Why doesn't my toms sound fat and loud??

[Javi Perera]

Hi everybody.

I've a prob that it's getting me nuts. When I hear a mix of mine, I feel the toms too weak, sometimes has lots of attackn sometimes doesn't. It doesn't sound "big bottomed", but when it does, it smashes the kick drum...

Why does it happen? Could be the compressor of the drum buss?

Thanks in advance

 

[mick thompson]

are you sure your feeding tom enough? if you feed him enough he should get fat. and he'll become loud as he gets hungry

what exactly are you doing to your toms? are you hp/lp'ing them to give space to your mixes other elements?

is your drummer playing his velocities too differently so that your tom hits are not within a normal dB range?

are you hitting your compressor hard enough to get a snap? if thats what your looking for?

post a .mp3 / .wav / .aiff of your track and give us a listen!

 

[ahjteam]

"masking" and "improper gain staging" is so written all over the OP.

 

[HDWR]

MaxxBass?

 

[Glenn Fricker]

When is the last time the skins where replaced? How do they sound in the room, even before they're miced? What mics are you using?

Sorry to answer your question with more questions, but I need more information. Clips would be cool, pictures of the drum/mic setup would be even more helpful.

-0z-

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I'm with Glenn, my guess is the toms themselves are the problem.

 

[Morgan C]

My guess is that, like all of Javi's mixes, the drums and everything else is samples. Not sure what program he's using.. if its Sup2.0 it should be EASY to get good tom sounds, I've heard killer toms from that. Not sure about AD.

Either way, clips.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

when you have good monitors to listen to mixes, you will find than tin pro mixes, the toms don't have much boom, they are more "click" and mids. gnerally compress (if desired) and add some proper eq, depending on the sound of the band, you may want to add reverb to the toms, but its up to the engineer.

 

[arv_foh]

I struggled for a long time with the same problem as OP. It turned out I was compressing the toms incorrectly, and now I'm much happier with the sound.

OP, check out this thread and follow some of the tips posted there for compressing your toms

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/production-tips/562844-clipping-compression-both.html