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Old 8th January 2008   #19
Bang
Lives for gear
 
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,701

I think James has a lot of great points. I'll also add to Dan's post, that when mixing, the FIRST thing you should do is check phase between the overheads and the close mics. Do this by soloing the overheads, then one by one the close mics with the overheads. Hit the phase button. Whichever position yields the proper sound (usually heard by the "proper" sound having more low end and the "improper" sound having NO low end), is right. A lot of times when guys say "I can't get my drums punchy", I find its because the kick or snare is out of phase with the OH's and you'll NEVER be able to dial in that low end back.

Also, I NEVER eq the room mics without them in the mix. Their sound plays a huge part in the overall sounds of the drums.

With kicks, I like high ratio compression, but not much of it, we're talking 2-3 db here. Snares I like low ratio, same gain reduction, slow attack, medium release to HOLD on to that transient and fatten it up.

And as always, DON'T BE A PUSSY WITH EQ. Sometimes when you want punch, before you try to mess with a compressor, see what 3db at 2k does along with a nice little 4db bell at 125Hz.
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