leazy guys mmm here are the answers
after drum tracks are done (not in my studio-i do everything in my studio except drums), i clean them up (in the amazing Cubase SX3)... by cleaning, i mean any cliks or pops or stick-hits or coughs by me or screams like "yahhh; that's the take!"....
then, if the playing is great but maybe something is a bit "off" in the timing, then i can fix it... or if one of the drum "hits" is bad (like maybe the drummer played great but accidentally hit too much on the outside of a snare or tom or something, then i can replace that bad hit with a good one. kinda like cut and paste on your home computer system. once the timing is fixed up a bit, i f needed, then i will make sure that the "levels" of all the drums are pretty consistent. If not, then i raise the volume of individual "hits" until they are close to the same levels as the average... this saves you having to compress the heck out of the drums later.
blahblah....
so then in the mix, i usually grab a really good "hit" by the drummer for his snare and kicks and then take the best and mix it in with the original drum. this makes it sound more even and consistent throughout the whole song and also the whole cd. i mix em in about 75% best hit and 25% the original. A program called Drumagog is a SICK product. Makes drums become 100X easier to get right.
i just roll off the low eq frequencies (on the Mackie D8B board) on the sn/kik/toms, a bit different for each; maybe some slight eq on mids and top. i am learning the art of cutting frequencies now rather than bossting all the time! then compression using the incredible UAD-1 cards (universal audio). verbs come from the stock MFX cards on the Mackie and from the Realverb on the UAD-1 cards.
it also starts with the player and how good he tunes and hits.... and with the engineer. i would guess that 98% of engineers actually don't know how to mike a drum kit well; although i am sure they all think they can. Anyone can plop a mike in front of a drum but only a real drum engineer knows how to do it right! I always hire a good drum engineer as it is an acquired and well-learned art form to mike drums well; way outta my league.
jw
well drumagog is not to fix the timing of drums... it is only to take the drummer's real drums and either replace the hits with samples or mix in the hits with samples of his ownn hits, or mix new samples in with his original hits,,,, blah blah . . . but what drumagog does is keep the exact velocity (or however much precision you want) on the actual strength of EACH drum hit.... replacing a hit with a sample is an old trick but what it doesnt do is retain the exact same "strength" of the original hit. Drumagog keeps it all if you want it the exact way it was played.
fixing timing problems or bad hits is what you would use your sequencing/audio program for. yeehaw!
latency? well i just basically "bounce" (export audio mixdown) the "new" drumagogged drums and then visually line up a few random hits in the file, with the original.
verb on drums this time (chris coldrick) was mackie mfx verb (stock mackie d8b plate verb), on the snare/toms, simple yet effective and clears up the mix for the rest of the metal madness. also a basic room sound on the whole kit.
panning is normal.... i like the toms and overheads/cymbals at most around 9 oclock/3 oclock . . . a bit of stereo vibe yet out of the way for the left and right guitars!
chris and i compressed all the drums a wee bit individually and then also compressed the sn/kik together with an LA2A...
and
use one microphone (sm57), one amp (marshall jcm 800 100 w), one pedal (tonebone), and one track per side (left take and a right take).... no layering or stacking rhythms. in fact, lotsa people get that whole concept wrong. for big fat rhtyhm sounds, stacking/layering can worlk but only if the music is simple, basic and not fast.... when you are playing Annihilator Metal, it is often fast and tightly played stuff.... the more you try to f..k with the single track, the more mess, mud and un-intelligable picking you create. single tracks work great for tight and precision stuff but then you also have to practice your balls off tbecause the slightest mistake will be heard.
yes yes! kudos...
