Mixing Toms

docwright15

New Metal Member
Oct 28, 2010
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As I mix my mix, I can NEVER get my toms to stick out in a good way. I have used Chimaira toms and they seem to have too much attack so I add release and lower attack but it seems to be crappy anyway. Does anyone know any EQ tips and compression tips I could use....or other effects. I need some desperate help, deadline coming soon for this album!
 
Where are your levels peaking at with your other drums? If you've got enough headroom, they should punch through just fine. Especially the Chimaira toms.
 
Just in case you want HUGE toms PSP's MicroWarmer/VintageWarmer does the trick for me every single time, the free Audio Damage Rough Rider also smacks the hell out of toms really nice.
 
Morgan C your link on your other forum is broken, Mixcraft doesn't really have a way to tell where anything is peaking, now I know that when it hits the red it peaking too loud but it doesn't have dB measures on the side of that bar or anything, unless you know of a VST that measures it for me.

Here is a clip of one my songs, and it seems though the toms don't come out all that good like I would like...I hear the hit but no thud or thump which I can EQ BUT still, also it's not fat enough or huge enough. I don't know where to go from here, I would like get it to sound like Asking Alexandria's CD with Sturgis, he did a pretty good job. I want it to sit like that and punch like that.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19450618/Clip.wav
 
You have to do a lot of post work to get toms to punch through a mix, you don't just drop in the samples and expect them to work

go read that Tom EQ tips thread that was already posted, Sturgis talks about the post work he does to toms
 
The clip sounds fine to me. You could boost in the highs (like 5-8khs) a little if you wanted them to poke out a little more.

The main reason the toms sound so weak is because the cymbals are so loud that when a fill comes in, all the drums sound weak. Turnthe cymbals down.
 
hand gate toms if you're not using samples. and i rarely trigger toms cause i can never get the damn things to trigger accurately.

edit: by "hand gate" i mean instead of using a gate plug in, take the time to manually go through and delete all the audio on the tom tracks where they're not being hit, and make long/short fades as necessary.
 
hand gate toms if you're not using samples. and i rarely trigger toms cause i can never get the damn things to trigger accurately.

edit: by "hand gate" i mean instead of using a gate plug in, take the time to manually go through and delete all the audio on the tom tracks where they're not being hit, and make long/short fades as necessary.

or you have a realy good drummer that hits hard, so the gate works good enough and you only need some automation here and there.
 
(Referring to the original post and I could be way off base here) it sounds like Docwright may be misunderstanding the attack and release controls on a compressor? "Attack" controls how quickly the compressor kicks in when a transient crosses the threshold and release controls how quickly it stops compressing after the transient has dropped back below the threshold. It is not a control over how much "attack" a transient has.

Or is he saying that he shortened the attack to catch the transient quicker and hopefully "tame" it? I'm sorry Docwright if that's what you meant, just trying to be helpful.
 
So, how many people are gating / editing toms?

Anyone leaving them unedited / gated / automated?
 
I Always gate toms no matter if it is real drums and samples. I find SSD toms need huge amounts of gating. I always gate by hand, especially for toms. If it is part of a tom roll I will edit it very tight so there is no ring from the toms overlapping. If it is a single tom hit I will still edit but give it a longer tail to sound more real. I will do the same with snare if it is a ringy snare. In fast sections I gate shorter than in slower passages in a song where the snare is hit less.
 
so you want them to stick out, but you want to lower the attack with a compressor?
are you sure YOU know what you want? sometimes people have a hard time hearing what's wrong but they know something is wrong. Maybe this is one of those times?