Drums mixing part 1

For this second  installment i'd like to talk about some of the tips and techniques i use for drum mixing.
Drum mixing is a popular topic and although you can find  a lot about it on-line i will try to touch on a few subjects that aren't talked about a lot.  Remember that i'm mixing electronic music and although some of the tips here apply to live drums, there's a lot more to live drums then we, computer based musicians, are used to.

Part 1 -  Drum limiting - When tape is you friend

Drum limiting is a subject i have rarely come across in most mixing tutorial i have read or watched. Yet, i very often turn to limiting to tame some peak elements or when transients are too emphasized. 

Most people think about master buss limiting when i bring up the subject but there's actually two kinds of limiting.

• 1- Normal limiting. Any compressor with a ratio set to more then 10:1 could be considered limiting.

• 2- Brick wall limiting. Contrary to "normal" limiting they do not let anything pass the threshold.

This is usually the kind of limiting you'll find on the master buss when you are trying to make the whole track sound louder ( think L2 here and most volume maximizer, i personally use ToneBooster Barricade ) But brick wall limiters can also have their use on buses or individual tracks that have too much transient information ( in this situation they might be called clippers, although clippers usually add some distortion and brick wall limiters usually don't )

Tape ,by nature, acts like a soft knee limiter. It compress ( limit ) the highest peaks while adding some saturation and taming some of the transients.  No wonder it is so highly regarded by old school engineers who had the chance to work with such devices. Mixing ITB you either would have 2-3 plug-ins doing a precise thing or you would have to turn to a good tape emu. ( see note and extra tone tip lower )

Of course you can achieve something similar ( though not an actual replica ) with a compressor.
Some will do a better job then others but the principle is the same for all.  Set a ratio of  10:1, ( some people say no more then 2:1, experiment for yourself ) a fast attack ( 1 ms or less ), a fast release ( 50ms or less ), short soft knee ( 3-6 db ) and set the threshold as to catch the only the biggest peaks.  I found this technique more useful on buses then on individual tracks.  It tightens them together i a uniform way.  Although nothing prevents you from using it on single channels.  It's also worth mentioning that a soft knee limiter ( none brick wall ) might give you better results then a compressor. When tape is not doing it for me i turn to the Kjaerhus GPP-1 ( a soft knee limiter with an optional brick wall function ) Sadly that company do no longer exists but keep an eye open for soft knee limiters. They handle audio a bit differently then compressors set with a high ratio and a soft knee.

Note if you don't already have a tape saturation emulator i whole hearty suggest Tonebooster's Ferox ( free of charge )  and Tonebooster's ReelBus ( 25$ ) I use them both with great success.  Ferox has a saturation tool for drum buss and individual tracks. Reelbus on the master buss. Try the presets to begin with, you'll thank me later :)  

http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-ferox/
http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-reelbus/

Extra tone tip :  Tapes can be used at different speeds. usually the lower the IPS is ( inch per second ) the less high frequencies you will have.  Try lowering the tape speed on harsh snares and cymbals to benefit from this natural roll off.  If it's too much roll off for you try to boost the highs frequencies with a hi-shelf before the tape emulator.  Might just be what you are looking for :)

Though the use of tape and compression can be thought of as an effect and have creative purposes, i think about brick wall limiting as it purely being a problem solver. ( much like multi band compression.... but that's for an other time )

Transients are the very first peaks of an audio signal if you zoom in enough to see them. ( see image below ) They are bright and percussive and they are what contributes to the attack of the drums.
Generally speaking, transients on drums are a good thing. It's what makes the drums cut trough, it's what allows you to make your drums sit lowers in volume while still being clear and audible. It can be hard for a compressor not quick enough to catch them. Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing though. Consoles, preamps, compressors and tape machines of yesterdays all contributed in the audio chain to rub some of those transients off. They rounded them down, making them softer and less prominent. Less irritating for the ears.

The attack part would be considered the transients

It's not uncommon for me while mixing drums to become very aware of the transients. They hurt my ears, they make me doubt the volume of my drums, they make it seems as if there was some high frequency info i couldn't pin point. ( i still struggle with this from time to time, even on my own songs )  I HATE those kind of transients. They are there mostly because i'm all in digital and that the rubbing described earlier is not there. Some are so annoying that even a compressor with a very fast attack cannot control them properly. Here comes the brick wall limiter to the rescue.

Like i said earlier, a tool i very often use for limiting duties is the Kjaerhus GPP-1 but any brick wall limiter can do the job just fine. The key to taming transients is to not over do it.   I frequently don't need more then 1db of gr ( gain reduction ) to get rid of them but boy does it make a difference.  At first you might not be able to ear them properly.  Transients are a subtle thing.  They are most noticeable when i put up the whole song and bypass the brick wall limiter on either the kick or the drum buss ( it is usually on one or the other but not on both at the same time )  The volume doesn't change but they immediately pop out of their pocket. It's a back to front thing ( more experienced mixer may ear it differently, less experienced mixer may not ear it at all  )

Of course you have to make sure you are not killing all the transients.  Drums without transients can sound 2 Dimensional ( as oppose to 3 ), lifeless and not exiting so do address with care.  Some other instruments that could benefit from transients control are bass, plucked synths, synth bells and of course any type of percussion.

As you can see tape seems to does it all. It compress, saturate and control some of the transients.  Very cool stuff and not just on drums. The tips and techniques here can be applied to a lot of instruments.  Go a head and experiment.

Tip : Listening at very low volume while addressing transients can make it easier for you to ear them. Ref. the Fletcher - Munson Equal Loudness curves to see why at lower volume we
tend to ear higher frequencies a bit more.

Advance Tip : It's a good idea to check for transients on most instruments at some point in your mix. At low volume as recommended. You can control the annoying ones and
add some to those part that don't seem to have enough or that may benefit form a little bit of sparkles.

Note2 We talked about transients control here but we haven't touch on tools that do exactly the opposite. They accentuate transients.  I feel that most of you reading this may already be in the know regarding such tools and technique so i deliberately omitted them from this post.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have learn something

Don't hesitate to correct,  hate or love me in the comments below ;)

Next topic ( part 2of 4 ) will be : Drum reverb - Not just the snare