A toms question

adrianvillan

Metal Commando.
Mar 31, 2004
166
0
16
The ruins of Los Angeles
Hey guys,
Whats your take on mixing toms? Do you guys gate them or mute them all together when the drummer is not hitting them? Im picking up to much cymbals in the toms mics. Would love to know how Andy or james do it. Care to share any secrets? :Smokedev:
 
I've had pretty good results editing out the gaps between hits, takes a while though when you've got several tracks
 
I gate the tom tracks as well.

But lately, in addition to that, I like to clone the tom tracks, take out the tom hits, compress the shit out of the bleed (be sure to eq out the resonance coming off of the tom heads first), then mix it in with the rest of the kit with NO REVERB. It really glues the kit together and makes it sound more "real" or "natural" or what have you when blended with the 'verbed room or overhead tracks. Be sure to pan the bleed tracks realistically, of course -- I just put 'em wherever the actual tom tracks fit best with the kit.

You're never gonna eliminate hi-hat bleed, but you can tone it down a bit.

Along the lines of what adrianvillan said, Auralex makes these foam mic shield pad thingies that work pretty well on the tom and snare mics for keeping the brass out. A lot of that's gonna depend on the setup of the drums, mics, cymbals, etc. though, so YMMV.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/421198/

I've also heard of people doing all kinds of stuff like using smaller hats, taping a sock to the bottom hat, gating in a reverse phase hi-hat track with the snare track, turning up the hi-hat channel really loud in the drummer's headphones, or somehow talking the drummer into not hitting them as hard.

But using good mic placement and the Auralex pads works fine for me.
 
Along the lines of what adrianvillan said, Auralex makes these foam mic shield pad thingies that work pretty well on the tom and snare mics for keeping the brass out. A lot of that's gonna depend on the setup of the drums, mics, cymbals, etc. though, so YMMV.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/421198/

But if you look at the kit, theres really not much too it other than holes cut out. Any extra foam padding will do the exact same thing and you can buy a 12 pack of your favorite beer with the money you saved! :kickass:
 
Personally, I prefer doing manual fades on the toms, giving the entire drum mix a little more of a human feel, with a little bit of the cymbal leakage coming in as I raise the tom levels, and lowering when I take the faders down. I used to gate/edit them, and got good results(and I feel that doing this, or editing out the parts where the toms aren't played works really well for any music that has a lot of tom playing, as it sounds tighter in general), but these days I'm looking for a more dynamic sound than the traditional tight-as-possible modern metal drum sound.
 
Exsanguis said:
Personally, I prefer doing manual fades on the toms, giving the entire drum mix a little more of a human feel, with a little bit of the cymbal leakage coming in as I raise the tom levels, and lowering when I take the faders down. I used to gate/edit them, and got good results(and I feel that doing this, or editing out the parts where the toms aren't played works really well for any music that has a lot of tom playing, as it sounds tighter in general), but these days I'm looking for a more dynamic sound than the traditional tight-as-possible modern metal drum sound.


I would love that luxury, Im working with a drummer hitting every tom cymbal and rim shot at the same time AND he likes he cymbals very low right over the toms, I can barley fit the mic:yuk:
 
Brett - K A L I S I A said:
I'm not sure if there is any "right" way of doing anything actually... Anyway, Andy does the same for the tom tracks, so it helps you not feeling like you're an idiot doing it :D

I hear ya Brett, Im trying new shit all the time, but hearing Andy's and some of the stuff you guys do, Im curious to know of any short cuts
:D