Compressing Drums

[ColdToTheTouch]

I use FL studio for my drum tracks. Im trying to learn alittle bit about compressing and EQing. When I asked an opinion about a guitar track a few months back, I was told to use a "high pass".. (im pretty sure it was a high pass.. not a low pass) but with drums, what type of EQ should I use for the snare and kick drum? Or is it all about tweaking it as best I can till it sounds how I want it to? And as far as compression goes.. I dont see much of a difference when I add some compression to the snare and kick drum..and Im not sure what to do about the cymbals.. Like I said, Im using FL studio, with Beta Monkey Double Bass Mania loops, so the samples already sound perfect..but I still want to learn as much as I can..Thanks, and I apologize in advance if I make no sense. I get excited and run all over the place when I try to ask questions!

 

[noisewreck]

What to compress or EQ when and by how much, not only depends on the source sound itself, but also on all the other sounds around it.

Take the kick for example. Are we talking about an acoustic kick or an electronic/drum machine kick? What characteristics do you want to bring out? Is there anything in the source sound that you find bothersome? What about its interaction with the bass? Does the kick or the bass need to occupy the very bottom? Do you want to bring out the attack in the kick or the body/sustain?

Same with snare and all other sounds.

Once you can answer these questions, then you can decide on what to EQ/Compress or leave alone.

As it is, your question is way to generic, and very difficult to answer.

 

[dintymoore]

Compression can be used on snare with pretty good results. It makes the drum sound a lot different, so I often use it. I don't use compression on kick very much, and I never, ever use it on cymbals unless I am going for something weird for effect.

For some reason, since all this drum sampling stuff started in the 80's, pretty much every snare and especially kick sample I've heard has too much treble, and often, way too much, so I use a low pass filter. "Low pass" means that the low frequencies pass through and the high frequencies get messed with. I have to "roll off the top" of snare and kick samples pretty much all the time, to get a sound that doesn't sound ridiculously hard and harsh.

Recently I got Steven Slate Drums for $20, here's a riff I did with them:
http://musicmusicmusic.cn/ssd.html
I had to really roll the top off the snare and kick in a major way. If I didn't it would sound like hitting a penny against glass every time the kick hit. I still don't get it why people record samples like that, I guess so that you have "more" and can turn it down, whereas if there wasn't enough treble you couldn't really boost it without making noise.