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I have been drilling my head into the ground for the last 5 years trying to master my drum mixing techniques and match the sound of what I hear say for ex: on a Medway track. I usually go thru many incarnations which include eqing/compression on everything and then an over all drum sub group comp/eq and or sometimes slamming em with a hard L1 or L2. I Feel my compression/eq techniques are pretty solid, although I am still not completely happy with my results.
I am curious if the drums in the likes of a Medway track are being mixed entirely in a DAW or if some external hardware ie compressors are being used to get them sounding that way.
Is it a combination of using the mpc and a good hardware pre/comp that makes the difference?
Is it possible to make pro sounding drums with out the use of some solid outboard gear and a nice console? If so, what might be some of the keys to getting em to pop and have that nice, tight feeling?
I realize this is a sort of multi faceted question with many aspects to discuss... and so I dont expect all the answers...but even some small clues and things to think about would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Brandon
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Brandon,
Hi, good question and a timely one. I say so because I just went through a lot of my back catalog to pick out some tracks for the home page of this site. In doing so I had an interesting listen to my older stuff, done on all hardware, compared to my newer all digital tracks.
I have to say the old stuff sounded great, but my latest mixdowns rival and in most ways surpass the hardware ones. The one thing I noticed was that I had a lot less highs going on in the hardware tracks. But the separation, width and punch of the digital stuff was better.
Timing wise some of my older stuff used an mpc-3000, the 1000 I have now only got used on a couple of tracks. The stuff with the 3000 did have a nice swing to it but it's nothing a carefully programmed DAW couldn't emulate.
The point is don't worry about hardware, you don't need that to get excellent results. There are many things that can influence the sound of your drums, obvious stuff but I'll restate them. First off is the choice of samples themselves, this is where you can overcome digitals lack of coloring by finding some gritty samples (if that's what you're going for). I like to take things from a variety of places.
Second the programming itself, don't clutter your drums, less you have the bigger they will sound. Then again I'm kinda known for stacking and having a fairly dense rhythm section but it deffinatly makes things harder at the mix stage.
Mixing wise make sure you have enough room carved out within the drum mix itself as well as the rest of the mix, especially the bass. Don't over do compression as it can easily make drums (or anything) smaller. A lot of dance drums are already compressed so they don't need much more. If anything you might want to glue the drum buss together but just to get some pumping. It's a double edged sword and a balance between control and size.
A word on the L1/L2 limiters. These can be useful but if anything they don't add punch, they take away. I use them sometimes to soften transients, almost a bit like tape, useful when my samples are a bit 'pointy' sounding. I would be very careful about slamming drums with these though.
Anyways hope this helps for now.
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Medway,
Thanks for the in depth reply on my questions. Definitely cleared up some of the things I was wondering about and gave me some good food for thought as well.
I am glad to hear that I can get the quality needed with out having to purchase 1000's of dollars in hardware. Although, I would still love to have some nice gear to play with. I kind of figured that you would say that, but it was good to hear it from some one who knows.
On a side note, I dig the remix you did of RND's Space and Time. I was listening to it and telling my friend Jay from Imagimocean records that I was curious how you were doing some things, which is what led me to your forum. Anyhow, thanks again. I am sure I will have more to post here in the forum.
Brandon
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Cool Brandon, glad you like the mix too, have to say it's probably one of my best digital mixdowns so far (being the most recent). I'll load it up and give a bit more info on what was going on the master buss to give you a better idea of what was involved since you're using that as a reference.
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Ya, definitely a nice remix. Nice work, Jesse.
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Climbing the promo charts every day as well.
Nothing but excellent comments on it.
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Well a few people have remarked it sounds like old Medway, so I guess a good thing ;-)
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It sounds amazing man, sounds like your trademarked quality production.
Hearing that it sounds like the Medway of old is definitely a good thing.
A few of the comments I have received:
This is the best tune I have heard on the site today. Its nice to finally hear something distinct. This is about what I was expecting from a Medway remix of an RND tune. its got the right amount of punchy beat but with the more atmospheric elements I liked from other RND productions.
Superb remix by Medway! Incredible track!
Wicked Sound , really space sound , feels really good
Pretty lush choon, well done on the remix. I am feeling this one
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Yep!
i believe this is an absolute cracker of a remix!!
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I've read/heard various information regarding grouping drums together and adding overall compression to the drum buss.
I just read an article that says to send all your drum tracks to one buss and add some compression.
However, I have come across many other sources that say you would not want a compressor on a kick and hat together because there is a lot more energy in the low-end and that will trigger the compressor a lot more than any sort of high-hat, resulting in over compression on the high-end.
Lately in my tracks I have been setting the output of a track to a buss based on its frequency. I'll output my Kick to Buss 32, my hats to Buss 31 my midrange perc and snare to Buss 30, with most tracks treated individually and little or no treatment on the busses. I've also just begun playing with a bit of back-bussing on my drums (sending them all to a buss, over compressing and saturating and just slightly introducing them into the mix).
I know there is no "right" way to do things when it comes to sound, but I'm curious to know how others deal with grouping drum tracks.
I've read the above posts and got some useful info, but Medway, Im wondering if you can elaborate on this statement, "If anything you might want to glue the drum buss together but just to get some pumping. It's a double edged sword and a balance between control and size."
