Compressin bassdrums

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Janus P

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i;m reading an article on the basics of mixin and in a part about drums the author says:

If the bass drum is inconsistent then use a compressor to even the levels out, but try using EXTREME compression with a slow attack time. This can put one hell of a *thwack!* into the bass drum.

but what does he mean by a slow attack time? because i would think he means a lot of attack but than it would take longer for the bassdrum to kick in, and that wouldnt make it thwack :S

i'm using the vegas track compressor for all my drum sounds and it looks like the picture below. do you guys think this is good for drum compressing and what values do you think suit the average bassdrum ?
 

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btw i am asking this because a lot of people tell me my drums dont pump enough. i usually put the attack time on 0. but actually i dont really know what all the parameters mean.
 
Your zero attack time falls into flat out peak limiting, which is good for topping off drum and snare peaks for example.
Try starting there, with a setting that give good amount of limiting happening, then increase the attack time- 5 ms, 10, 20. As you move out in time, more of the attack of the drum is allowed through. You may have to lower the threshold more too to keep compressing. At very short settings, everything triggers in a big way, and is in some ways can be more potent than the ratio setting.
The 'slow' setting they're referring to lets the spike through, then pulls down the body of the signal.
Hope that helps. :)
Wayne
 
The attack time is different than the attack of the drum.
Attack time is the time it takes (in ms) for the compressor to kick in after the threshold is hit. The longer the attack time the more attack from the original signal gets through.
The release time is how long it takes the compressor to turn the volume back up after the signal drops below the threshold. The faster the release, the more 'boom' you will get from a kick.

play with a slower attack (15 ms or so) and quick release (as quick as it goes) and you will hear the difference.
 
And don't unless you have built a kickdrum tunnel - don't compress the kick drum when recording- because any stray sounds (snare, cymbals, etc.) that are being picked up by the kick mic will be made louder on your kick drum track!

My band was doing some demo's, and I had a great recording...except for one little thing... somebody (my brother) had re-patched the compressor on my kick channel from post to pre, so I recorded an entire CD worth of material, and the stupid cymbals were as loud as the kick drum on the kick track thanks to compression! :mad:



Tim
 
wwwwwwooooooooowwwwwwwwww thaaannnxx :D:D i just found out that the past 2 years i've been messin up my drums because i always put the attack on 0. i just tried what you said and its a maaajoorrr difference!! thanks!!
 
Tim Brown said:
And don't unless you have built a kickdrum tunnel - don't compress the kick drum when recording- because any stray sounds (snare, cymbals, etc.) that are being picked up by the kick mic will be made louder on your kick drum track!

My band was doing some demo's, and I had a great recording...except for one little thing... somebody (my brother) had re-patched the compressor on my kick channel from post to pre, so I recorded an entire CD worth of material, and the stupid cymbals were as loud as the kick drum on the kick track thanks to compression! :mad:



Tim
Click to expand...

Bringing up the lower level signals is a function of the "gain" setting. raising the gain brings up ALL the signal, and if you've got any gain higher than 0, it will compress the peaks (above the threshold) and bring up everything (above and below the threshold). It can be useful both ways. I use the gain to bring up my HH sound in relation to the snare since I don't have the HH seperately miked.
 
Tim Brown said:
My band was doing some demo's, and I had a great recording...except for one little thing... somebody (my brother) had re-patched the compressor on my kick channel from post to pre, so I recorded an entire CD worth of material, and the stupid cymbals were as loud as the kick drum on the kick track thanks to compression! :mad:
Click to expand...

Jesus, what did he have, a 50:1 ratio at -96db or something?

::in awe::
 
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