Kick Drum Dynamics

[Shizampah]

Hey, I've been a bit annoyed lately with some rock drum tracks - kick drum tracks to be exact.

It seems that whenever the drummer hits the "1" after a fill or an especially important down beat, he hits the drum a lot harder, and the result in the kick drum track is a "splat" kind of sound that jumps out of the mix a bit with a lot more high frequency than the majority of the track.

I've been doing alright with trying to tame this (I've talked to the drummer, and no, he doesn't intend for them to be there) with compression and eq, but I'm not completely satisfied. I don't want to just hack off all my precious transients with a fast attack on the compressor, but a slower attack lets those beasts through way too much.

So far the best solution i've come up with is to mix a sample of the same kick drum with the original using drumagog (dynamic triggering off) and triggering a 32 Hz or so sine wave for some meat and some moderate compression and eq.

Does anyone else have any tricks or techniques you use for this problem?
Do you have any "standard" kick drum treatments that you rely on?

[krs]

what's wrong with automation?

[NowandThen]

If you have two an outside kick mic I would pull that in more for those parts.
A trick I use alot is to have the drummer play each drum after the take single hits and then you can grap a kick from there. Or put those kick hits on a seperate track and eq it out!
hope this helps,
-Chris-

[Led]

Automate or split it and pull the level back in the clip.

[Jonkan]

or just replace the hit with another hit from a different section of the song that is better. Of course you need to copy all the drumtracks for this to work 100%. Do a quick crossfade and no one will ever notice. Be sure to take a section where the cymbals sound the same though.

/J

[tunekicker]

You might find the kind of control you're looking for with the free Dominion VST plug from www.digitalfishphones.com

It is similar to the Transient Designer hardware the pros use. There are some extra features, but the main idea is simple. You can control how much attack and sustain you get in your sound, independent of volume changes (unlike a compressor, which has a set threshold.)

Also, you might try a multiband compressor or de-esser to slam the high frequencies when they come in too strong.

Hope this helps.

Peace,

[dokushoka]

If I'm tracking, I simply talk to the drummer and record him so he can hear how it sounds. Then I get him to play more evenly, and then record that as a reference. Usually, they hear the difference, and seeing as most drummers want to sound good, they will then do their best to correct the problem.

When mixing, I'll do anything I have to. That includes, compression, automation, sample augmenatation, etc.

[Shizampah]

Thanks a lot guys - I particularly like the multiband compression idea...dont know why i didnt think of that myself.

I'll check out that plugin as well - it sounds similar to waves transx, yes?

anyway, thanks again for the replies

[recky]

Usually, the undesirable "splat" is only on the close miced track(s). So I try to alleviate the problem manually by (destructively) reducing the gain on those hits ITB. This tends to be enough for me because I don't mind SOME dynamics on the drums.

CHeers,

Recky