Mixing Stereo Pair drums (compression, eq, reverb?)

R

RyanHubris

New member
Yesterday I recording drums for my band using 6 mics into my mixer, mixing it into the computer as 2 stereo tracks. Im generally used to do giving each mic its own track, and have all my default levels and whatnot set, but not sure what to do with this.

Can anyone give me some basic compression, eq, and reverb levels to make these sound good? I know its common to respond with something like "THE POSSIBILITES ARE ENDLESS!!", but I'd really just like some basic settings to help me get started.

Thanks a bunch!
 
It is hard to offer advic when you only have 2 tracks to work with. Most people who mic drums have AT LEAST 4 separate tracks to mix together(kick, snare, then two overheads minimum). The problem I am seeing here, is that you have one overhead, and kick snare tom on one track, and the other overhead, and kick snare tom on the other track. I would try maybe keeping them panned out like that, and maybe add a little compression.

I would suggest EQ for snare, kick, etc. But with everythign on the same track, as soon as you cut the low out of the snare for example, then you will lose the kick. See what i am saying? It would be better if you could record them as 4 or even 6 separate tracks, then mixing them will be mush easier.



Simon
 
Maybe some compression, but lightly. You're pretty much screwed in the EQ area, for the reasons mentioned above, although you may be able to make a couple adjustments, but again, lightly. That just my take on things, anyway.

:p
 
That sounds pretty reasonable. I usually do do everything on seperate tracks, but with this project I'm really only limited to 2 tracks for a few reasons. They sound pretty damn good without EQ, but I'll probably just end up adding a splash or reverb or so.
 
You know, a lot of old school recordings (pre-multitrack) sound pretty decent with just 2 tracks... some with only 1 -2 mics. The two keys are 1)a good drummer with an EVEN playing style and tuned drums and 2) mic placement.

The reverb you choose... I would make it a light room verb... if you can remove a little of the bottom end (from the verb only) it might be a good idea.

I usually use 7-8 mics on a kit. However, I got into serious drum recording about 7 years ago. I was determined to figure out the big mysteries on kits.

One of the experiments I did was to figure out how to record a set of drums onto two tracks with no bouncing.

The most successful of these sessions were using a BD mic, sometimes a snare mic, and carefully placed overheads.

The outcome of the sessions was that now, when my band is working on a new song, we can do some descent sounding sketchpad work with minimal set-up.

Good luck!
C
www.thelogicmusic.com
 
For EQ, I would simply cut a little of the mid's are 750 hz.

Reverb? A small room, and not much of it..and if you've got pre-delay, I would play with that a little to set the reverb away from the kit a little.

I'm not sure tht I would compress an entire kit more than 1.5:1 ratio. a ratio that's good for the kick....wait, do you have multi-band compression?



Tim
 
Well I have all the sonar plugins, so I think the EQ is multiband? Not 100% sure what that means.

The drummer is AWESOME and his kit sounds really good, so I'm pretty happy with the tracks as they are. But would also be stoked if theres a few minor things I can do that would improve them. Thanks again.
 
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