mixing Vst drums

lurek100

lurek100

New member
Hi there.
Im going to mix one of my songs. my friend drummer write me a drums in ezdrummer and addictive.
Could you help me please how should I mix it?
At the moment I told him to bounce all the instruments separately to wavs (snare, kick, toms, overheads, room etc.)
and here is another question , when he bouncing them, should he go to ezdrummer mixer and set all the levels to 0db or live them as they are set?
How you guys deal with this kind of jobs?
I appreciate any help. thanks
 
No, probably not worth bothering with getting individual tracks
The plugin should just output a stereo channel, which will almost certainly be balanced reasonably.
 
Personally I'd work with the individual wav files and pan and mix as i want them as opposed to the stereo file mentioned above. You'll have no control except volume if you don't get the wavs.

I mix a kit as I'd look at a it.

Bass Drum - Centre
Snare - Centre
Rack Toms - Slightly off centre
Floor Tom - Further off centre
Cymbols - All off centre.

Pan accordingly so if you were stood in front of the kit, you hear different hits in different places. Build a space for the drums to breathe and sound more natural. I'm no expert but panning drums can give you a better depth and sound.

You can get good results from VTSi Drums if you take the time to get it right. Right drum kit sim, velocity adjustments, panning, mix, etc.

Good luck :cool:
 
I would not bother mixing separate WAVs down as you can mix/pan the drums within the vst itself. the only reason i would do what you are stating is if you wish to add separate reverbs, e.q, compression to each drum or cymbal. Also if you bounce the drums to individual tracks this will undoubtedly use up more cpu

addictive drums is more versatile and if i remember correctly you can achieve separate e.qs/compression with the vst

hope that helps
 
davecg321 said:
I would not bother mixing separate WAVs down as you can mix/pan the drums within the vst itself. the only reason i would do what you are stating is if you wish to add separate reverbs, e.q, compression to each drum or cymbal. Also if you bounce the drums to individual tracks this will undoubtedly use up more cpu

addictive drums is more versatile and if i remember correctly you can achieve separate e.qs/compression with the vst

hope that helps
Click to expand...

That's one way of doing it if he has the VSTi himself. The way I'm reading the question is that his friend is doing the drums elsewhere to send to him. Individual wavs will be better than a stereo mix of the drums, unless his friend can get the panning, eq, reverb and everything right in the first instance.

If he has the same VSTi, all he needs is the midi file.
 
thanks for replays.
My friend is doing those drums for me. And I would like to Mix it with anther instruments. so i thought it will be best to get it in wavs , with center pan. and 0db level.
so then I can start mixing them like it was real drums recorded.
 
Separate tracks, peaks at -12dBFS. Having dealt with premixed loop based drums I can say for a fact that someone else's idea of "reasonably balanced" doesn't necessarily match mine.
 
Yup, get the wav's. In ezd, set all levels to zero and pan the mono tracks to center and the stereo channels to where you like them; wide vs narrow vs normal, etc. If you can get the stereo channels as separate mono tracks, that would be better. This is almost exactly how I use ezd. I set levels, pan and everything else in my DAW.
 
Chili said:
Yup, get the wav's. In ezd, set all levels to zero and pan the mono tracks to center and the stereo channels to where you like them; wide vs narrow vs normal, etc. If you can get the stereo channels as separate mono tracks, that would be better. This is almost exactly how I use ezd. I set levels, pan and everything else in my DAW.
Click to expand...

Yup, me too. the stock panning and levels are seldom what is needed for YOUR mix. A lot depends, of course, on whether the MIDI track has been modified from the stock loops - on some, the hits can be way too loud (or soft). Note that a loud snare hit is going to be louder in the overhead, too, with no way to tame it separately from the cymbals if you are just working with the WAVS. In other words, make sure the person creating the drum pattern does it right!
 
mjbphotos said:
Yup, me too. the stock panning and levels are seldom what is needed for YOUR mix. A lot depends, of course, on whether the MIDI track has been modified from the stock loops - on some, the hits can be way too loud (or soft). Note that a loud snare hit is going to be louder in the overhead, too, with no way to tame it separately from the cymbals if you are just working with the WAVS. In other words, make sure the person creating the drum pattern does it right!
Click to expand...

^^This...

I'm forever tweaking drum velocities in the VSTi when something pokes out rather than trying to contain it any other way... I'll raise volumes for entire sections in the DAW but not individual hits.... so if there's something that's too loud or too soft, go back to your friend and tell him to fix it and send you new files rather than spend hours trying to compress or volume automate it into line... especially if it's something that features in overheads...
 
Hello all

I have a question regarding mixing VST drums that NO one seems to have addressed. Well, take for example superior drummer - say I like a certain setting BUT I still want to mix it in my DAW. You would say - route each VST drum mixer-channel to a mixer channel in the DAW. But here is the problem - in order to do that, I MUST bypass the master out of the VST. By doing that, I loose the effects placed on the VST master out, so the drums now sound different!

Would it make any sense to bounce each drum through the VST master out (in which case it would go through the effects) and then mix the 8 drum channels in the DAW as stereo tracks??
OR should I just compensate for the loss of the VST master out effects by routing the 8 mono exported drum channels through a channel in the DAW on which I put effects similar to what I had in the VST master

Do you understand my problem here?
 
I disable all the 'automatic' track fx on EZD2 - I want control over the whole mix and think that generally, the 'room' sound provided isn't worth using. There's already been compression used on the tracking of the samples, so its seldom needed again. EQ is only needed if the sound isn't right for the overall mix, and I prefer to use the same reverb convolution as I use on other tracks.
 
If you're using superior drummer, select the multichannel output and use the tracks in your DAW. If you still need a master drum track, just make a bus and put all the superior drummer tracks in it.
 
I just use the mixer in SD and treat it as a sub group. If I need to do something special, I will route out that channel, but keep it in a group in my DAW. Like Drums Group Sub group SD, kick, route the kick to the kick track and leave everything else in SD. I found the SD mixer to be capable.
 
When someone is sending me VST drums, I always ask for them to separate the different instruments. Someone else's idea of a good drum mix usually won't fit in the mix that I build. If I only have a stereo drum track, I end up having to make the mix fit around the drums, which paints me into a corner.
 
Farview said:
When someone is sending me VST drums, I always ask for them to separate the different instruments. Someone else's idea of a good drum mix usually won't fit in the mix that I build.
Click to expand...

Even when doing my own VST drum tracks...I prefer to bounce them out from MIDI as individual audio tracks.
The key drums elements - Kick, Snare, Hat and any specific "ear candy" drum elements - those IMO should always be individual tracks.
I may set up the Toms as a stereo pair...because it's my production and I know already what I'm going for, and I spend a good deal of time getting them tuned, level balanced and pan positioned as a "group" where/how I want them in the VST kit... so set up as a stereo pair, it's easy to adjust them all at once.
Also, the OH mics are almost always a stereo pair...but otherwise everything else is always individual tracks.

Once you lump everything into a pre-mixed stereo drum track...like Jay said, you are painted into a corner during mixing.
Wanting the Kick to come up a it here and there or the Hat or whatever...is not easy once you have a stereo drum track.
I also think bouncing them out from MIDI as audio tracks (IMO, YMMV, etc, etc) seems to make them more "gel-able" in the mix with the other tracks as opposed to always playing them back via MIDI as individual samples.
 
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