How Do Mix Drums (using Drum Bus Compression)

[Trep]

¯\(°_o)/¯

Couldn't resist the title

Extremely Late to the Game, but i've just learned of drum Bus compression, thanks to the Shootout from Ermz.

I had a little bit of a mess with it and was just hoping for some tips on it.

1. Limiter or Compression? Whats Kinds of Settings

2. Pre or Post Fader Aux Sends

3. Less or More feed into the bus on any Particular Drums/Cymbals, or should I Mirror the main Drum Mix into the bus (Post fader, 0 db - Aux sends)

4. What am i listening for????? hahahaha
- What can i Expect to hear if done correctly, and How do i go about blending it with the original signal.


I know it sounds pretty vauge but im just interested in how other people utilise it in their mix and what effect it has on the mix.

Thanks

Trep

 

[Ermz]

I never really use it to be honest with you. All of my drum compression happens individually on a drum by drum basis. Couple that with the overall mix bus compressor and it's usually enough. If I HAD to use something on the drum bus it would either be a slow attack, quick release compression to add more 'snap' if the drums didn't have enough (though once again I would try to fix this on a more surgical track-by-track level) or it would be limiter-like compression with an 1176 type plug-in to get some fat rock vibes going. But once again I would be using that in parallel, in which case it would've just been better to send individual tracks to the compressor so you can tailor their levels and not have to deal with the drum bus comp eating your cymbals alive...

 

[gabriel g.]

I tried it too, but I realy overcompressed the drums.
So I compress kick bus, snare bus and tom bus seperatly. I´m using the waves L1 for overheads but not for compression just for destroying the snare in oh and bring up the cymbals (nice tip from joeymusicguy)
Sometimes I find my self using a comp on the full drum-bus just for colouring not for compression (like waves ssl, or api)

 

[ahjteam]

I use drum bus compression only in parallel, it usually sucks the tone too much otherwise

 

[Erkan]

I'm far from an expert or anything but I never use parallel compression on drums. I just try to get the best sound I can per track basis and if they need to share an effect like a compressor or something, I send them out to a track with that on, so that's about the only parallel thing I ever do. I just can't seem to find a good use for parallel compression, or even drum bus compression for that matter. No matter how I dial them in, they mess up the sound and make the clarity just go right out the window. And I'm quite happy with not using drum bus compression or parallel compression, so it doesn't matter too much that I suck at it... for now =)

 

[gabriel g.]

parallel compression just means you split your mixed drums up.
One is untoughed the other is hardly compressed.
The compressed part must be much lower in volume so it thicks the drums up.
It works great for hardcore but not that great for metal

 

[Machinated]

I put a drum bus compressor on quite a lot of the time, just to get a tiny put of pumping to kind of give the drums some added push. its only really slight, just adds a bit more punchiness/aggression.

I used to use the URS strip (not pro), i find myself using the pro now - attack around 20-30ms release depends on the material. usually quite an aggressive knee too, but only a couple of dB reduction. you have to be careful with it as its a very easy thing to get wrong and you could end up with smaller sounding drums.

 

[myownsilence]

I tried using parallel compression, but I think unless you learn to use it from a pro you'll never get it, I find hat if its low in the mix the drums are so compressed with the trick that you cant hear them, and loud you might as well just run the drums through a stereo bus compressor.

There are pro AE's that use it, but notice the "pro" bit.

 

[LeviathanMetal]

I tried it too, but I realy overcompressed the drums.
So I compress kick bus, snare bus and tom bus seperatly. I´m using the waves L1 for overheads but not for compression just for destroying the snare in oh and bring up the cymbals (nice tip from joeymusicguy)
Sometimes I find my self using a comp on the full drum-bus just for colouring not for compression (like waves ssl, or api)

wow... great tip joey

 

[Ermz]

^ That tip surfaced on here several years ago, made by the almighty Sneap. Though he may have advocated the L2.

 

[AdamWathan]

For some reasons I thought Andy's suggestion was to sidechain a compressor to the overhead tracks keyed from the snare track... Sidechaining seems like a more effective solution to me than limiting...?

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

It depends, say you have a blast beat going on, with same timed hihat hits, with the sidechain it will bring the OHs down every time you hit a snare right? So in that case your hihat would get lost. I usually use joey's method, and it works wonders

 

[AdamWathan]

It depends, say you have a blast beat going on, with same timed hihat hits, with the sidechain it will bring the OHs down every time you hit a snare right? So in that case your hihat would get lost. I usually use joey's method, and it works wonders

Not necessarily, you can set the threshold on the compressor so only the loud obtrusive snare hits actually trigger the compression... No different than with the limiter really, you'd have to set your limiter threshold high enough to ignore the blast beat snare hits just like with the compressor. Both work, I find with any tracks I've ever recorded though that after highpassing the overheads, the snare peaks aren't the loudest part of my tracks anymore so a limiter will do nothing, and even the compressor is pointless at that point since the snare is so quiet anyways.

 

[Trep]

Ah Cool Guys thanks for the Posts,

Anyone Got a link to the Tip that Joey/Andy Posted. I couldn't Find it In the search Box or Google. Dont really know what Im Looking for

 

[Morgan C]

I like it, just a bit. Fastest attack I can get (0.05 on Voxengo), release about 60ms.. make it generate a lot of pumping but only put it like 10 or 20% wet. I never use a slow attack compressor on the drum bus though, that's what the individual drum compressors are for. It seems I use a very different method to Machinated but for the same effect.

 

[Trevoire520]

I sometimes do a very small amount of limiting on the drum bus to stop the super loud transients from making the master compressor go crazy. Maybe a touch of compression if it works for the kit and the song. I find I get the best results with as little as possible on the drum bus though.

Not really too into parallel compression to be honest, just makes the whole thing sound quite unclear to me.

 

[@tombomb]

you kinda have to consider that when he posted these settings and stuff, it was back in 2007 when he recorded Before Their Eyes' first CD and Emarosa's first CD.

 

[arv_foh]

you kinda have to consider that when he posted these settings and stuff, it was back in 2007 when he recorded Before Their Eyes' first CD and Emarosa's first CD.

Why don't you swing off Joey's nuts a little more? Jesus

 

[jval]

i usually have a compressor on the drum bus. Typically the SSL bus comp using the "punch" preset... definitely gives it some attitude with only 1 or 2db compression.
Tried parallel comp a bunch and never been super satisfied.

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

Why don't you swing off Joey's nut a little more? Jesus

Beat me to it. I was literally about to say the exact thing