How To Mix Drums?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dr. Varney
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Greg L said:
No dude...
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He's just said he's not coming back. You've made your point: you don't like his drums. Let's drop it, cos this is a useful thread and I don't need it locked down, by some passifying moderator.

Cheers

Dr. V
 
Dr. Varney said:
I was only joking... I actually know what it's like, to get heated in a forum and I know it's hard to leave alone when you feel insulted. It's taken me a long time to grow a harder skin but no-one is perfect. Shit happens. I'm sure it'll blow over.

Dr. V
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:)

Oh...OK...thanks…but really, I hate being directly involved in thread derailments...as I don't like it when it happens to mine...and quite honestly I had no idea this would get so heated…it just blew up rather quickly. And as thick as my skin is, I still don't like just plain rude insults...otherwise, I already said earlier in this thread that it really doesn't bother me if someone's not caring for my music for any reason.
I don't have an ego about it...which is why I don't bother to post up tons of stuff and ask for opinions all the time. Some people need that constant recognition and feedback.
It's not being snobby...it's just that I've learned over the years you can't please everyone, so you really just need to please yourself when it comes to artistic stuff.
That's why I didn't buy some of the comments about my drums...as they were being made from the perspective that they need to sound a certain way or be mixed a certain way.

OK...back to your topic...and I'm actually following your exchanges with noisewreck since I've gotten away from the all-electronic music and I know he's fairly deep into that stuff.
Yes...it's a little different working with samples and MIDI patches and whatnot VS. doing all live tracking...though when you get to the final mix stage...well...it's about the same I think.
 
Dr. Varney said:
He's just said he's not coming back. You've made your point: you don't like his drums. Let's drop it, cos this is a useful thread and I don't need it locked down, by some passifying moderator.

Cheers

Dr. V
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Right. Sorry for contributing to the clusterfuckation of this thread. Carry on.
 
I can see what's happened here, for sure. I started off with a fairly simple formula, got scared (for some reason) and have now overcomplicated the mix, in my opinion. Never mind, it's given me a hands-on introduction to routing and using sends. Noisewreck's comments on compression have stunted a potential bad habit I could have developed.

Noisewreck, I look forward to seeing those screenshots. That will be very helpful, cheers.

So - it seems the general consensus seems to be: multitrack your drums for greater flexibility. For what I'm trying to achieve here, it makes sense.

My system involved routing all drums to one track called "DRUMS" then sending just the kick and a couple of snares to 'reverb' loaded track, then applying less reverb to the main "DRUMS" track.

Now I've got all instruments multitracked individually and sending into three tracks (busses?), I've name "HI", "MID" & "LO". This allows me to control the general levels of bass drums, snares & toms - and finally, the hats and 'clicks' etc, all occupy the "HI" track. It's intuitive, but takes a long time to set up.

Before that, I simply multitracked everything and applied some varying amounts of reverb, where thought it was needed and a tiny bit of panning. No sends, no grouped busses or anything.

Even so, I feel like stripping it down now, to a simpler arrangement to see if it comes off more 'natural'.

Dr. V
 
miroslav said:
But that's all you got...

I think you can trade in those rep points down at Guitar Center.
You need like 3 million for a set of strings...so you're almost there.
icon14.gif


PS
I didn't comment to everyone in the MP3 clinic anything at all.
I said...nothing personal to the guys who are looking for honest opinons.
I was talking to the ones who use the MP3 clinic and places like SoundClick as their own personal ego trip....and I said I personally didn't buy into that wet dream approach.

But as I recall from the last time you and I had some forum exchnages...you have a language comprehension problem...
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what a clown...you commented..period

you are a dildo
 
kcearl said:
jesus you're argumentative...you could've let the bone go when greg said he'd had enough of the thread but your ego wouldn't let you would it?

I've had a taste of your posting war of attrition before...dude its dull, give it up
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Such good advice...

So.... Tell me more about how you mix yer drums, dude...?
 
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Now, this isn't working for me. It was better when I just piped everything into one drum track and reverbed the lot. This set up I've concocted is really complicated... BUT... It's uncovered a possible flaw in my drum patterns themselves...

They sound like SHIT!

Not just because of the levels, but no longer does the dry pattern make any sense as a drum pattern at all. It sounds as if a brain damaged chimpanzee were let loose with a drum kit...

My drum pattern only 'made sense' because some of the toms and snares were so low in the mix that they acted like kind of 'ghost' hits, if you will.

Okay - to explain this: When I originally wrote the drums, I did so spontaneously. The pattern just.. happened. A musician commended me on this, saying it sounded like something from Velvet Underground - even going as far as to say "clever!" I wasn't so sure... But it sounded unique and it sounded good.

Now, I wonder if I should go back to a previous version, where it sounded this way or whether I should re-write the pattern from scratch, so that it sounds 'about right' when dry, unmixed and unrouted - then start routing it to get me some 'convenience sliders' and and touch of tasteful EQ?

Sorry - am I making any sense here?

Okay - maybe I should abandon the quiet hits and add some decay to some of the drums, to achieve that 'ghost-hit' sound? Or would you do that with compression?

Dr. V
 
K.I.S.S.

This whole "making music" thing is not rocket science. The biggest mistake people make is treating it like it is.
 
Where do you start, when you compose a drum track? What kind of drum would you lay in first? Would you start with a heavy kick and work up from there? Or would you lay down the beat with a mid-snare and work outwards? How about start with just a 'click' and then fill in the drums over that?

Really - I have no idea.

Dr. V
 
Dr. Varney said:
Where do you start, when you compose a drum track? What kind of drum would you lay in first? Would you start with a heavy kick and work up from there? Or would you lay down the beat with a mid-snare and work outwards? How about start with just a 'click' and then fill in the drums over that?

Really - I have no idea.

Dr. V
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I sit at my drum set and start playing. :)
 
RAMI said:
K.I.S.S.

This whole "making music" thing is not rocket science. The biggest mistake people make is treating it like it is.
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I totally 100% agree. I don't see why some people consider sticking a close mic on a tom complicated though. :confused:
 
Dr. Varney said:
Now, this isn't working for me. It was better when I just piped everything into one drum track and reverbed the lot. This set up I've concocted is really complicated...
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Not sure if you already did (as I was caught up in all the side BS)...
...but do you have a sample of the drum patterns you're recording?
It's much easier to understand when you can hear what is going on.

When I use to sequence drums instead of live...it took some work to make natural sounding drum tracks.
The basics (Kick, Snare, HH) are easy enough to sequence...but then when you go for the rolls/fills...etc...it was harder to do and not have it sound robotic.

Do you feel you are having problems with the sound of your drums or the rhythmic patterns?
 
Greg_L said:
I totally 100% agree. I don't see why some people consider sticking a close mic on a tom complicated though. :confused:
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True. It shouldn't be, especially since you don't have to use the track if you don't want to.
 
RAMI said:
True. It shouldn't be, especially since you don't have to use the track if you don't want to.
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Right. Just mute the track if you don't want it or need it. Or better yet, just delete the whole thing if muting a track is too complicated.
 
Dr. Varney said:
Now, this isn't working for me. It was better when I just piped everything into one drum track and reverbed the lot. This set up I've concocted is really complicated... BUT... It's uncovered a possible flaw in my drum patterns themselves...

They sound like SHIT!

Not just because of the levels, but no longer does the dry pattern make any sense as a drum pattern at all. It sounds as if a brain damaged chimpanzee were let loose with a drum kit...

My drum pattern only 'made sense' because some of the toms and snares were so low in the mix that they acted like kind of 'ghost' hits, if you will.

Okay - to explain this: When I originally wrote the drums, I did so spontaneously. The pattern just.. happened. A musician commended me on this, saying it sounded like something from Velvet Underground - even going as far as to say "clever!" I wasn't so sure... But it sounded unique and it sounded good.
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Well, if it sounded good, then keep it ;) Just because something works for me, doesn't mean it's gonna work for everyone else. Although I am not sure why your levels would be all over the place by simply sending the drums to different channels, so I am a bit confused there. :confused:
 
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