Podcast 002 How To Mix Drums

On this second episode we explain how to mix the drums, beginning with understanding balance and panning, exploring numerous techniques used by professional mix engineers, and all the way up to drum bussing and bus compression. We also explain how to take advantage of the Fletcher–Munson curve to increase drum loudness and  how to the impact of your drums by compressing in stages.

On podcast n.2 you will learn about:
– balancing the drums
– correct panning
– reinforcing kick and snare
– processing overhead and room microphones
– layering drums with samples
– phase coherence
– compression and parallel compression
– the drum bus
– enhancing drums with transient designers
– making your drums loud
– avoiding common mistakes
 

Did you know that you can get the Doctor Mix team to mix, master or produce your music for you? Please feel free to contact us here or send us your music and questions via Wetransfer to info at doctor mix dot com and we’ll be happy to give you our feedback and suggest the right package for you.

On this episode we mention the following gear:

– Empirical Labs Distressor compressor
– Thermionic Culture Fat Bustard MkII valve summing mixer
– Urei (Universal Audio) 1176 compressor
– Soundtoys Decapitator saturation/distortion plugin
– Maselec Mea-2 Equaliser
– SSL Bus Compressor
– Eiosis Air EQ

Related articles:
How To Make Your Kick Drum Sound Better

00.00 Intro
01.26 The Drums
02.13 Overheads and Balance for Acoustic Drums
05.58 Kick Drum
07.45 Paralllel Compression
10.25 Drum Triggering and sample layering
12.50 Snare Drum
15.58 Hi Hat
16.50 Room microphones
19.20 Drum Bus
24.52 Q&A

Questions
25.04 #1. Do you use high pass filters in mastering?
26.54 #2. I would love to know how to use the Fletcher Munson curve better to get things louder and punchier
29.33 #3. With the internet today, can we make it without a signed record label?