Mixing ssd room mic and reverb guitar question

[deftones769]

Hey guys

Just wondering on how do you guys mix your ssd room mic or any drum room mic to make it punch or stand out in the mix. And another question how do I get more ambience on heavy distorted guitars without it sounding messy

Cheers

 

[abaga129]

Sometimes if the guitars just seem too small and eqing isn't getting me what I want, i'll slap a room reverb with a pretty short reverb time on the guitar bus. Doesn't always work but if the mix isn't very dense it can really help fill it out.

 

[Small_hand20]

One way I tend to approach mixing the room mic's for metal in SSD is to first compress the shit out it. It will sound like garbage but you don't really want to get your reverb or room sounds (ironically) from the room mic in SSD, or at least I don't care to. What happens when you compress the shit out of the room in SSD is you get a sort of overall transients control of the entire drum kit which I often set to a lower volume. You will somewhat find a sweet spot. The second thing I do is Eq a lot of the low end out with a low pass filter to get rid of a lot of mud which you will have once you have compressed it so much. I wouldn't recommend compressing the overheads very much at all if any. Maybe like a .5 db of reduction. SSD has really good sounding overheads. And then again just eq a low pass filter to get rid of all the low mud. Typically you don't get your punch of your drums from your room and overhead so focus that on the other pieces of the kit.

 

[rapucore]

One way I tend to approach mixing the room mic's for metal in SSD is to first compress the shit out it. It will sound like garbage but you don't really want to get your reverb or room sounds (ironically) from the room mic in SSD, or at least I don't care to. What happens when you compress the shit out of the room in SSD is you get a sort of overall transients control of the entire drum kit which I often set to a lower volume. You will somewhat find a sweet spot. The second thing I do is Eq a lot of the low end out with a low pass filter to get rid of a lot of mud which you will have once you have compressed it so much. I wouldn't recommend compressing the overheads very much at all if any. Maybe like a .5 db of reduction. SSD has really good sounding overheads. And then again just eq a low pass filter to get rid of all the low mud. Typically you don't get your punch of your drums from your room and overhead so focus that on the other pieces of the kit.

It's a hipass filter, it lets the highs pass.. Low pass filter cuts the highs from where you set it.

And when using sampled cymbals I tend to compress them (nothing too drastic, only what sounds pleasing to the ears)
to get more sustain and life into them.

I disagree with your oppinion on 'not getting the punch from room mics'.
Don't know if you only meant drum VSTi's, but I certainly do get a lot of punch from the room mics.

 

[Small_hand20]

It's a hipass filter, it lets the highs pass.. Low pass filter cuts the highs from where you set it.

And when using sampled cymbals I tend to compress them (nothing too drastic, only what sounds pleasing to the ears)
to get more sustain and life into them.

I disagree with your oppinion on 'not getting the punch from room mics'.
Don't know if you only meant drum VSTi's, but I certainly do get a lot of punch from the room mics.

You are correct! That was a freudian slip I suppose. Both times. I do get alot out of the room mic's but I wouldn't describe it as punch. Granted I use the room mic's from Steven Slate drums. I don't know though, thats usually not what I would imagine one would want out of the room mic's. For me it just adds a "realness" factor to the overall drum kit which I definitely like. Usually varying degrees of compression and parallel compression to the different elements of the close mic's on the drum kit have sufficed enough to give me that punch I need. But to each his own.

 

[rapucore]

You are correct! That was a freudian slip I suppose. Both times. I do get alot out of the room mic's but I wouldn't describe it as punch. Granted I use the room mic's from Steven Slate drums. I don't know though, thats usually not what I would imagine one would want out of the room mic's. For me it just adds a "realness" factor to the overall drum kit which I definitely like. Usually varying degrees of compression and parallel compression to the different elements of the close mic's on the drum kit have sufficed enough to give me that punch I need. But to each his own.

Realness factor is one of the biggest things it gives, agreed. But atleast for me, by compressing the room mic not to destruction, you get a very punchy room sound to liven up the drums.

Though, drum VSTi's don't do what real mics, so it's a bit different comparing them.

And I do agree, you will get enough punch from close mics with the ways you mentioned, but you CAN get punch from the room mic too.

 

[Small_hand20]

Realness factor is one of the biggest things it gives, agreed. But atleast for me, by compressing the room mic not to destruction, you get a very punchy room sound to liven up the drums.

Though, drum VSTi's don't do what real mics, so it's a bit different comparing them.

And I do agree, you will get enough punch from close mics with the ways you mentioned, but you CAN get punch from the room mic too.

That is something for me to look into I suppose. I wouldn't mind having a go at some good quality stems from a real mic'd drum kit. Any suggestions as to where I could find some?

 

[rapucore]

That is something for me to look into I suppose. I wouldn't mind having a go at some good quality stems from a real mic'd drum kit. Any suggestions as to where I could find some?

Certainly! There were some good quality stems with real mic'd up drums at the Andy Sneap-forum, look them up @ Practice Room.

 

[Small_hand20]

Fuck yeah! On it!