5 drum tracks, 1 COMPRESSOR. Techniques?

jcooke · Post by **jcooke** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:32 am

I've been wondering about what people do to compress drums. ?I have one distressor in my rack so compressing them in real time is not possible.

Do you record all your drum tracks and then compress them one at a time by reamping? Do you compress the whole mix?

Suggestions?

Thanks,
Jcooke

Albro Swift · Post by **Albro Swift** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:41 am

I'd do two things: when tracking, I'd send one mic throught the Distressor, probablly nuked and distorted, but it doesn't have to be.

Then on mixdown, I'd use the distressor as a bus compressor and send some kick, snare and maybe a little of each overhead to it, then blend it underneath the other tracks...that way you'd get a lot of pump and squash but still have plenty of crack from the uncompressed tracks...

The idea of sending tracks through it one at a time would work, but it seems like a lot of trouble, and it would be hard to gauge what the final result would sound like... but hey it might sound cool.

0.02,
Josh

philbo · Post by **philbo** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 10:06 am

Lots of things you could try. Depends on what sort of sound you want.

One idea would be to submix them to stereo, run them through a stereo->M/S encoder, then compress just the mid (for punch), then re-decode back to stereo.

Another idea would be to run the compressor on an aux bus, then mix the compressor return with the uncompressed tracks.
________
OUTDOOR VID

jcooke · Post by **jcooke** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:38 pm

any other ideas?

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:19 pm

Use the distressor on the BD or SD if needed in tracking, do a parallel mono thing on the mix, use it on bass in the mix. Use a cool mic four feet out formt the drums and distress the crap out of it. Send it to me because I'm such a helpful guy (I had to try right..?

)

I'm sure there are other options too... [/u]

red cross · Post by **red cross** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:12 am

Every drum track on the Beatles records up to Abbey Road went through a single Fairchild before hitting tape.

Catoogie · Post by **Catoogie** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:24 am

Don't use any. Worked out ok for "Heart of Gold".

Fletcher · Post by **Fletcher** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 8:28 am

jcooke wrote:I've been wondering about what people do to compress drums.

Me too.

votemiles wrote:Every drum track on the Beatles records up to Abbey Road went through a single Fairchild before hitting tape.

Q: Why did the producer cross the road?
A: Because that's the way the Beatles did it.

[a thank you to Steve Albini for turning me onto that oh too real "joke"]

I hate compressed drums unless they're compressed for a purpose. If you need to change the "envelop" of a drum or drum track to fit a particular purpose in a song... compress away.

If you're looking to compress your drums because all the other kids are compressing their drums... grow the fuck up and listen to your music and make the sound "special"... "unique".

Fuck the fucking Beatles.

I probably get asked a dozen times a week what compressor I use for snare drum... the answer is always the same... "NONE"

An SPL "Transient Designer" every now and again [to fuck with the envelop of the drum] but other than that... unless the drummer had a serious fucking "velocity issue" [hits the drums really hard on the intro to a section and like a pussy during the rest of the song]... no compression... let a little "whack" come through is what I say.

With a single "Distressor" you can do some very cool things in a mix by setting the unit up on an aux send from the console and dialing things into that send while returning the unit up the middle. For instance... you send the toms into the mono compressor and then pan the toms too far out to the side [so they sound all goofy and shit... like a late 70's Eagles record]... and the compressor will bring them to 'upfront center' a bit... fuck with the release on the compressor and have the mono signal that you're mixing with the "too wide" signal have more sustain or maybe like no sustain... or whatever fits with what y-o-u-r creative interpretation of what the music might suggest to your sense of aesthetic.

Or use the thing on bass... or to make the bass and the kik drum become one instrument with accents on the "1" & "3".

The possiblities are only limited by the limits of "sameness" you impose on yourself. Free you mind from what any motherfucker has done before you... develop your own "thing" and live your life the way you want to.

Peace.

jcooke · Post by **jcooke** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:09 am

Fletcher,
Thanks for your frank and informative response. I laughed and learned

Jcooke

P.S. The next time the drummer is weak with a hit I'm going to tell him to stop hitting it like a pussy!

Seventh Wave Studio · Post by **Seventh Wave Studio** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 10:28 am

Fletcher wrote: Fuck the fucking Beatles.

I found my new tag line.

Badass.

majortom · Post by **majortom** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:38 pm

Regarding Fletchers last answer to this post...

thanks for the encouragement on this, it's amazing to me on a forum where people want to consider themselves outside the norm of people trying to make/record music, how many seem to be striving to know the secrets of the past just so they can copy them and not so they may use some of it to come up with something fresh.

Since I've been checking this place out I've paid even closer attention to drums than I usually do (drummer for 25 yrs blah,blah,blah) so, so much of the sounds are complete crap and then duplicated crap of someone elses crap...

after reading TAPEOP for the last year I've tried to check out almost all of the music mentioned and so often it's the people who seem to not know shit EXCEPT for how THEY want it to sound that come up with the greates sounding drums. Todd.[/quote]

weatherbox · Post by **weatherbox** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 8:53 pm

I like doing the one smashed room mic thing... bring it up at certain points in the mix for a really dirty chaotic sound. Now and again I'll heavily compress the snare or kick as an effect - fairly rarely though, most songs don't call for it. I'll often apply a really gentle stereo compression to my drum mix, but that's more because I love the sound of the 1968 than because the drums needed much dynamic change... just a 1-3db reduction with the sidechain filter on. Gives the (digital) recording a little more character without messing up the sound of the kit.

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 11:46 am

Fletcher wrote:
jcooke wrote:I've been wondering about what people do to compress drums.
Me too.

votemiles wrote:Every drum track on the Beatles records up to Abbey Road went through a single Fairchild before hitting tape.
Q: Why did the producer cross the road?
A: Because that's the way the Beatles did it.

[a thank you to Steve Albini for turning me onto that oh too real "joke"]

I hate compressed drums unless they're compressed for a purpose. If you need to change the "envelop" of a drum or drum track to fit a particular purpose in a song... compress away.

If you're looking to compress your drums because all the other kids are compressing their drums... grow the fuck up and listen to your music and make the sound "special"... "unique".

Fuck the fucking Beatles.

I probably get asked a dozen times a week what compressor I use for snare drum... the answer is always the same... "NONE"

An SPL "Transient Designer" every now and again [to fuck with the envelop of the drum] but other than that... unless the drummer had a serious fucking "velocity issue" [hits the drums really hard on the intro to a section and like a pussy during the rest of the song]... no compression... let a little "whack" come through is what I say.

With a single "Distressor" you can do some very cool things in a mix by setting the unit up on an aux send from the console and dialing things into that send while returning the unit up the middle. For instance... you send the toms into the mono compressor and then pan the toms too far out to the side [so they sound all goofy and shit... like a late 70's Eagles record]... and the compressor will bring them to 'upfront center' a bit... fuck with the release on the compressor and have the mono signal that you're mixing with the "too wide" signal have more sustain or maybe like no sustain... or whatever fits with what y-o-u-r creative interpretation of what the music might suggest to your sense of aesthetic.

Or use the thing on bass... or to make the bass and the kik drum become one instrument with accents on the "1" & "3".

The possiblities are only limited by the limits of "sameness" you impose on yourself. Free you mind from what any motherfucker has done before you... develop your own "thing" and live your life the way you want to.

Peace.

My second favorite post by fletcher.

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5 drum tracks, 1 COMPRESSOR. Techniques?

5 drum tracks, 1 COMPRESSOR. Techniques?

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