when i tighten up the drums with compression, during fills where the kick drops out (say 1 bar for example) the hats/snare/perc get louder. any a suggestion to fix this mix problem?
It’s not just as simple as that you’re sidechaining the drums to the kick, and when the kick drops out the drums are not sidechained and therefore gets louder?
You might also be compressing too much. If its over compressed and your kick is the loudest in your drum kit then the compressor is gonna get slammed shut making everything sound quieter. Likewise, when kick is not playing the compressor might not reduce as much gain making everything seem to sound louder.
Or it might also be a problem with EQ. If your kick is still getting into the snare’s spectrum it might mask it in back making it sound softer.
Usually multiband compressors help a lot when you are compressing a whole drum kit since they treat each segment of the spectrum differently.
Hope that helps a little.
hmmm. i think i’m coming to the conclusion that although compressing the percussion bus is a good idea, it may not be a good idea to then put the kick on the percussion bus. i took the kick off the compressed perc bus and all is well. i think relying on multiband compression to tighten things up in the end will be the way to go. thanks!
phil or bryan, if you have any comments on this it’d be great to get your feedback as well…
if you have the sidechain set to Pre FX you can use the fader volume to drop out the kick while maintaining the sidechain signal.
so you dont get the big jump with the hats etc.
i wouldnt dent to use mix gel on the drum buss… it has a really slow release wich is really more suited to working with the more general dynamics of the track.
the 1976 is what i normally start with for drums then adjust the attack to get the amount of “click” i want… (sometimes none)
thanks for the tips!