Yet another drum compression thread

[IanBTS]

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of working on my band's new EP, and had some questions about drum compression, as it's something I don't know much about. I know there's a few posts already on the topic, but I was wondering more specifically about setting up a compression bus to send the snare and toms to in order to tighten things up and smooth everything out a bit. I've sample replaced everything and got a great sound going, but I just want to make things sound a bit more "cohesive."

I've heard a bit about this technique (read a little bit on here a while back but unfortunately can't find the thread again), but I'm not sure exactly of any good starting points.

Any guidelines on how to do this effectively, some basic settings by chance?

Also, I was wondering if my effects send should have the "post" function active or inactive on the snare and tom tracks that I'm sending the signal from. I'm using Sonar 7 Producer Edition if this makes any difference.

 

[ahjteam]

http://www.faderwear.com/guides/

 

[IanBTS]

Thanks! Seems to have some pretty useful info.

Sorry for the n00b questions, but will this compressor bus affect my original drum signal or just add an extra compressed track to it? If that makes any sense.

I'm guessing that's what the "post" function on my effects send will determine?

 

[Fox Mulder]

As I was suggested by Mr. Dom Ostarig sometime back:

1. Too much compression on the kick makes it "hide" in the mix.

2. Calculate the release time with the bpm of the song. There are plenty of freebie bmp calculators available in cyberspace.


Edited for quoting:

Thanks! Seems to have some pretty useful info.

Sorry for the n00b questions, but will this compressor bus affect my original drum signal or just add an extra compressed track to it? If that makes any sense.

I'm guessing that's what the "post" function on my effects send will determine?

Parallel compression? Definitely not. It won't affect your original drum signal. But seriously, it would 'sound' as if it is affecting your original drum signal if the compressed bus is higher or same (depending on the dynamic character of the source) in terms of db. Sometimes people do that. Sometimes not. Or in other words, I personally do that sometimes, and sometimes do not *to avoid arguments of some sort*

Trial and error, buddy. See what comes up.

One last suggestion I'd give you is: Never duplicate the track. Always use an aux. You're lot less likely to get affected by phase issues that way.