa.
 
eraos said:
can someone explain more about parallel compression?

is that taking a track, copying it, and compressing the original, while not compressing the copy? ...or vise versa.
Click to expand...

Your starting to get it. Its better to create a buss and send that to a compressor and then return that to 2 tracks, or if you are in the "inside the box" world strap a plug in acrros the stero track. Compress that group of instruments and leave the original alone or give the originals different compression.
 
Massive Master said:
I would have to say that in my opinion, any time you can avoid compression, do it. Now a lot of people are going "What? Screw that!"
You know, it's not very often that I can find someone that agrees with me on this one.


To further answer stratoman's question....


Compression on drums is a balance between what you want in sonic qualities and whats called for in the music you're mixing.The tricky part is that they won't always agree with each other.

That pumping sound massive warned you about is what can be referred to as "breathing". That's a result of overcompressing. Sometimes that's a desired result, and sometimes it's not.


General rule of thumb, start off at a threshold of about -20db and a 2:1 ratio. that should start letting you see what compression does to your tracks. The more ratio to compress with, the more your tracks will sound like mashed potatos. 8:1 and above is considered limiting. That's handy to know when you want to cap off excessive volumes.


I personally rather accent the natural sound of the drum by not applying much compression at all, but the only way to really get what you want is by understanding what compression does, and then testing it out in different forms.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I'll throw in a nickel for parallel compression - If you *MUST* squish the crap out of it, judicious use of parallel compression can sound much more... more...

How about "less crappy" than inline compression alone.

Keep in mind that parallel compression is a mean, bitchy mistress - It takes some practice, you may have to do some unusual panning or tone correction on one or both sets of tracks, blah, blah, blah. However, it's well worth the effort to get good at it.

A "quick & dirty" way to start (if you have full latency compensation) would be to simply make an aux buss and send to it. As long as you can control the tone and pan on your aux, you'll be set. That way, for example, you can squish your kick and snare to keep them in the pocket while letting the toms "pop out" of the mix a little.

By the way - Most of the time with parallel compression, you're bringing it in very subtly under the rest of the mix - not trying to kill the mix with it. It's not a "giant killer" - it's a subtle effect that can add a little gravitas and weight to a "light" mix.
 
It depends on what you mean by "control" - Reel them in? Yes. Brick-wall? No. Not fast enough. Even on the "fast" setting. Though few analog limiters out there are "really" able to keep everything below "The Point" effectively.

Keep in mind that if you're tracking in 24-bit, you shouldn't be bothered by trying to get it too hot - Peaks at -6 are perfectly acceptable - I'd even go to say preferable - as opposed to trying to peg the digits.

So, yes, it will tame your transients, but you should still leave a little headroom.
 
garbage in

i like to use compression as an effect on the drums. it's fun. but i agree. practice getting the pristine track w/o the use of effects. your drummer will thank you!
 
So this is including the bass drum and snare I thought those were supposed to be compressed to get that pop or punch???? I never compress anything else so no worries there. :confused:
 
No one's mentioned the dbx 160x yet. Great cheap comp for snare or kick. Another one is the JBL / UREI 7110 . . . which is discontinued, so you'd have to scour ebay pretty regularly.

For stereo or two-channel limiting, your best bet is probably to use a decent plugin like the L1 or L2 . . . PSP Vintage Warmer . . . that kind of thing. If you have to go outboard, then the Aphex Dominator is probably the way to go (on a budget).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top