DRUMS - Compressor? Limiter? Soft Clipper?

[ubik]

Hey hows it going.

Well first of all I should note that I'm completely "In The Box" and I'm looking for some reccomendations of some good sounding software Compressors/Limiters/Soft Clippers/Whatever You use.

I want to get your opinion on how to get the best results, say when you have some nice sounding drums that are real snappy, yet a bit weak in volume/power but the peaks are very high so if you try and trun them up they are already going over 0dB by much.

I've noticed that some compressors/limiters/soft clippers either take away from the original transient and make the snap go away or sometimes they might create distortion. So I'm wondering what would you use and which models to be exact?

To lower drum transients - a Compressor?, Limiter?, Soft Clipper? which ones?

[bobwarren]

I really like the URS 1970 NEVE type. The presets are o.k., but I always end up tweaking to taste. It's becoming a signature for me to use it. It's actually got me wanting a hardware 2254.

[DubMagic]

You Need To Repost This Thread In The Hip Hop Area....!

[thick accent]

Originally Posted by DubMagic

You Need To Repost This Thread In The Hip Hop Area....!

Electronic music has drums too

[kdgh]

try parallel compression or adding some tube warmth to your drums
nomad and waves has some nice compressors/tube saturations

[sftd]

Originally Posted by DubMagic

You Need To Repost This Thread In The Hip Hop Area....!

Why should he do that?

Sent from my PC36100 using Gearslutz.com App

[SWAN808]

Transient Designer->Saturation->EQ->Clipper

On the drum buss - > Compressor

[kosmasepsilon]

if the peaks are very high and RMS levels are quiet, i tend to use the Nebula R2R & TB+ (Tape effect). It keeps the peaks at the same level, while raising RMS and adding body to the drums.

[AJ Reynolds]

have you tired parallel compression with the compressors you already have?

[sys40198]

Fabfilter makes a cool compressor that allows you to do parallel compression. I like it. Saves you from having to bus out you tracks. But ya Thumbs up to transient designer. pretty awesome...it will boost your track levels though. If you mixing "in the box", I don't think you should have your drums peaking like that IMHO. I always try to have around 2-3 db of head left on my master channel when I'm done.

You might also wanna try some sidechain compression. Like some compressors have built in sidechain filtering, where you can adjust the input signal to the compressor (you can do it manually to tho, buy busing then EQ the use that as you sidechain input. And/or, sidechain things like the bass and some other stuff to your kick or something. Even some subtle sidechain makes a difference I find. Hope this helps

[enecosse]

Originally Posted by ubik

I want to get your opinion on how to get the best results, say when you have some nice sounding drums that are real snappy, yet a bit weak in volume/power but the peaks are very high so if you try and trun them up they are already going over 0dB by much.

I've noticed that some compressors/limiters/soft clippers either take away from the original transient and make the snap go away or sometimes they might create distortion.

This is a good indication that you're monitoring the signal incorrectly. By that I mean you're relying on the DAW's meters and expecting them to provide something more useful than they actually do. There's a lot of posts on this subject on these forums (although not in this area of it!).

It boils down to the fact that DAW's train you to look for only peaks clipping rather than looking at the average level too. People also set the signal levels too loudly, without a proper understanding of why headroom is required in digital audio, and how DAW metering isn't showing you everything.

The reason the compressor is distorting is almost certainly because the signal is set too loud (even though it might not seem or sound like that) before it gets to the compressor. You need to turn down the volume in the software, turn it up on your speakers, and actually give the compressor some room to do its work, then bring the level up further with something like a mastering limiter at the end of that.

Bottom line is don't rely on only your DAW's meters. Get something more (the Waves Dorrough plugin would probably be the most recommended but there's free alternatives out there too) and get something which shows you the actual frequencies present too. Search the posts from people like Bob Katz and Paul Frindle for more info on the subject of volume levels and digital audio.

It's also good to remember that sometimes you're trying to boost the level of something when what's taking away from the sound is actually the frequencies used in other tracks (too much bass in parts which don't need it etc) so take that away first, and you can also side-chaining stuff to help it punch through, as well as simple little tricks like reversing the phase which might stop 2 tracks conflicting. If it doesn't seem easy to fix a drum sound I'd also think about reinforcing it with another drum sound instead of fighting with it too much. You might be trying to bring out something which may not be there in the first place.

Which plugins are best is down to a lot of personal preference. Cytomic's The Glue is a good plugin for a fair price. But even what comes with most DAW's should deliver decent results if you follow some of the above. Also check out multiband compressors and find some plugins that can process the mid and side independently.

[sys40198]

Well said enecosse. Ya i almost cut lows on everything even my kick drum and bass. Low energy below 30hz is pretty much useless...it just takes up headroom and messes up ur compression...I've even found hi hat samples that have wierd low shelfs on them that I couldn't really hear. Creating frequency space for all your tracks is important. Ya I read something from Bob Katz about floating point processing which further shows how misleading the meters can be.

One other thing I noticed too is that Logic has different algorithms for the meters on the mixing screen. I think...by default it is set to logarithmic. I dont really have any hard evidence to back this up but i kind of feel that this setting isn't as good at higher levels. I like the "sectional" setting better for the meters...seems a little more accurate to me.

I havent really been doing this that long but the art of chasing headroom seems to be one of the most important things in mixing...especially in computer based music. Still tryin to figure it out myself.