Need advice with drum tones.

[mstone564]

I've been messing around and trying to get a drum sound for my bands EP and I feel that it's very weak.

Here they are in the context of a mix: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689406/Conqueror (Demo).mp3
Guitars: Solo_C with Catharsis impulses
Bass: two tracks processed (one sub, one ampeg SVX)


And here they are soloed (unmastered, UPDATED): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689406/Conqueror Drums Unmastered.mp3

I'm using kick 10 (detuned about -7) and blending brian kick. For snares I'm using Snare 22, Snare 15, and Joey Snare 1 and a Superior snare.
Toms are avatar and New Maple blended and cymbals/hats are avatar.
All the shells and hats are going to a parallel compression.


I feel like there's an awkward balance of room and verb compared to the full kit, so do snare/toms need more verb and/or room sound? Do I need more room sound in general (I feel the cymbals sound fake because of this)? Or do my drums surprisingly sound good and I'm just thinking it?
Hope somebody can help!

 

[AllanD]

It sounds good, minus the toms. The toms sound really thin in my opinion compared to the fatness of the snare.

 

[mstone564]

Anything you would suggest to do to them?

I always seem to get told my toms sound bad.

EDIT: The unmastered soloed drums are updated with a 5.5 db low shelf boost at 80 on all the toms (after a high pass at 20), kick and overall room is a tad louder.

 

[Wolfeman]

I think the toms need less verb/room

 

[mstone564]

Updated again.
Took off the Slate room samples I had in TRIGGER and now it's just (for toms) avatar toms, new maple, superior room compressed to hell, and parallel compression with 5.5 db low shelf boost at 80 on all the toms (after a high pass at 20).

 

[Wolfeman]

I like em.

 

[bryan_kilco]

sounds good here but the vocals seem waayyyy loud.

 

[CSMadden81243]

i think your toms are doubled... i keep hearing 2 very close hits when the toms hit. the tone doesn't sound bad, but the stutter does haha

 

[mstone564]

I think I've heard that, too.

I have Superior's and the Slate TRIGGER tracks running at the same time, with the Slate having the midi.
Does this create a flam and is there a way to stop this? I'm pretty sure I tuned each Superior and Slate tom to the same pitch.

 

[P-E]

I think I recall someone saying that Superior and Trigger didn't trigger at the *exact* same moment, so you might wanna bounce both and check if the phase is aligned.

 

[CSMadden81243]

it could create a flam due to latency. do you have superior and slate trigger on the same or separate tracks? cause you'd want to have them on the same track with superior first and slate second, and blended like 50%. although, that still might produce a flam if there is any latency in slate trigger.

 

[mstone564]

Yeah, it's separate tracks.

What would you guys do to resolve this?

 

[CubanDude]

Bounce them out and align them manually?

 

[mstone564]

Okay, so this is what I'm seeing when I bounced and put side by side my Superior Tom 1 and Slate Tom 1 tracks:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689406/ConquerorToms.jpg

The Slate Tom 1 is slightly ahead of the grid...
I'm really not into printing the samples just to have them aligned, so is this a bug with Trigger or can this be fix within the plugin with a certain setting I'm not aware of?

 

[mstone564]

Seems the only thing that's helping is setting each trigger instance with a midi track to 'live' mode. But, even then it's still ever so slightly before the grid.

 

[mstone564]

I'm still frustrated with how my toms sound.
For people using the New Maple set, how much do you usually scoop? I'm cutting around 2.5-3.5 in 500-700Hz with a medium Q and boosting a little at 3k. There's also a high pass at 50 with a +8 boost low shelf at 50 on the tom bus. I think mine sound a little papery, IMO. I'm also compressing each Slate tom with a 4.0:1 ratio, 15ms attack, 80ms release, and -10dB on the thres. There's also a compressor on the tom bus as well with similar settings with -6dB thres. Is this too much comp?

Sorry to bring Joey and Zuess into this, but I'm a fan of Oceano's tom sound (both on Depths and Contagion) and the fills we have sound similar to theirs so I'm trying to go for a sound close to that.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689406/Conqueror (Demo).mp3
Here's what I have so far.

 

[oroinvictus]

Well, if you want tha Oceano sound, you'll probably want to start with the quik toms.

 

[RandomOne]

everything sounds good to me except the snare....