sick of "mix ready" samples, tried tweaking the SD2 Avatar Kit

[FIXXXER]

being tired of running multiple setups, samples, triggers etc i have decited to excessively tweak the SD2 Avatar Kit to make it sound somewhat "mix ready" without having the hassle blending samples etc.

tried to get a tight punchy and somewhat "organic" sound,
that's what i've got so far...


update:
DRUM_TEST_5

i know it's hard to jsuge drums only,
though i'd like to hear a few opinions on this.

i'm really happy with basically anything except the kick.

what do you think?

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

To my ears, the snare and kick have a very excessive amount of high end- sounds like a shelf boost of 8+ db. Very harsh and clicky in the highs.

TBH I don't find the Avatar kit needs much processing. Kick HPF @ 35, scoop maybe 5 db around 200 and sometimes 1-3 db around 600, 1 db boost around 3500 and 1 db shelf at 8000. Snare is a HPF @ 75, cut 5 db @ 350, and same highs processing as the kick. The snappiness and click comes from appropriate compression and parallel processing instead of EQ work. I also find the fundamental snappiness in the kick and snare and reduce 2-5 db from the overheads, guitars, and bass in that same region.

The other thing is that the more you boost the highs, the less the lows stand out in the mix, and the more the bass will then stand out in an odd way. Just my two cents.

 

[FIXXXER]

thanks for the feedback man!

yeah, that's exactly what i do not like about the kick, thouh i have to say that i didn't eq boost anywhere, everything was done by cutting.

the snare is pointy in this that's right, i used midi grooves from the metal foundry,
however these seem always to trigger the undamped snares.
i dialed in the tone by triggering the damped samples, which does not sound that ear piercing at all, changed that out.

update:
DRUM_TEST_5

i really tried to go for an extreme processed sound, in general you are right about avatar, out of the box it sounds
great with jsut some parallel compression and some more compression on the room track.

 

[Habsburgs]

I don't think those drums are going to fit a mix very well. I can already see the snare getting lost in the mix and only getting a weird "splat" that cuts through with no body.

 

[FIXXXER]

thanks for the input, well that's exactly what i had in my mind
i was like, yeah i really dig that drum sound but then hearing another
opinion kind of opens ones eyes and now i can exactly hear what you guys have stated before,
awesome, one reason i'm still checking out this forum daily

i've tried to shape the drums, especially the snare a bit differently this time, still only by cutting,
the only "boost" is the revival enhancer by slate.

update:
DRUM_TEST_5

 

[FIXXXER]

no any more opinions?

 

[Habsburgs]

I have no idea. It still sounds over processed in a bad way IMO. I have no idea how to get the drum sound you want but you can try using gates, creating different multis to filter out what you dont want, parallel comp, transient shapers and all that stuff. I don't think just using your average comp and eq is going to give you that extreme processed sound.

 

[FIXXXER]

that's actually exactly how i have approached this one, tried to get there using EQ and comp and a few things like VMR etc.
i don't have a transient tool however i am happy with the "punch", didn't add any parallel compression though...

 

[cobhc]

Kick needs gating as there's too much transient on it, and the snare definitely just sounds like a splat to me. And BTW there is a transient shaper within the SD mixer.

 

[FIXXXER]

i've tried the TD in SD2 but i didn't really like it, i also thought it's mostly used to enhance the transient.
i am also confused about the gating and too much transient, wouldn't gating make it even worse?

can you exactly descrive whats missing in the snare?
i always thought a "splat" is what it's supposed to sound like

 

[Mago]

No idea what kind of drumtone you're after. First thing that comes in mind listening to this, is that I'd lower the snare bottom mic a bit. Too much sizzle always makes the snare sound pop-ish 70s disco to me.

The only time I was able to get a kick with only SD2, was with lots of saturation and distortion outside of SD2, and also with blending in different kicks within SD2.

 

[FIXXXER]

thanks for listening man!

i don't have a specific sound in my head, just wanted to make the drums punchy and tight but also natural and "even" sounding.
whenever i use samples to blend them in i can hear the kit pieces as individual parts but they never seem to sound like a "complete kit" especially
in breaks when different velocities are involved etc.

i'll upload a new try asap, you're right on the bottom snare, it's way to present.

 

[FIXXXER]

here's a new try, changed the kick, lovered the snare bottom mic.
processing on the kick is the same, jsut changed the kick to the second one in avatar, like this a lot so far.

update:
DRUM_TEST_5

 

[captainboom]

You could check CloudKicker's Beacons album. As far as I know, it's entirely made with the Avatar kit and sounds great, at least to my ears.

 

[FIXXXER]

sounds good a bit dark maybe, damn it, either i have a completely different taste on drum sound than everybody else or i just can't get it done, *digging out slate samples again*

 

[ForHerDeadEyes]

sounds good a bit dark maybe, damn it, either i have a completely different taste on drum sound than everybody else or i just can't get it done, *digging out slate samples again*

Test Nr 4 sounds better then Nr 2, it might sound better in the context your going for..
The high-end here makes the snare sound a bit soft, maybe it's too much of the bottom mic(?)..
Put in context and it might sound great or you might hear what you need to fix..

I've gone for my own version of "extreme processed" but it's a bit darker..
It's all personal opinion of course, so go for the sound you want..

 

[FIXXXER]

yeah i still have the bottom mic turned up a bit, when i dial it down the snare sounds kind of dull but may work better in a mix.
i think i know where i have to go with the snare...

DRUM_TEST_5

thanks for the feedback!

 

[Korwent]

What are your settings as for the velocity?
It seems to me that the snare in the sample you posted is a little too agressive because of a too high velocity, reducing it would allow you to have more bottom mic dialed in without sounding "harsh"!

 

[FIXXXER]

it's about 100, definitively not at max. i have also triggered the "damped" samples, the normal hits are way too pointy

 

[ForHerDeadEyes]

It sounds so much better now that it's in context.
I think it's only down to a small part of personal taste, so I can't really give anymore criticism.