Kick drums at a consistent level

A

ausgrindslaught

New member
Hey guys. After two PAINFUL months my band has finished recording the drum tracks for our first demo.

I have one specific question to begin with - though as the demo develops dont doubt there will be more. Alright, so I have got a basic handle (or did I need to refamiliarise myself a tad) with compression and hard limiting to an extent.

What I have is a kick drum track - now this track has a stupid amount of low frequency in it, so I have to EQ it and cut some of it out so it isnt a speaker-raping monster. What I would like to do is;

a) Make the kicks on consistent volume. Some passages vary - in very fast parts the kicks die a little bit, in others the drummer hits the kick a little harder than normal. Whats my best bet guys - hard limiting? Normalising?

b) Cut out some of the background noise if thats possible. I suppose it would be the inversion of hard limiting... Getting the tiny bit of guitar sound and snare etc out of the kick channel.

How can this be achieved guys? With high and low pass filters? Any advice would be awesome - even if you can point me to some online guides.

I actually have a similar problem with the snare - though to a much lesser extent. Im not sure of you guys know what 'blast beats' are... but the volume on those is fine. Its when my drummer does essentially a double speed blast beat using a one handed roll (sometimes called a 'gravity blast') that I have to jack up the volume and impact of the hit. Any ideas here?

Let me know if you need me to post some MP3s to illustrate. Cheers and beers.
 
What you need is a noise gate and a compressor.

Go score one of each if you don't already have them.

And have fun with it.

.
 
As for the small amount of bleed in the kick - don't even worry about it. It won't have a major impact on the overall mix.

As for consistant level, that is a common problem. If you want to be really anal you could put a volume envelope on the track and boost or cut individual hits as needed. It's a long and tedious process, but it works.
 
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Cheers guys. I had a bit of a sniff around on some drum mixing and processing tutes as well. Going to go play around with a noise gate on the kick drum. I'll give the volume envelope a go on the gravity blast passages.
 
Massive Master said:
Volume envelopes - and copying and pasting to some extent - are your friends.
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Yep, good catch. I forgot to mention the cut and paste method.

Which reminds me - sometimes I'll record individual hits of all the drums after the end of a song just in case the overall performance is good but I know some hits will need replacing.
 
MadAudio said:
Yep, good catch. I forgot to mention the cut and paste method.

Which reminds me - sometimes I'll record individual hits of all the drums after the end of a song just in case the overall performance is good but I know some hits will need replacing.
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I do that too.
Great for when the drummer crashes out on a small break, but then starts clicking the sticks for the guitar to keep time. But the crashes are still fading when he starts with the sticks.
I can just copy/paste the cleanly recorded crash hits for a good natural cymbal fade without the stick clicks.
 
I've never actually done a mix with Drumagog (I barely ever mix anyway) but Amen, brutha. That thing is freakin' amazing.

And I'm not just saying that because I had a hand in the processing of RD2 -- It's amazing no matter what sounds you use.
 
Use compression to get the kick sounding levelish, but so taht it doesnt loose its attack from over compression.
Then use volume automation.
If there are some hits that dont sound good at all, then simply copy and paste a good hit in its place from somewhere else in the song.

Eck
 
ausgrindslaught said:
Thanks for the wealth of responses guys. I'll go have a bit of a play around and see what works.
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BTW, welcome to HR! Nice to have another Aussie on the board. :cool:
 
Cheers mate. I was on here a few months ago when we started recording our now-scrapped first little demo. Spent many hours learning and playing around with recording and mixing techniques. Then I found this board. Its simply unparallelled for support with home recordings.

Your band sounds pretty cool. I really like the music but the vocals arent really my thing. Nice job.

Well. I'm going to go sleep off this hangover. Dont think I can stand mixing/listening to caustic/violent grindcore at this moment in time. Thanks again guys.
 
ausgrindslaught said:
I really like the music but the vocals arent really my thing.
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Funny, I was just saying the same thing about GnR the other day! :D

I appreciate your honesty, though. :cool:

You'll have to post something for us to hear, especially if this site helped you with the sound!
 
Hmm... I thought I had a myspace link in my sig...

The sites are www.killacelebrity.24ex.com and www.myspace.com/killacelebritygrind - and I warn you, its extreme grindcore. Not easy listening stuff. Theyre just some old demos we did ages ago when I didnt know what 'levels' were - I just cranked them. So... prep your speakers.

Funny, I was just saying the same thing about GnR the other day!
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Hey, even funnier; I have never liked or been able to listen to Guns and Roses because of the vocals. I like Slash's playing but I think Rose is an idiot and his vocals are absolutely terrible. I once had a theory that hells soundtrack would be GnR's cover of Knocking on Heavens Door on a continuous loop.

That being said, I like your vocalist more than Axl! Haha. It is cool stuff though.
 
Bah. Messing round with Drumagog 3.0 (I use Cool Edit sadly for mixing). Dont know what the hell is wrong with the thing, but even when I select another sample to use the track renders with a bloody snare sound.
 
ausgrindslaught said:
Bah. Messing round with Drumagog 3.0 (I use Cool Edit sadly for mixing). Dont know what the hell is wrong with the thing, but even when I select another sample to use the track renders with a bloody snare sound.
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Go to www.drumagog.com there is a forum there. The guy that wrote the program will answer your question.
 
I never used Drumagog but I have heard some things done with it and it seems impressive! I still think a good solid drum track is better in regards to dynamics though.

As stated I would reccomend using volume envelopes to cut out the unwanted noise where the kick is absent. It can take a while and strain your eyes but in the long run it can help make the mix more controlable and less "muddy". I don't usually use it on the kick but it helps a lot on toms and such... more precise than a gate.

Compression and EQ are usually a must on the kick, but don't over do it!

My $0.02
 
I never used Drumagog but I have heard some things done with it and it seems impressive! I still think a good solid drum track is better in regards to dynamics though.
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Without a doubt mate. Unforunately the kick volume varies too much. Cant be helped. I refuse to rerecord for the moment. I'll have a go at using volume envelopes, but the sound leaking isnt the biggest problem really. And yeah, where possibly I wont use cheatagog.
 
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