Mixing sampled drums

Hope209 · 5th June 2007

I just picked up the Steven Slate drums and I'm REALLY diggin them. I'm having some trouble mixing them though, and I'd appreciate some opinions and suggestions on how to go about mixing drums with samples (specifically creating ambiances and space with reverb or other tools)

The particular song Im working on has top mics on snare, kick, high tom, floor tom, two overheads, and two room mics 9' away. The OH tracks aren't picking up a good representation of the whole kit and the room mics are mostly cymbals. Im trying to go for an indie/70's/small room sound (kinda like on the new John Mayer cd). I augmented the snare and toms with Z1 samples, filtered the OH's to 300hz, and tried using the room mics, but it either pushed up way too much cymbals, or felt like it was pushing the drums too far back in the mix. I tried sending different amounts of the close mics to Altiverb, but it was too 80's crazy reverbness. By only using the close mics and not figuring out how to create a good space to the drums, it really sucked the life out of them and made them sound...lame. Appreciate any help!

Bang · 6th June 2007

Can you send me some mp3s to support@stevenslatedrums.com ? I can probably help you better. If you want a dry sound, start out by just using the overheads and mix in some Z1 samples, then slowly bring up the room mics. You may need to eq the OHs and ROOMs, its common for a little cut in the low mids to smooth them out.

SNJ Studio · 6th June 2007

I'd try setting up some sub mixes of just kick snare and toms, and some parallel compression. Slam the life out of that submix

and mix it back into your drum sound.

SNJ Studio · 6th June 2007

Love the Waves IR-1 verb with the "SOH - studio" setting too. Roll off the highs, compress.

5th June 2007	#1
Hope209 Lives for gear Joined: Sep 2005 Posts: 704 Thread Starter	Mixing sampled drums I just picked up the Steven Slate drums and I'm REALLY diggin them. I'm having some trouble mixing them though, and I'd appreciate some opinions and suggestions on how to go about mixing drums with samples (specifically creating ambiances and space with reverb or other tools) The particular song Im working on has top mics on snare, kick, high tom, floor tom, two overheads, and two room mics 9' away. The OH tracks aren't picking up a good representation of the whole kit and the room mics are mostly cymbals. Im trying to go for an indie/70's/small room sound (kinda like on the new John Mayer cd). I augmented the snare and toms with Z1 samples, filtered the OH's to 300hz, and tried using the room mics, but it either pushed up way too much cymbals, or felt like it was pushing the drums too far back in the mix. I tried sending different amounts of the close mics to Altiverb, but it was too 80's crazy reverbness. By only using the close mics and not figuring out how to create a good space to the drums, it really sucked the life out of them and made them sound...lame. Appreciate any help!

6th June 2007	#2
Bang Lives for gear Joined: Aug 2003 Posts: 2,701	Can you send me some mp3s to support@stevenslatedrums.com ? I can probably help you better. If you want a dry sound, start out by just using the overheads and mix in some Z1 samples, then slowly bring up the room mics. You may need to eq the OHs and ROOMs, its common for a little cut in the low mids to smooth them out. __________________ Steven Slate Hear drum samples used by today's top mixers and used on tons of top billboard hits at: www.stevenslatedrums.com SSD Drum Suite now Available for DOWNLOAD!! 40 WORLD CLASS DRUMKITS FOR RTAS/VST/AU www.slatedigital.com DOWNLOAD NEW TRIGGER DEMO! www.slateproaudio.com

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6th June 2007	#3
SNJ Studio Gear maniac Joined: Jun 2006 Location: Sydney Posts: 197	I'd try setting up some sub mixes of just kick snare and toms, and some parallel compression. Slam the life out of that submix and mix it back into your drum sound.