Working on a Drum Mix -- How Does it Sound?

[Josh Burgess]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/954619/Drum Sound Test.mp3

Trying to come up with a drum mix I'm happy with for my music since I'm planning on starting to track some stuff soon. Yeah, it's robotic. No velocity editing yet, but what do you guys think of the sound?

I'm not sure about the snare yet. I tried to give a little bit of that natural woody pop to it. I like it, but not sure if I want to keep it that way or not yet.

Let me know what you think.

 

[Charles J]

Sounds pretty sweet, dude! Hard to tell without any other elements though... me thinks it will sound a wee bit buried once you add guitars, bass, vox, etc.

It's amazing how strange stuff can sound after mixing for hours and randonly solo'ing an intsrument (or group of) out. While it sounds amazing in the mix, it's sometimes NOT at all what you imagined would work....

Most of time, anyways.

You're on the right track, though!

 

[ForefrontStudio]

not bad man. kinda hard to tell without it being in a mix though. I dunno if that snare would work very well in a full metal mix. I like the tone though. one thing I would be aware of though, is be careful how much verb you use on drums. especially the snare. you can't really tell right now because it's just drums, but I hear a LOT of people have way too much room sample/verb on the drums, and it makes it sound "artificially roomy" too much verb will also push your drums to the background of the mix. my rule of thumb is turn the verb up til you hear it, then turn it down a bit. IMO, the best use of reverb, is when you can't actually hear it (or at least put your finger on it). overall, sounds good man. you're definitely on the right track.

edit: didn't mean to repeat Sigmund. I was typing my reply before his showed up on my browser. haha.

 

[Josh Burgess]

Yeah, the reverb is at a constant level right now... probably at a good level for the slower parts, but needs to be automated down for the faster snare stuff.

 

[XxRobbieChaosxX]

if this is for metal, the toms sound a bit "ballad" like.

 

[GarethSE]

FUCK YOU ROBBIE YOU BEAUTIFUL PERSON PHIL COLLINS REVERB IS THE SHIT AND I WOULD LIKE TO PUT THIS SNARE REVERB IN MY MOUTH AND SUCK IT OFF LIKE THE MASSIVE FAGGOT I AM <3

 

[Santuzzo]

Sounds great !

I'd love to hear this in a song!

What did you use for this?

 

[Josh Burgess]

Sounds great !

I'd love to hear this in a song!

What did you use for this?

I've already tweaked things and have it sounding different now, but it was a combo of Toontrack Metal Foundry (overheads and toms) and Slate (using Trigger to replace snare and kick). I don't remember which Slate sample I used for the body of the snare in this, but I know I layered the tonedef Z4 room sample in, and that's what gives it that woody "pop" kind of sound. I think that's a cool snare to blend in for that kind of character. The kick was Kick 10 EQ'd really heavily. The reverb on the snare and toms is just Freeverb... I have other reverbs, some of which are really nice, but Freeverb sounds damn good on snares/toms.

I don't think I'm going end up using the toms from Metal Foundry. They're alright, but I haven't been able to get anything I really love out of them yet. Tried to beef them up with extra bass and verb for a big sound, but they're still not where I want them to be. Probably going to end up using a mix of Slate toms and the Chimaira toms Andy posted instead.

I did find something that I think helps the MF overheads sound more sparkly and lively though (they were kinda dull in this clip I posted). After posting this I downloaded this free vst called Dominion... it's a saturation/sustain plugin. If you put it on the overheads and crank the sustain, it gives a really nice touch to the cymbals, I think... I like the way it makes them ring out.