stereo drum buss technique

[sadworld]

i learned this technique here on this forum:

sub the drums ... crush them, then mix to taste with the original tracks.

my question is are you guys using a de=esser or anything along with that cause when i smash the drums the only thing i could possibly use the drum buss for is if i need more cymbal... cause the crushed buss is all cymbals... even if i take out the overheads. at this point, to my ears it's sounding better to take the 2 distressors off the buss and use them on single channels like snare and vox. i just wondered if i'm missing something with the 2 buss drum technique? thanks...

[drundall]

Sounds like bad playing and/or micing technique. You should be able to slam the kick, snare and toms without getting massive cymbal overload. Do you have the room mics bussed as well? That may be the cause of you cymbal bleed. You can try playing around with gates after the comp but sometimes you lose the attack.

[drummerman15]

Try running the seperate drum tracks from a send per fader to the stereo buss with the slamming comp. You can adjust the levels of each track going to the comp - instead of sending the whole drum submix. This way, you can adjust the level of the OH, room mics, etc. going to the comp. and blend them better. First, get the overall mix of the compressed signals to sound natural and punchy - or unnatural and punchy, then blend it into the orig trax and presto.

[chadly]

Maybe I'm crazy here, but I sub my overheads and room mics to another sub, not the drum sub or comped drum sub. I suppose this only works if you have enough subs though!

[LTA]

Originally posted by chadly
Maybe I'm crazy here, but I sub my overheads and room mics to another sub, not the drum sub or comped drum sub. I suppose this only works if you have enough subs though!

You can never have enough subs. Unless you are on a DAW :)

But, what i tend to do:
1. Run all the drum mics to a bus, and compress those. You can do this serially (the proverbial bus compressor) or parallel to the raw signal. The results sadworld describes would be from compressor settings great for parallel compression. Raise the threshold up 20-40 dB if you just want to mangle the drums serially. The compressor reacts to the loudest portion of the signal, which usually isn't the cymbals.

2. Run just the overheads and room mics through a parallel bus. You can bring out the room sound a little easier, since the compressor isn't clamping down as hard as it would with the close mics. There will still be plenty of cymbal in this signal though.

I'll put tom close mics in a subgroup, the kick mic(s) in a sub, and if using snare top and bottom mics, i'll throw those in a separate subgroup too. Then, all these buses get bused together. At any stage, the bus can be split. I'll usually have two tiers of buses between the individual track and the stereo bus. It makes the workflow simpler, and makes keying possible with the plugs i use. Plus, you can eq the individual toms to make them sound even, then eq the tom bus to make them fit the rest of the sound. Then you can eq the entire drum bus on top of that. It sure beats through composing the plug automation.

The concepts may be unfeasible to an analog desk, but so are unlimited non-destructive editing multiple plugin instances.

[Drumsound]

Maybe you're just hitting the compressor too hard. I almost always use a parallel drum buss comp. Most times it's not smashed to death, it just adds some thickness without adding excess volume to the mix. I also use almost like a drum reverb. I work the attack and release to alter the length for the sounds.

[studjo]

Lately I've been smashing the drums with a 1178 (all butons in). I bussed every drum mic to the 1178 except the overheads and room mics. - Never had a problem with too much cymbals.

I'd say check the playing of the drummer - after that check the mic technique.

Good luck and have fun

Jo

[studjo]

Lately I've been smashing the drums with a 1178 (all butons in). I bussed every drum mic to the 1178 except the overheads and room mics. - Never had a problem with too much cymbals.

I'd say check the playing of the drummer - after that check the mic technique.

Good luck and have fun

Jo

[drummerman15]

I bussed every drum mic to the 1178 except the overheads and room mics

Try bussing only the room mics and a little bit of OH to that 1178. Fiddle with some eq and I'll bet the ghost of John Bonham will appear on your shoulder

[Ahellam]

^^^^ hahahah yes!

[Sigma]

In Protools sessions I 5-10 ms attack 4:1 compress my kick and snare top/bottom return then buss them to stereo buss 5-6

then i send hat to stereo buss 5-6

then i compress toms same way as kick/snare and send to stereo buss 1-2 which is then compressed 2:1 and set to stereo buss 5-6

then i stereo buss over heads to 3-4 and then late attack 1-2 msc release crush them [this is when i use ovd's as basically cymbal mics and not kit plus fill] this is then bussed to 5-6

then 5-6 buss return is then compressed and L3'd and sent to mix buss

if i use room mics submix those to a stereo buss compress and send them seperately to the mix buss to balance to taste