compression going in

[michael.butler]

A friend told me he always compresses drum input signals. Are there situations where this is a good idea? I've always waited until mixing to apply compression anywhere.

Michael

 

[chessrock]

If your drummer is good, then you may not even need to compress at all. There are no hard rules to this one. Personal preference. I like your method, since I tend to do a fair amount of eq on the drums after tracking, which would pretty much screw up any compression I would have done on the way in.

A limiter, on the other hand . . . now I can definitely see where that might be practical during tracking. Not necessarily anything drastic - just enough to safeguard against freak transients.

 

[MISTERQCUE]

And gating is important to contain track bleed when using different mic'd kit set-ups.

 

[BigKahuna]

I usually don't compress or gate drums during tracking. I wait until mixdown. I find it allows a more natural drum sound overall... something I learned in the last year or so.
Might not be practical, though, depending on how many comp/gate channels you have available at mixdown.
Like chessrock said, it depends on the performer. If you got a drummer who isn't consistent at all ... you gotta adjust your techniques to accomodate.

 

[chessrock]

Good drummers are very low-maintainance. They require fewer mics, far less compression, eq, etc.

Just point some mics at them, hit record, and let them do their thing.

Still not as convenient as a drum machine or samples, but they sound worlds better.