Compression on drums mixed to one stereo track?

[RecordingMaster]

Hi there,

EVENTUALLY, when I can afford it, I will purchase an audio interface with at least 8 inputs, however right now here's what I am using and I need to know the best way to process the drums to be ready for the finished track....

x3 CAD dynamic mics on toms
SM57 on snare
CAD KBM412 large diaphragm dynamic on kick
x2 CAD electret condenser OH's in XY

All of the above goes into a Behringer Eurorack MX2004A.
Running into the mixer's AUX is an Alesis Microverb II. I adjust separate reverb amounts on the toms and snare channels.
The mixer's R & L outputs run through an ART Dual Tube Pre Audio Interface and that runs into my iMac via USB 2.0.
I am using Adobe Audition CS5.5

Since all my drums will be mixing down to just one stereo track once it gets into the computer, I am limited to editing each individual sound after, so I do this:
I have someone hit each drum one at a time and I dial in a good eq, volume and reverb level for each channel on the mixer while I am in the control room listening through some M-Audio BX5A Deluxe studio reference monitors.

NOW...my question is...what is the BEST way (since there's probably no RIGHT way) to process or treat the drum track? What should I do with it? If it sounds decent for the finished track, is there anything behind the scenes I should do? The issue I always face is, since I have no outboard compression on any of the elements there are maybe anywhere from 10-30 peaks where the track clips, which is usually due to hitting one thing too hard.

What I normally do is go through it manually and highlight the clipped part and reduce it by enough db's to have it be the same level as the rest. This takes forever, and is extraordinarily tedious! I don't want to turn any of the mics down, or the whole mix down, because generally speaking they are all at good volume line levels and between eachother, they don't distort, nor are they too weak. Besides, if I turn the whole mix down so I don't get clips, EVERYTHING will be quieter and the only things loud enough would be those spikes. Mind you, these spikes may be clipping but they don't sound any different to the ear. No distortion. I just see the spike and want to correct it so I can normalize the rest of the track to be it's loudest possible without distortion.

Is there a good setting I can use on the whole drum track to compress the waveform to be acceptable for the finished product? I know it wouldn't be perfect and that too much aggressive compression will make the drums sound like they're squashed in a tin can, but there has got to be SOMETHING I can do. I know absolutely nothing about compression,so if someone can give me an approximate setting to try. eg: what type of compression, and all the levels of each nob I need to adjust on the compression panel.

Please help if you can and sorry about the long post. Just wanted to give you the whole picture. Thanks!

 

[grimtraveller]

Thus far, are you happy with your drum sound ? The reason I ask is that there can be a temptation, though satisfied with what you have, feeling that "there must be more that I can do....." and so begins the endless process of trying to make your drums the product of someone else's imagination.
On the other hand, if you're not happy with the drum sound, that's a different matter.

 

[GONZO-X]

I WOULD NOT COMPRESS A STEREO DRUM TRACK.

more harm than good.

that said, if you MUST....
use a good multiband compressor.

 

[Capt Hair]

+1, if you must do it use a multiband. Honestly though, if there's no distortion at the clips and it doesn't sound out of place I would just leave it.

Ideally you want to set your gain levels so there's no chance of clipping, when your setting them you don't need to be playing normal, intentionally bang the shit out of them. That way there's no "accidental" clip, just because it didn't distort this time doesn't mean it won't next time. In your situation, though it may be tedious, but manually lowering those peaks is probably going to be the best and easiest way, 30 is really not that much and won't take much time at all.

 

[Massive Master]

On the flip-side -- I commonly compressed the stereo drum buss. But I can't even imagine using a maul-the-band compressor for it...

 

[mixsit]

+1 one on not jumping on to the MultiBandwagon. It seems to me this thread hits on several issues. I hope RecordingMaster won't mind a little slice and dice to get this into byte size pieces..

..I don't want to turn any of the mics down, or the whole mix down, because generally speaking they are all at good volume line levels and between eachother, they don't distort, nor are they too weak. Besides, if I turn the whole mix down so I don't get clips, EVERYTHING will be quieter and the only things loud enough would be those spikes.

.. Mind you, these spikes may be clipping but they don't sound any different to the ear. No distortion. I just see the spike and want to correct it so I can normalize the rest of the track to be it's loudest possible without distortion.

Back to the source, you got some spikes, but have a mix/track you like, so no harm done.
But also you got lucky. You could (should?) have recorded a little lower, been right where you are now... but had no risk of clipping.
Dealing with the peaks, mix treatments/decisions are separate questions.

There's a few different flavors of hard limiter/peak reduction you can try out to pull the peaks down and then allow raising the whole drum mix without touching (more or less) the body of the sound. Depending on what's sticking out the highest (kick? snare? combinations?) and the style of limiting, you get to do different amounts of reduction before various flavors of 'down side' kick in.
Another tack is to wait and do this on the final mix or master stage.

Then there is compression which (generally) being slower lets some peaks through, but can compact' (as add density and/or loudness), pull back or accentuate elements and flavor the body of a track in any number of ways.
Remember it is the average volumes of tracks not peaks that to our ear says loudness.

It would be very good to experiment with the sound of hard limiting (set its output at -1dbfs and push the mix track up into it) and see what it sounds like.
Do the same with any decent compressor- Try 2:1, 50ms attack, 200 release. Bring the threshold down so you can get your ear cued in on it. Then back it off till you just hear it.
Now move the attack down in steps; 30, 15, 10, 5, 2..
It will grab more as you go faster there so maybe bump the threshold up some as you go.
Within that range (and many others) are a world of different drum sounds.

.. Is there a good setting I can use on the whole drum track to compress the waveform to be acceptable for the finished product?

Yes. Try a few and let them sink in' as you work on your song. Change them up as you go. Save As' versions, or bounce a few test mixes..
Pick the one(s) you like.

 

[RecordingMaster]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I will try and see how a little bit of compression used in the manners you've described, and if it plain just doesn't sound good after a few adjustments and compression types, then I will keep doing what I have always done and manually reduce the peaks myself, without any compression.

Can't wait to get a damn multitrack interface!

 

[Mo Facta]

Yes, to echo Massive, I use stereo drum bus compression as well and also agree that a multiband compressor is not a good choice.

As always, the tools you choose are imperative and some compressors are better suited to certain tasks. For me, a UAD 1176LN (or better yet, the hardware version) is a great choice for this duty. So is the DBX160VU. So is the EL Distressor. All of these come in plugin form and they do a fine job as well. You need a compressor that is fast and crunchy and that possibly introduces some coloration. The 1176LN is particularly classic and good because it does well at retaining the high end whilst offering high levels of pumping compression, which other compressors often suck at.

I hardly ever compress individual drum tracks any more. What I'll do is I'll strap a compressor across the stereo drum bus, set it to kill a fair amount of gain, and then use the channel faders to "push" what I want smashed into it. It's been called mixing "into" the compressor and when you get it right the results are far more musical than compression on individual channels, imo.

But that's just me.

Cheers

 

[RecordingMaster]

Hmm very interesting, Mo Facta. I'll see if I can find those plugins for Adobe Audition CS5.5. Thanks again for the help everyone.

 

[JimmyS1969]

I'm a fan of Density MKII (free) in parallel with drum buss sometimes. Squashed hard. API 2500 (expensive) is my favorite tho.

 

[ecktronic]

There is no right way to do this, it all depends on how the drums sound once recorded. If you want to compress the drums to bring out the room more then use a longer attack time, or if you want to make the drums more dynamically controlled then try a faster attack time so you catch the transients.