Drum Isolation on a Track

[dickyrader]

Is it possible to completely isolate a drum on a track without any bleed through? I didn't know if it was through mic technique or if I have to go back and edit out the drum bleed on say a snare track and then mix in the room mics to make it sound more natural. Thanks for the help. Sorry if this is too basic of a question.

[FreshSkweez]

iGate

[andychamp]

You could use a gate, or strip silence in the DAW.
But do you really NEED to?
On a multi-miced drumkit there will always be some bleed. How good or how bad it is depends largely on the drummer's skill in balancing his instrument.

[andychamp]

If you're going for a natural sound, you could start with the room mics and add the spot mics only where you need more immediate punch. In this case, the bleed they carry will be less obnoxious

[dickyrader]

Is it better to use a gate or strip silence?

Do I need to totally remove all of the bleed? Does it make the track sound unnatural?

I have seen some other tracks that I have worked with that have the snare and kick totally isolated. I'm trying to figure out if this is common practice and how to best do this without making it sound over processed.

[couch11]

Originally Posted by dickyrader

Does it make the track sound unnatural?

Most likely. But if you really won't just the snare and just the kick, sample replace them.

[PRobb]

Originally Posted by dickyrader

I
Do I need to totally remove all of the bleed?

That is an artistic choice. Depends on what you're going for. There cannot be a hard answer.

[fooman]

I'd always just used gates with, say 14db of gain reduction and manually automated the threshold... I was fooling myself into thinking this was more 'natural'. Then I started seeing webinars of well-known engineers and webcasts etc etc with their sessions. They strip out bleed on tom tracks all the time!!

So I tried it.
It's saved me a lot of time and to be honest it sounds just as good or better.

As for kick, I often sample for my rock projects. Something that stuck with me, even tho it probably shouldn't have, is when Dave Pensado had Micheal Brauer on and he asked "what's ur go-to for kick" (when asking his favourite gear or something) and Micheal said "Gimme a sample... jk!". haha I dunno if he was kidding, but he seemed to give it as an honest answer.

On snare, I go song-by-song or project-by-project. Whatever works for the song. Gate, no gate, sample, no sample, both, all. But the best is when you mic it right and the drummer plays well. Then your drum sound just is there and you try to not mess it up!

[dickyrader]

Do you totally replace the snare or kick with a sample? Or mix in the sample with the original and then group together the sample and original for mixing later?

As for kick, I often sample for my rock projects. Something that stuck with me, even tho it probably shouldn't have, is when Dave Pensado had Micheal Brauer on and he asked "what's ur go-to for kick" (when asking his favourite gear or something) and Micheal said "Gimme a sample... jk!". haha I dunno if he was kidding, but he seemed to give it as an honest answer.

On snare, I go song-by-song or project-by-project. Whatever works for the song. Gate, no gate, sample, no sample, both, all. But the best is when you mic it right and the drummer plays well. Then your drum sound just is there and you try to not mess it up!

[fooman]

Originally Posted by dickyrader

Do you totally replace the snare or kick with a sample? Or mix in the sample with the original and then group together the sample and original for mixing later?

Kick, I often completely replace it. I use one or the other usually.. sample or real. Depends on how well it was recorded and if it sounds like what I hear in my head.

Snare, I do everything. I often start out by trying to get the sound I want from the real drum. If there is a ton of bleed that can't be worked with, I'll try blending. If I'm lucky enough to have a sample of the drum I'll use that rather than another drum.
However, if I think the drum needs more bottom/top/ring/etc, I'll reach for a sample that has it and blend that in.

I've found that Trigger has helped speed things up quite a bit for my workflow. It's also really easy to experiment with different drum sounds if I'm looking for a specific sound.

YMMV!