The fast rollings suck in my mix

[Vulcain]

Hails,

I'm currently mixing a black metal album (1st mix) and some of the fast rollings suck: the snare and toms are sort of glued together and really lack accuracy and definition.

2nd and 3rd rollings on this track are good examples:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11383191/Ordalie 1-02.mp3

The playing of the drummer is partially the cause of it but I still think it could sound better.
Any advice on what I could to improve these fast rollings?

 

[BLUElightCory]

Are you compressing them? If so, try raising the threshold and/or using a slower attack/faster release. This will allow more of the transient in each drum hit to pass, which will give you more definition and attack.

 

[timislegend]

opinion:

bring the vocals up, compress them more then pull back on the reverb a little-bit. if you are using the reverb as an insert, try creating an aux instead and mix it to taste. this will allow you to have a "dry" and 100% "wet" signal.

i think the mix has a lot of potential (for it being your 1st mix).


if you already know all of this, i apologize.



edit: i think the best way to get the snare more prevalent is to use a slower attack on the compressor like @cory said.

 

[The Unavoidable]

If you follow the vocal advice up there, then you got a pretty damn good mix! (For BM of course ) I didn't mind the rolls at all, thought they sounded just right.

 

[Vulcain]

Ok thank you guys for your inputs I'll try what you advise.

@timislegend: I indeed used the reverb as an insert and didn't know what you propose. I'll give it a try.

That's great if you think my mix is not so bad, I was kind of discouraged these days.

I'll try to post a new mix tomorrow. Cheers!

 

[Vulcain]

That might be a very basic question but what is the interest of using effects in fx tracks as opposed to inserts as most of the plug-ins have dry/wet faders?

I have tried your advice on the toms rollings and it sounds a bit better but that's barely noticable. What kind of settings would you recommend?
Mine are :
threshold -30db
ratio 4:1
attack 65 ms
release 50ms

Thanks!