help with transients (peaks)

M

maryslittlesecret

New member
Hi, all. I just started working with EZ Drummer, which is WAY better than any drum machine I've ever worked with. However, I'm getting a ton more spikes/transients than I did previously, which is making my regular 'volume maximizing' efforts unusable.

Here's a link to an mp3 of a rough mix and a screen shot of the actual .wav is below. Could someone please take a look/listen and offer up some tips or advice -- either in tracking or working with the final mix -- to reduce these spikes? Much thanks!

J
 

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Compression is your friend. After EZ generates the drum track create a drum buss with a compressor on it. This will tame the transients.
 
The image is the whole mix, so I'm unsure if the spike are all the drum track (though I compressed the snot out of the guitar and bass).

And suggested setting for generic drum compression? I want to make the wav more managable, but I also don't wanna squash the life out of the drum sound...
 
maryslittlesecret said:
And suggested setting for generic drum compression? I want to make the wav more managable, but I also don't wanna squash the life out of the drum sound...
Click to expand...

There appear to be a few transients that are louder than the others. Probably they are crash cymbals or something. Look for those peaks in your drum tracks, and edit them to be in line with the other peaks. There could be a free dB or two right there, no squashing required.
 
Just listened to the track, it already sounds pretty compressed. I would put a limiter on the overall track and set it about the range of the transients above the average. Ease it back if the sound gets too squashed.

As an alternative, put an 1176 plug in on the drums and load it about 4DB at 12:1 or higher. Overall if you compress each element a little they will come into your master compressor with less transients.

I take it you created the track with little to no compression and then sent everything into a master buss compressor which is not fast enough for some of the transients. The rule of thumb is smaller amounts of compression on the tracks so the master buss compressor doesn't have to work as hard.

I'm making some assumptions here. Let me know if this helps.
 
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Yes, I'm going to pull the compression back on the guitar and bass since they're obviously not the root of the problem.

However, listening to/watching the clip in Sound Forge, the spikes don't appear to line up with any specific instrument, drum hit, etc. That's what makes this so tricky...

Any other suggestions?
 
it's the Kick and snare... but that's Okay

the guitars really sound nice, but you've got way too much bottom... bass guitar and kick

Maybe I missed it, but why are you chasing this.

Me thinks your room is playing tricks on you... :)
 
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Thanks for the tips... Just trying to get the volume up so it doesn't sound so quiet next to retail CDs. The spikes make it tough to 'maximize' the final mix (and get the big, loud 'block' wave of the pro discs)...
 
seems all the stuff is all there, maybe a bit of balance will help.

give this a listen? if listening in your mixing room, it may be bass lite. with the amount of bottom in your mix, I believe your listening position is not optimum. I used very little EQ other than a bit for air. it's basically playing with compression.

Balance Attempt

The growl of the bass came out which I really like. The guitars really are choice.

very nice... :)

kp-
 
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This really is a limiter's job. A compressor might work well but what you absolutely need here is a super fast attack. Most presets in software compressors are too slow. Just slapping "compression" on there will most likely only make it worse. You only want to tame the peaks so use a super fast attack and super fast release. If you got that set than you can play with the threshold and ratio all you want :)
 
Thanks, Keiffer. I'll have to listen when I get home, though -- all I have are cheap phones and little CPU speakers here. What tweaks did you apply?

And I'll try a limiter tonight as well, Halion. I always think of those as more 'harsh' than a compressor, but that's probably what's needed for really small, quick spikes like these...

Not trying to kill the dynamics, CN (though that track has little for dynamics to begin with). Just trying to get ride of unnecessary transients that make any overall level boosting difficult.
 
It looks to me like you need to go back to the individual tracks and figure out which one is spiking like that. If it is indeed EZ Drummer, then obviously you need to sort out what the issue is and level that out in some way.

Better to do that to the original track than squeeze the whole mix.
 
IMO the snare sounds like it's "spiking" or something isn't right with the snare release or decay. It reminds me of a thing that could happen in midi if the decay of a drum hit was too short for the particular sample. I think I could make this happen on an R8 or something like that. At any rate something seems to be ducking the snare after the initial attack - 2 hits too close or mono mode (between 2 drum pads) can do this too...I don't know how EZ Drummer works though as you can see I'm in the past...just a guess concerning a problem with snare hits.
 
Exactly, SonicAlbert. Going to sit down with the mix and try and isolate the problem track(s) tonight.

That should also help answer the snare question, kylen. I don't know enough about EZD to guess about it now...
 
Definitely a gig for a limiter.

If it's not the drums you have some real issues elsewhere!

Back before the later 90's waveforms like this were somewhat typical, ah the good 'ol days ...
 
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