Cool drum mixing idea or waste of time?

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twonky

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Hi, I just had a thought/idea and I was wondering if any of you guys have tried this and to what degree of sonic success did achieve?

Here it is:
You have a bunch of tracks of a drum kit, kck, snare, toms, overheads stc.
Take your drum tracks, mix them down to two tracks (or stereo) w/ a bunch of compression and whatever effects be it reverb or stuff. And then once you have that mix, sneaking it up under the origianal drum tracks and then mixing the rest of your tracks w/ that new drum track.

Thats it......I dont really know what I am trying to achieve w/ this idea er nuthin.......I was just thinkin'

Twonky
 
Yo Twonky:

Keep thinking. But, remember that you don't need much reverb, if any, for drum tracks, good drum tracks that is.

Green Hornet:D :p :p :rolleyes:
 
yep that technique CAN work well if done right....works great on vocals also....have 2 vocal tracks leaving one flat with no effects and bringing up one right under it with a ton of compression and eq......
 
yeah, used heavy compression and had success with it. I think it's called something like NYC submix or something. Never tried reverb or see how it could be much of a benifit, but hey if it sounds good to you, go for it,
 
Yo Gidge:

Interesting post and article. Didn't some of the mics Sinatra used have some impact on his beautiful "up front" vocals too?

I'd love to have one of those mics.

Green Hornet:cool: :D :p
 
You actually just figured out a pretty commonly used technique called parallel compression. It makes for a little beefier drum sound. I wrote a blog entry about this on my website, here's an excerpt.

"If you want to add some punch to your drums without losing dynamic expression, which is so important to the ‘feel’ of a drum sound, then parallel compression is the right technique to use. It refers to mixing a dry signal with a heavily compressed copy of itself. The dynamics in the dry signal are preserved while the compressed signal adds body and character to the overall sound. It works for any instrument, but on drums and vocals in particular, the added character can really bring a track to life.

Parallel compression was originally developed by the mix engineers from New York, which is why it is famously called the New York compression. These guys did a good job in bringing the recording and mixing techniques to a new level. This technique has made records sound more clear, lively, and real which is far better than the how they used to do it in the early days.

Parallel Compression’s intention is to maintain the performance characteristics of an instrument or sound source, but with way more and better stabilized dynamics. The compressor settings are set in a way that causes the compressor to pump and breath. Blending both signals will result in a more human than static sounding compressor."
 
The Green Hornet said:
...But, remember that you don't need much reverb, if any, for drum tracks, good drum tracks that is...
Click to expand...

That really depends on the song. Have you listened to the drums on Nicleback's "Something In Your Mouth"? Those drums are heavy on reverb. :eek: The snare is a good example of gated reverb too.
 
how old is the technique? maybe the OP actually discovered it! :p:p

handy thing to know though. i use it a lot.
 
The technique is older than this thread, if that's even possible. It was used in Mo-town and is often called "Mo-town conpression". So, even though this thread is 8 years old, the OP definitely didn't invent it :).
 
Greg_L said:
Fuck no. :laughings: :laughings: :laughings: :laughings:
Click to expand...

I hate to defend the guys, but Nickelback consistently churns out great hard rock mixes. Say what you will about the material, their engineers are spectacular. :lol:

(I do kind of dig the first album)
 
I always use parallel compression on my drum tracks these days. I just set up an Aux with a compressor VST (usually Blockfish on the Fat Drum Loop preset) and use the Aux Sends on the Snare, Kick, & Toms to send some signal to that Aux. I then blend the Aux with the original tracks to taste.

Is this how most everyone does it? I've thought about using a compressor plugin such as Bootsy's Density MKII that has a Wet/Dry control--that way you could apply the compressor plug to each track (Snare, Kick, etc.) and control the individual balance of the original track with the compressed version of itself. Anyone had any luck doing it this way? If so, which VST plugin do you use?
 
Greg_L said:
Fuck no. :laughings: :laughings: :laughings: :laughings:
Click to expand...

+1000

Back on topic, I was wondering... rather than creating separate copies of the drum tracks, wouldn't it be easier (and essentially equivalent) to set up an FX/send (Cubase lingo) with the compressor on it, then fine tune the compressed/dry mix using the FX return fader on the drum track?
 
mattdee1 said:
+1000

Back on topic, I was wondering... rather than creating separate copies of the drum tracks, wouldn't it be easier (and essentially equivalent) to set up an FX/send (Cubase lingo) with the compressor on it, then fine tune the compressed/dry mix using the FX return fader on the drum track?
Click to expand...

I think so. I'm not super familar with DAWs but I was about to say essentially the same thing (I think) . . .


If you're using a mixing board, you can run the compression in an FX send and get the same effect.
 
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