Expand / Gate for cymbals ?

[JayB]

Just wondering what you guys normally do with cymbals... when using all sample replacement for the rest of the kit. I have a mix right now that is all sample replaced except cymbals and OH. Do you guys try to remove ALL the extraneous noise with eq AND a gate / expander? Especially when some fuck ups on drummer's part can be heard in the cymbals. Can some one possibly post a sample of what just their hi hat or ride sounds like , so I can see how much extra noise should be taken out? I know with overheads it is pretty impossible to get all the excess noise out. But even with heavy EQ you can hear the whole kit in the cymbals ( I didn't record it). Would this noise really make a difference in the final mix? Or do I just say fuck it and leave them how they are ? I do feel like the background noise between the ride , hi hat and OH combined is adding mud to the overall sound.

 

[punkrockacademyfightsong]

Edit the highhat and ride channel clean when they're not being played, that should clean it up quite a lot. If you still have trouble with the kit being too loud in the overheads (I hardly ever find that a negative thing) you could try compressing the OH's sidechained by the snare track.

 

[JayB]

Thanks , I'll give that a shot

 

[Trevoire520]

Some drum spill from your cymbal and overhead mic's should add a bit of realism to a sample replaced kit tbh.

 

[LeSedna]

Some drum spill from your cymbal and overhead mic's should add a bit of realism to a sample replaced kit tbh.

This, for me.

Anyway, a good OH sound should have a decent snare and kick bleeding in conventionnal use. It should help making your samples glue with the real drums.

 

[JayB]

I agree that some spill adds realism , but I'm having some problems where some snare hits that are soo slightly off are poking through the mix and it sounds like two snare hits in parts... maybe I need to EQ a little more to try and remove the snare bleed. (Editing overheads is a BITCH by the way !)

 

[cloy26]

I am having the exact same problem. It sounds like doubled hits. lol. Def want to find a good way to get rid of this.

 

[Morgan C]

Why didn't you edit all the drums together? If I'm reading this right, you only quantized the close mics?

 

[cloy26]

nope. I edit all my tracks together, but the snare bleed in the overhead isn't perfect with the sampled snare track. Maybe it's because I converted to midi from reaper then triggered in s2.0.

 

[JayB]

Yeah I edit all my drums together , but you can still barely hear that other damn snare... it was real shitty sounding hence the replacement

 

[Perishh]

I used to have this problem but with slip editing the entire drums together you keep everything alligned and shouldn't be able to hear the OH bleed that much through the sampled kit. If the snare hit sits exactly where it did orignially with the overheads i dont see how there is a problem. Unless there were phase issues?

 

[cloy26]

It's like there was a delay in the triggered track. So you hear attack of the snare in the OHs, then you hear the trigger track.

 

[JayB]

Cloy , it sounds like your problem is with delay compensation , try printing the sampled drums and cutting the printed track to the first transient , then align it with the original track - should be on time after that. I think my problem is just that the Overheads weren't edited quite well enough

 

[chrisrivalry]

ever try using the ducking function on drumagog?

 

[JayB]

ever try using the ducking function on drumagog?

actually , no ! Would that help in this situation?

 

[chrisrivalry]

it depends, in your situation not so much since you're just looking to clean up where someone messed up if I'm not mistaken. Ducking is good to get the snare out of the overheads or whatever it is you decide to key, typically the snare though.