Help needed with drum track tweaking?

P

psongman

New member
Hi, I spent the last couple of days mixing down my tracks, adding eq,
some comp, spacing, latching with Adobe Audition, and some Wave Arts
reverbing (love their Masterverb), When I went to do same Wave
finalizing, like Q10, or RenComp, etc, then L2 or L1 (can't get used to
L2)..on the mixdown wave, it is coming out with too much drumming
dominating the mix, even if I lower or eq the track I recorded it on.

I am not sure what is causing this, but I know you can help me
backtrack and reroute some sounds to make it a bit less sizzly and
crispy. I did parametric eqing on those areas but it didn't seem to
help as I got further along the premastering chain. Well, I will give
my ears a break, like many recording enthusiasts and await your
expertise, before I do some remixing. Thanks for listening and
assisting, Derrick
 
Let me get this straight, you're liking your mix, and when you add EQ and limiting and all that other MANDATORY "mastering" stuff it sounds like shit?

So the drums are way too loud?

There are only so many explanations for why things are too loud in the mix. Chief among these is that they are too loud in the mix. Another reason could be that they are not quiet enough in the mix, and yet another reason could be that they are turned up excessively or not attenuated sufficiently in the mix. It could also be a poor arrangement, weak or thin sounds from other instrumentation, etc. No way for anybody to know without a sound clip! ;)

You said that you turned them down and it is simply not helping. How can this be? Did you try turning them down some more? I have found that fader levels and loudness maintain a pretty predictable relationship. Unless your problem lies somewhere else alltogether...and in that case....there's still no way to know without a clip. ;)

As for your other problems, it sounds like you're just ruining everything with your attempts at mastering it. If you're following some routine of a "pre-mastering" chain and it's screwing up the sound, you need to re-evaluate what you're doing. Maybe it's not necessary.

I have an idea though....post a clip. ;)
 
I don't really know what all the winkies mean either. ;) Maybe you just in a happy mood today ;) and feel good and letting him know you feel good today. ;)

Your hinting at something? ;)

Ok. Your hinting at a bunch of stuff. ;)

WTF. ;) ARRRGH. Now I can't stop. ;) ;) ;)

Oh I feel a little twitching coming on too!! :eek:
 
psongman said:
Hi, I spent the last couple of days mixing down my tracks, adding eq,
some comp, spacing, latching with Adobe Audition, and some Wave Arts
reverbing (love their Masterverb), When I went to do same Wave
finalizing, like Q10, or RenComp, etc, then L2 or L1 (can't get used to
L2)..on the mixdown wave, it is coming out with too much drumming
dominating the mix, even if I lower or eq the track I recorded it on.

I am not sure what is causing this, but I know you can help me
backtrack and reroute some sounds to make it a bit less sizzly and
crispy. I did parametric eqing on those areas but it didn't seem to
help as I got further along the premastering chain. Well, I will give
my ears a break, like many recording enthusiasts and await your
expertise, before I do some remixing. Thanks for listening and
assisting, Derrick
Click to expand...

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Can you post a clip?
 
I suggest a clip. Maybe. I'm not sure if this is what's been hinted at or not, but that seems to be the consensus. And chessrock, I know how you feel. So, a clip, right? Right guys? RIGHT? RIGHT?!

...
right.

Sorry, I'm a little out of whack right now.
 
Ok, OK, I will post a clip, but I working on another one at the moment. I went back and relistened...it sounds all right. I sort of know what is causing it now. You know, some of those drum accompaniment tracks that come with those keyboards (Yamaha), well, they add a few too many tambourines etc, when they should keep them sparser. What happens is they kind of pile on top of each other, when you do anything else to that track.

I have been recording more in mono today and getting better results but you have to do the same effecting etc. on two tracks not just one, of lets say the same drum track sent out of a stereo machine into 2 mono tracks in my Adobe Audition. Anyway, I will go back in and soften the drum track a bit, if it doesn't work, I will subject you to my wonderfully unexplainable playing and singing. Hey, I saw you heading for your earplugs, hehe, later, Derrick
 
psongman said:
Ok, OK, I will post a clip, but I working on another one at the moment. I went back and relistened...it sounds all right. I sort of know what is causing it now. You know, some of those drum accompaniment tracks that come with those keyboards (Yamaha), well, they add a few too many tambourines etc, when they should keep them sparser. What happens is they kind of pile on top of each other, when you do anything else to that track.

I have been recording more in mono today and getting better results but you have to do the same effecting etc. on two tracks not just one, of lets say the same drum track sent out of a stereo machine into 2 mono tracks in my Adobe Audition. Anyway, I will go back in and soften the drum track a bit, if it doesn't work, I will subject you to my wonderfully unexplainable playing and singing. Hey, I saw you heading for your earplugs, hehe, later, Derrick
Click to expand...

Have you seriously been here since December 2000?
 
psongman said:
Hi, I spent the last couple of days mixing down my tracks, adding eq,
some comp, spacing, latching with Adobe Audition, and some Wave Arts
reverbing (love their Masterverb), When I went to do same Wave
finalizing, like Q10, or RenComp, etc, then L2 or L1 (can't get used to
L2)..on the mixdown wave, it is coming out with too much drumming
dominating the mix, even if I lower or eq the track I recorded it on.

I am not sure what is causing this, but I know you can help me
backtrack and reroute some sounds to make it a bit less sizzly and
crispy. I did parametric eqing on those areas but it didn't seem to
help as I got further along the premastering chain. Well, I will give
my ears a break, like many recording enthusiasts and await your
expertise, before I do some remixing. Thanks for listening and
assisting, Derrick
Click to expand...
Let me see if I've got this straight...

You are looping drum samples from a Yamaha keyboard. Somewhere along the line you made the decision that the sonic character of these samples were not good enough. So you added EQ, ran them through compressor, spacing, and latching plugins, (what the hell is latching anyway?) then Wave Arts Masterverb, a finalizer, Rencomp, and then an L2. And now you want to know why it doesn't sound quite right?

Hmmm, you are probably right. It must be the tambourines.
 
Tell you what. Go download Hammerhead. Go download some drum samples, or just the Hammerhead userbanks that are available. Spend a couple hours playing with those. Throw out the keyboard.
 
H'lo, well, thanks for all the are they, "insights". I didn't do all those tweaks to the drum tracks alone. I did them to the final mix. The reason I have the drum track loud usually, is because I bring all the other instruments in and it gets slightly buried, but this time there are a lot of volume changes in the song, so it changes the enriching and enveloping.

I went back and doubled the vox and raised a few other parameters, came out smooth and sweet, not as loud as I wanted but I learned the last few days that songs within songs almost require the same amount of attention as one. I do know that I used to use the L1 or L2 on the final stage with dithering, but it isn't working like it used to or I am getting more proficient at the middle moves of mixing and mastering.

I will try Hammerhead, but I use a Boss D5 on hard rock stuff and it blows away the drummer in my band, that is for recording, live, he is the best! Well, keep the rants and groans coming in, psongman
 
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