Ableton Forum

Im having a hard time with my drums. I layered the drums on a single track multiple times and it tends to peak out the master volume. And im still not getting the punchy kicks that i want. I tried to make another duplicated drum track, and that did help quite a bit, but its still peaking and not sounding how i really want it to. Any tips for putting some meat on the drums?

start with a phat sample #1

compression, saturation if you must....imo

simmerdown wrote:start with a phat sample #1

This.

Try this...take all your tracks down all the way and removing all compression eq etc. Then bring the primary sample you want to punch through your mix (usually the kick) up to about -6db. Don't take it up to 0db. Then bring each remaining sample up in turn, in priority order, while listening through a good set of speakers. Each subsequent sample should sit well below the primary -6db sample. When everything sounds good at this level, group all the samples, add a compressor...don't go overboard here and pay particular attention to the attack...delaying the attack can usually give you a lot of early punch. Then add a limiter...push up the gain until you get about -3 to -6db of gain reduction (leave your ceiling at -0.3db. This should get you a good punchy mix with no red.

Tim.

put a sample into sampler or generate a kick in operator and make use of the pitch envelope = punch!!!

Try boosting the kick between 60 - 80hz (up to 8db) you'll need to cut this from your bass

Then cut at 350hz up to -12db and boost at 5k (up to 8db)

ScudMan wrote:Try this...take all your tracks down all the way and removing all compression eq etc. Then bring the primary sample you want to punch through your mix (usually the kick) up to about -6db. Don't take it up to 0db. Then bring each remaining sample up in turn, in priority order, while listening through a good set of speakers. Each subsequent sample should sit well below the primary -6db sample. When everything sounds good at this level, group all the samples, add a compressor...don't go overboard here and pay particular attention to the attack...delaying the attack can usually give you a lot of early punch. Then add a limiter...push up the gain until you get about -3 to -6db of gain reduction (leave your ceiling at -0.3db. This should get you a good punchy mix with no red.

Tim.

Thank you very much i will try this asap. I really appreciate it.

thank you guys i will try all of these things, the kick is very important to me.

google "ny compression"

having the right kick for the track is a must. Try some different kicks.

If you have sampler you can build some 128s so you can listen through the kick samples in the track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA94b0yX6iM

I don't understand why people say you should stick compressors on kicks ... when the kick is a sample.

Compressors change something to something else. Not something to something better.

true true, cant polish a turd, that why a good sample to start is key

theres that kick synth shadx posted a while ago, cant remember the name now...punch city

Proper compression on drums is one of the keys to getting that punchy sound everyone is after. I'll often have a kick sample that I'll bring in the sustain/release times and then compress it to bring it out a bit more. This sounds like it could be counter-intuitive, but it works well for me. Compressors aren't necessary to have a great sounding kick, but having a properly compressed kick is key to getting that punchy sound, so in my experience at least a small amount of compression is applied to almost every kick drum in most producers' tracks.

You might try the "loudness" approach to EQing. This involves looking at your favorite spectrum analyzer (My fav is Voxengo Span), finding the highest peaking frequency, and then bringing down that frequency a few db in your equalizer. Then bring up your volume back to parity. Repeat until sufficiently smooshed sounding. This certainly isn't the end all for EQing, but understanding it can help you get punchy sounding drums.

Tenshi wrote:I don't understand why people say you should stick compressors on kicks ... when the kick is a sample.

There's nothing wrong in processing the dynamics of a sample. True, it's such a short bit of audio you can pretty much do such changes by enveloping it, but hey - if a compressor gives you the kind of change you wish to achieve, why not.

simmerdown wrote:true true, cant polish a turd, that why a good sample to start is key

theres that kick synth shadx posted a while ago, cant remember the name now...punch city

Vengeance Metrum. The best kick synth going.