Fix-in-the-mix conun-drums challenge

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abbazabba

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Here's the situation: I've been given a band's song to remix. They recorded on a very low budget. Most of the instruments I can work with, but the drums are unforgiving. They were at least multi-miked, but unfortunately bounced all to one track.

All joking aside, how would you approach trying to make these drums sound decent? I've had moderate success (considering my very modest experience) using multiple copies of the file and using extreme EQ-ing to focus on one component of the kit on each (eg, one file I try to isolate the hi hat, another the kick, another the cymbals, etc) but I'm very open to other suggestions! The most problematic for me has been the bass drum, which I've been able to cover up somewhat with the bass guitar...so I understand what works in a mix is dependent on the context of the other instruments, but I'm wondering what some of you would do in this situation?

I've extracted a sample of the drums by themselves for you all to listen to. The song/band is quite quirky -- something in between bluesy piano lounge and punk, as you'll hear in this minute-long clip. If you even want to tinker with the file itself, I'd love to hear how you did it and what you did....Thanks!

Here's the link:


(feel free to go to my /audio folder and check out my music if you care to...)
 
if you wonna send me the wav file i can try and see what i can do with it and note it back to yah.

sounds a little saturated with something right now. Is that what you mixed or is that what they gave you?

Danny
 
holy shit has that been compressed to hell...a solid brick! :eek:
 
Ouch.. I don't think I'm gonna touch that drum track! It sounds like an 808 in the beginning! Good luck! :)
 
Waves TransX can add life to overcompressed drum tracks by increasing the transient attack of each hit.


Just a suggestion to anyone who has it and has time. If no-one gives it a go earlier I'll try when I get back from work and throw you the results... It's works in the past (to a degree).
 
Oh, I guess I forgot to mention the compressed-to-hell part...is it hopeless?
 
Well, I'm aback in the studio and trying the play with the drum wav.

Question 1. Is this sample supposed to be in mono?
Question 2. Is it supposed to just stop?

Question 3. Or was this just an example???


I have made it sound much cleaner and a touch more dynamic. If you post me the real file I'll sort it and send it back for you. ;)
 
abbazabba said:
Oh, I guess I forgot to mention the compressed-to-hell part...is it hopeless?
Click to expand...

Another argument AGAINST tracking with heavy compression...
 
Fishybob said:
Well, I'm aback in the studio and trying the play with the drum wav.

Question 1. Is this sample supposed to be in mono?
Question 2. Is it supposed to just stop?
Question 3. Or was this just an example???

I have made it sound much cleaner and a touch more dynamic. If you post me the real file I'll sort it and send it back for you. ;)
Click to expand...

It's just a sample of the entire track so you wouldn't have to download the whole thing to hear it. I can put the entire track up there if you want me to (later tonight). I did no other processing or conversion. It's mono and compressed to oblivion because that's the way it was given to me.

I'd love to know what you did to it. Thanks!
 
The full track is up...it's in the same directory as the others but it's called Drumscomplete.wav...
 
ummmm

ummm... such bad clipping!

yummm....
 

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I ran it through Tranx to bring back some transient attack. Then through MaxxBass to add some thump. Then through a nifty expander which breathed a little fake life into it. Then eq'd it to open up the sound a little... It's not perfect but much more usable than the original!

I'll have a go at the fill track tonight.

Shame it's mono. I'll try some tricks on that too just for giggles. ;)
 
Wow! That file is HUGE!

ermm, how can I post it back once finished??? :confused: :confused:
 
Well, it's not ideal (the snare drum sounds like a plastic tub) but it's pseudo stereo and I've popped a touch of my favourite IR-1 drum booth verb on it too to add a little something to the hats. :cool:

Let me know what you think of it?

I hope it helps :D

The link should be in your mailbox now!

p.s. yousentit takes AGES to upload the files!!! :rolleyes:
 
I have a suggestion worth a try...it involves using drumagog.

First double the track, then take 1 of the tracks and place an eq on it. In the eq, take everything out except the bass...I mean everything, so that it sounds completely like God awful shit. Now, you should only hear a rumble or a "woof" in place of the kick drum. Now the track has a bass drum isolated enough to be triggered. Add drumagog to that track and locate or produce a very punchy bass drum tone with a lot of mid and high end...make sure it has very little low end in it. Now combine both tracks together and tweak them until u atleast have improved the bass drum sound. (by crossfading the two tracks.) You may have to reverse the phase on a track, I forget.

As for the snare, you can probably isolate that with an eq as well by cutting everything except mids...and try to improve the sound a bit by repeating the same process much like the bass drum. (only eq it differently ofcourse) However I have yet to personally try that and it probably is much harder to accomplish.

But if anything, you can at least use a clean and triggered snare track to add some reverb, and then just turn the effect channel all the way up and turn the triggered snare all the way down. In other words, filter out the dry triggered snare so that you are only hearing the reverb from that triggered snare. Now mix that reverb track back into the overall mix. The reason being is that now the reverb effect will exist for a snare drum but it will be a clean reverb because it originated from the triggered snare track, rather than originating from an overall drum mix and just making the drums sound muddy. This could help fatten up the snare while giving the illusion that it's a bit cleaner sounding than it actually is.

Other than that...once u improve the bass drum and snare drum, try adding a small high pass filter on the original drum track. Mix them all together, and see what you get. lol I don't know, just some suggestions.
 
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