Drums mastering

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AoW

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Hello,

i wonder if someone could help me with mastering drums. With my band played concert, and all parts of drums were recorded. We had 9 mics, and was recorded 9 drum tracks:
1. snare
2. left tom
3. right tom
4. hhat
5. kick
6. tom h
7. tom m
8. overhead left
9. overhead right

I tried to mix all of tracks (it's not a problem ofcourse), then i made some correctings with PAN settings, so left part of drums where moved to the left and right part to the right. I left snare drum in the center. After that i corrected volumes of each drum track.

But it's sound so poor. The same effect i could get recording all drums on one microfon. I don't know what can i do to make it better - should i make some eqalizer for each drum or should i use some presets for drums (i read that izotope ozon 3 have some cool presets, i tried, and it's better, but still not sound good)?

In the end of my post i want to say, that i only ask for tips of what should i read about or what should i learn - not for ready-made solutions.

Sorry for my english, and i hope someone patient will give me some instructions of what to do.

Regards
AoW
 
hi,

first up, ozone 3 caught my attention.
Sure, it's a great tool in the right hands, but nine times out of ten the presets are overkill.
i would avoid 'all in one' tools like that, for now at least.

next, you say you need help mastering drums. This might just be semantics, but you probably don't want to master drums at all, unless the final cd/wav is going to be drums only.

also, it completely depends what style you're going for, but generally i tend to start with overheads panned a little bit (not 100%).
I listen to them and use them as the basis for the whole sound.
If i bring in kick, snare etc it's because i need to or want to. Not just because there's a recording of it.

You don't have to use everything.

Maybe you could start off mixing ohl,ohr,kick and snare, just to see if it's easier?
bleed, especially on hi-hat and tom tracks can make drums soooo hard to mix, especially if mic placement and playing style aren't 100%.

perhaps you could zip all your files and upload them for people to have a listen? or at least post an mp3 of what you have already.
Let's hear what you have :)

Hope that helps.
 
Thank a lot Steenamaroo - your post is very helpfull! :)

OZONE 3 is great for such newbie like me - select preset, and hear the effect. But it's not good enough, that's why i want to learn someting more.

I prepared some stuff you asked for:
1. All tracks of drums in mp3: lukdan.home.pl/awzan/drums_mp3.zip (EDIT 9.06.2011 7:41: KICK DRUM WAS WRONG - i corrected it!)
2. Mixdown drums with some of my steps (PAN/VOL/EQ): lukdan.home.pl/awzan/drumsonly.mp3

If You can hear this sounds (1) and say if it's recorded appropriate.

I think i have to write more about how these sounds were recorded. So like i said in first post on one of my band concert we asked acoustician for recording us. There was 9 mic on drums, 1 on bas guitar, 1 on left guitar, 1 on right guitar and 1 for vocal. I'm writing becouse when You listen to drum sounds, there is also (quietly) sounds of guitars and vocals. (So maybe i shoud clean this tracks from vocal and guitar?)

Yes, You realize me, that i made a misteake with the subject of this topic. I want to make drums sound good, after that i will record guitar (using line 6 tone port) and vocal again.

Regards
AoW
 
Last edited:
Mixing drums, not mastering :)
Try to set the correct volume, panning while you record drums. Sound source is the most important thing in my opinion. Shit in > Shit out.
You can just add a little punch, make them sound huge and live with EQ/Compressors, but you won't make shitty drums sound great. That's just my opinion...
So try to set your mics, record and if you're not happy with the sound you get - try to mix drums with samples (drumagog will help you).
Don't use presets - use ears :)
I'm sure you get cool tunes with your drums.

cheers!
 
Yeah....You shouldn't even be touching Ozone at this stage. Ozone is a mastering plugin designed for final touches on a finished product. You are just making a scratch track for the drums. Also, I think micing every single kit piece is unnecessary. That's a lot of potential phase issues waiting to happen and too much to manage for a beginner. Look up some simpler micing techniques on youtube like "recorderman" and such and experiment with those. You could easily get by with 4 mics and it would be so much easier to manage.
I also couldn't help but chuckle a little when you said
There was 9 mic on drums, 1 on bas guitar, 1 on left guitar, 1 on right guitar and 1 for vocal.
Click to expand...
. There's no need for vocals on a scratch track. The other musicians should be using headphones and the only sound that should be in the room is the drums.
 
Thank You for your opinions.

I'm confused - becouse i don't know what to do: should i record one more time drums or there is a chance to make some good mixing of drums i get (lukdan.home.pl/awzan/drums_mp3.zip)?

Now i'm reading about drumagog program - thx a lot, it seems to be very helpfull soft!

And i will try not to use presets and OZONE.
 
I would do them over. Learn to enjoy the process and experimentation.
 
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