from Sonarworks

Crafting Your Drum

Sound eBook
SoundID Reference

Mickey Hart

Life is about rhythm. We vibrate,

our hearts are pumping blood, we
are a rhythm machine, that’s what
we are.

Page 2
Drum EQ Tips

I. Crafting The Drum Mix 5

Drum EQ Tips 5

Killer Drum Track: Comperssion 16

II. Manipulating the Environment 32

Killer Drum Tracks with Layered

32
Samples

Spice Up Your Drum Loops with

46
Creative Sampling

Quick Tip: Drum Reverb in 2 Steps 56

Key Takeaways 62

Page 3
Crafting the drum mix

Introduction
Music production requires creating an environment that supports a
message. Pop records don’t reproduce a live event, they create an
event. An illusion. Something that never really happened. Modern
records are produced, meaning they are manufactured from raw
materials. In many cases, even these raw materials are composites, or
samples, of other productions. Before starting any music production,
take a few minutes and imagine where the production should transport
the listener. Imagine the journey and all the stops along the way. Weave
your song into that journey and enjoy the ride.

In this eBook, we discuss the production aspects of drum track

production from sampling beats to adding ambience to live drum tracks.
There is no right answer as to how drums should sound, but the end
result should be an identifiable pulse that propels the listener along the
musical journey.

Our ears recognize familiar drum ambiences, rhythms, and tones.

Learning to create a large vocabulary of drum sounds will expand your
ability to speak the language of music. Each genre may have an
identity, but borrowing from one genre and blending an unexpected,
but familiar beat into your production can express not only a certain
feeling but a deeper understanding of music. Take the ideas here and
let them inspire new methods.

“I love being a drummer. Everyone thinks you’re

dumb. What they don’t realize is that if it weren’t
for you, their band would suck.”
— Dave Grohl

Page 4
Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

Drum EQ Tips*
Each mix is slightly different than any previous
one, but mud is always mud, harshness is always
harshness. Each sonic quality resides in its

respective frequency range.

In this article, we will discuss specific frequency ranges and even
provide an EQ cheat sheet. It’s great to have a checklist of starting
points close at hand and our cheat sheet will help point you in the right
direction. If the cheatsheet says “cut at 300Hz to get rid of muddiness”,
remember, the frequency ranges listed here are guidelines that apply to
most situations. You will find that modifying the frequency range
slightly may improve your results.

Page 5
Drum EQ Tips
Balance is
The balance of all the tracks in
the mix is the backbone of your
mix. Anything else you do (EQ,
compression, spatial effects,
saturation, etc) is standing on
the shoulders of how you
balanced your mix. Superstar
mixer Billy Decker has been
quoted as saying “I’m all about
balance. If something is out of
balance, everything is out of
whack.”
Page 6
By Tiki Horea
⟶ key
Every tiny change you make,
therefore, affects the tone and
feel of your mix. Generally,
when working on EQ, think
about cleaning up the problem
frequencies first (they’re usually
resonances), then do whatever
it takes to enhance the tracks.
Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

[An] Average band with

a great drummer sounds

great, great band with

an average drummer

sounds average.

— Buddy Rich

Page 7
1 / 2
Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

Stay away from the solo button

A word of warning
Don’t EQ individual drums in solo until you know how they fit into
the entire drum mix.

When you EQ the close drum mic tracks by themselves, you’ll notice a
lot of resonant frequencies, but clearing those up will kill off the mojo of
your tracks. EQ’ing may possibly make the individual sounds clearer, but
the overall drum sound can suffer. You want your drums to kick down
the door, not politely knock and ask for permission to enter. Remember
that the drums make up a single instrument—the drum kit. This even
applies to programmed drums. Think about how a kick, snare, and hats
of a house beat fit together and create a complete sound. The snare
and kick make a thump together, so EQ them while both of them play!

Page 8
Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

What’s the matter, honey?

Before you unleash your EQing skills onto your tracks, think about the
root of the problem. Often the energy of one frequency band can mask
another frequency range. If a snare sounds dull and lifeless, there could
be a strong resonance in the mid-range frequency that detracts from
the high-end detail. Cut that midrange resonance and you’ll hear the
snare come to life.

Another classic example is a kick that “has no body” (is that a ghost
kick?). There’s a strong chance the problem is too much low mid energy
masking the low frequencies. Once you carve out the low mids, you’ll
suddenly unleash the kick’s strapping low end. Similarly, too much low
end can cloud everything in a mix.

Page 9
Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

Phase Check Before EQ

Make sure all the drum tracks have the optimum phase (polarity) relationship between
them. Failing that, equalizing will be a nightmare, and the end result may still sound weak.

Choose one mic (or pair of mics) like the overheads and listen to the overheads along with
each close mic, one at a time. Flip the phase on each close mic and see which phase
setting helps the close mic “fit in” with the overheads for the most full and powerful sound.

Combining out-of-phase drum mics results in drum sounds that sound weaker or more
distant than tracks with the proper phase setting. Also be sure that any two mics on one
drum, like snare top and bottom, add together with the best phase response, usually
resulting in more powerful low frequencies.

Phase can be dialed in by slipping one track in time against another. Choose one track and
match others to it. Usually, the kick or snare bleeds into the other close mics and this
bleed can be used to find the best phase setting for each track. You probably don’t want
to slip the overhead or room mics because you don’t want to change their timing relative
to the close mics, but certainly, audition both polarity options for those mics.

After applying any aggressive EQ, especially high-pass filters and narrow low-frequency
cuts or boosts, check your phase again. Equalizer used this way can completely invert the
polarity of dominant low-frequency content due to their inherent phase-shift and group
delay effects. Linear phase EQs prevent phase problems at the expense of some possible
pre-ringing artifacts. In general, phase shift artifacts are much more noticeable than
pre-ringing artifacts.

Page 10
Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

Finding Nasty Frequencies

Think of it this way:

When it comes to subtractive vs additive EQ cut out the bad and
enhance the good.

Here is the easiest way to determine what frequencies to cut: Create a

narrow band EQ and apply a large boost. Then sweep around the
spectrum until you hear something horrible, and cut the EQ until it
sounds better. Don’t be afraid to boost 9 or 10 dB to find the resonant
frequencies and you can begin with a wide Q until you find a problem
area. Watch your monitor/headphones volume as resonant frequencies
can jump out at very high volumes during this exercise. Many EQ
plugins provide band-solo features that can help locate problem
frequencies.

Jump on the Bus

A great way to chisel out the ideal tone for your drums is to subgroup
the drum tracks. Insert a stereo EQ on the group fader and sculpt away.
You can easily clear out the mud from the drum mix this way, or add a
bit more sparkle or attack. Just keep in mind that you’re affecting all the
drums at the same time. Once you’re done with EQing the drums bus,
revisit the individual tracks for fine-tuning.

Remember, the balance and tonality of the entire

drum kit will make or break the sound more than
any individual tracks, so get a good balance of all
the tracks before you touch the EQ on individual
tracks.

Page 11
 General tips

Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

⟶for
Tones
Drum
Drum Bus
⟶ Fine tune your low frequencies by applying a high pass filter and
also pushing some low end around 50 – 100Hz. This provides a
resonant boost without blowing up your subs.

⟶ Boxiness lives between 300 – 400Hz, so cut this area gently, if

needed.

⟶ 500Hz wil add some body to the entire kit.

⟶ Try reducing 1 - 2.5kHz to get rid of harshness and make room for
guitars and vocals.
Kick
⟶ Kick drums can be high pass filtered around 30Hz. Anything below
that is all rumble, which is something you want to avoid if you want
a tight low end. Be careful about electronic drums— 808-style bass
drums may ring as low as 30Hz.

⟶ Cut the low mids-mids at around 300-600Hz to get rid of the

cardboard. Sweep around to find the boxiest frequency and rid
your life of it. Nasty!

⟶ Boost highs for attack. Kicks in metal music need the highs
boosted between 4-8kHz for some click, whereas indie, rock, and
pop kicks
Page 12
Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

benefit from a boost at 1.5-2.5kHz for some smack.

⟶ To reduce bleed from the rest of the drums (especially the

cymbals) in the kick drum track, apply a low pass filter at 5kHz, but

be careful not to lose the click or smack of the kick drum. A gate

may be more effective than simple EQ for noise reduction.

Snare

⟶ If the kick drum is bleeding into the snare mic too much, it may

introduce nasty low end into the mix. In order to combat this, you

can filter the snare track(s) below 100Hz with a steep slope (The

SSL high-pass filter is 18dB/octave).

⟶ Make your snare grow chest hair by boosting in the “body” range

with a bell-shaped EQ. Try between 100Hz and 250Hz.

⟶ Add more attack to the snare by raising the 1.5 – 3kHz range.

⟶ Add more rattle to the bottom of the snare around 5kHz

⟶ If the wires of the snare drum are loud, but the drum isn’t bright

enough, use a high-shelf boost at 9kHz-10kHz. This can make the

drum brighter, without emphasizing the snare wires.

⟶ Poorly miked snare drums are prone to nasty resonances, so sweep

around and get rid of ‘em with a narrow notch.

Hi-hat

⟶ Hi-hats may have snare or tom bleed and can be safely high-pass

filtered at 300 – 400 Hz.

⟶ Thickness can be added around 600 – 800Hz, while clarity and

openness can be found from 6kHz up to 12kHz.

⟶ Clearing out the range from 800Hz – 2kHz can remove the nasal

harshness of some hats.

⟶ Listen to hi-hat in the overhead mics to hear its natural tone.

Page 13
Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

Cymbals / Overheads

⟶ Different genres use overhead microphones for different reasons.

Metal, for example, uses cymbal mics, while blues and rock styles

achieve most of their drum sound solely from the overheads.

Overheads used as the primary drum sound should be high-passed

gently, if at all. Cymbal mics can be high-passed as low as 400 Hz.

⟶ Cymbal harshness resides around 2.5kHz. Sweep around for the

exact spot where the ear-breaker lives. Cutting in this area will not

dull your cymbals. In fact, they’ll sparkle in the mix without burning

your eyebrows.

Kick Drum Snare Drum Rack Tom Floor Tom

40 - 60 Hz: Bottom end
120 - 250 Hz: Fatness
120 - 200 Hz: Low end
70 - 90 Hz: Low end

80 Hz: Power
500 Hz: Bod y
150 - 300 Hz: Mud
150 - 300 Hz: Mud

150 - 250 Hz: Mud, 900 Hz: Mids presence

250 - 500 Hz: Fullness
250 - 500 Hz: Fullness

hollowness
3 kHz: Clarit y
700 - 9 00 Hz: Box y
700 - 9 00 Hz: Box y

300 - 600 Hz: Boxiness

7 kHz: Snap 5 - 7 kHz: Attack 5 - 7 kHz: Attack

1.5 - 2 kHz: Attack for softer

genres

4 - 5 kHz: Attack for heavy

genres (metal)

Hi-Hat Overheads Room Drum Bus

200 Hz: metallic “clang” 80 - 120 Hz: Low end

80 Hz: Low end
40 - 100 Hz: Power

sound that cheapens any 150 - 300 Hz: Mud

150 - 350 Hz: Mud
300 - 400 Hz: Boxiness

recording
400 - 700 Hz: Boxiness
5 - 8 kHz: Presence, sparkl e
500 Hz: Thickness

400 Hz: Ambience, 2.5k Hz: Harshness

8 kHz and above: Harshness 2.5 Hz: Harshness

resonances.
12k Hz: Sparkle, sheen 6 - 12 kHz: Sparkle, sizzle

600 - 800 Hz: Thickness

6 - 12 kHz: Sparkle, sizzle.

Page 14
Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

[An] Average band with

a great drummer sounds

great, great band with

an average drummer

sounds average.

— Buddy Rich

Page 15
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

Killer Drum
Tracks:
Compression

The Scenario

You’ve EQ’d and removed the boxiness from your drums by cutting the
mids just right. You’ve tamed the cymbal ringing by dipping the hi-mids.
You’ve sculpted the snare perfectly. You’re carving away to create
some of your best signature sounds. Despite all that EQing, the drums
are still not moving you. It’s time to get some compression going to
really get your drums grooving!

Page 16
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

Most modern mixes ache for a punchy drum sound that can only be
achieved with the right kind of compression. It helps to start with a
great drummer, great drums, a great-sounding room, and great
recording techniques. Many drummers aren’t consistent in the way they
hit the skins and their intensity and how and where they strike the
drums changes from beat to beat. This can make the pulse of the track
feel inconsistent, eating at your groove and making the drums less
solid. The mighty compressor is one of our best tools for making up for
a sloppy drummer’s lack of technique and also for making a solid
drummer’s performance feel razor-sharp. If you use programmed drums
these tips still apply, as many sample-packs and drum programs
provide natural-sounding tones, similar to live drums.

Important Note:
Make use of the compressor’s make-up gain knob. This control
provides a way to maintain a consistent volume when comparing
processed to unprocessed signals.

A level-matched comparison allows you to hear exactly what your

settings are doing to the sound, so you aren’t fooled into thinking that
the louder version sounds better. Many dynamic plugins have auto-gain
settings and spare you the headache of having to set up the make-up
gain yourself.

Page 17
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

Logic X’s built-in compressor allows two levels of auto gain to allow
easy comparison of the before and after signals.

Compressors for Drums

The most often used types of compressors when it comes to

processing drums are VCA (SSL, dBx, Distressor) and FET (1176). Both
compressor types can be set to have very fast attack and release, and
they can color the sound in pleasant ways if driven hard. Don’t discard
Opto or Tube compressors, though, as their tone and frequency
sensitivity can be just the right thing for your drums. As an aside,
sometimes the easiest way to increase or decrease the attack and
sustain of your tracks is to use a transient shaper, which is not a
compressor and therefore will not be discussed here.

Page 18
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

General

🡒 tips

When compressing a well-played and well

-recorded drum sound you might only need 1 or

2dB of gain reduction and a medium ratio. The

attack and release times of the compressor will

be very forgiving when you’re working with such

small gain reduction amounts.

Attack!

⟶ The easiest way to set up your attack time and release time is to

start with a slow attack and medium release time.

⟶ Try starting with 100ms attack and release. Slowly increase the

attack time until you start losing the impact of the transient and the

drum starts feeling less bright or punchy.

⟶ Now slow the attack until you bring back the initial attack and

power of the drum. On a digital compressor, like the Avid DynIII

Compressor, an attack between 11ms and 35ms usually seems

natural.

⟶ Make sure the attack isn’t set too fast. Too fast an attack will make

the drum sound less punchy, regardless of what the gain reduction

meter shows you.

⟶ On the other hand, a fast attack will push down the attack of the

drum and soften its punch.

Page 19
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

Release!
⟶ Next, move the release as slow as it goes and increase the release
time until the compressor starts to move in time with the song.

⟶ Too slow a release will just keep the volume of the drum soft all the
time, and an overly fast release will let the body of the drum come
up too fast.

⟶ The compressor should be fully released before the next big hit
comes along.

⟶ If you want the kick and snare to feel like they’re in your face, aim
for 3-6dB of gain reduction. With this much compression, you really
start hearing your compressor working and its attack, release, and
ratio settings become very important.

Reverse It!

⟶ To increase the sense of ambience in room mics, try a 1- 5ms

attack and 50ms release. This will take away the attack and bring
up the tone of the drums and the ambience of the room.

⟶ FET compressors used in this manner can provide interesting

pumping effects to room mics and loops.

Kick
⟶ If you’re looking to increase the punch of your kick, set the attack
time just slow enough that you let the initial attack through. Set the
release time so that the compressor releases before the next kick.
Increasing the ratio will make the kick even punchier.

⟶ Quicker release times may increase the sense of ambience around

the drum, so try some shorter times to hear what fits your groove.

Page 20
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

Extremely short release times can create distortion artifacts, which

can be ugly or appropriate depending on your style of music.Try an
opto compressor (LA-2a) on kick for a little extra snap!

Snare
⟶ If your snare is too dark, instead of boosting the high-end with an
EQ, try using compression. Set the attack slower than usual,
allowing the transients to pass through, creating the illusion of a
brighter attack.

⟶ Do you want a phat (full-bodied) snare sound? Use a very fast

attack coupled with a super-fast release. This squashes the attack
of the sound and lets the body of the snare come up in level.

⟶ In case you want to emphasize the decay and sustain of the drum,
like in a traditional country song, try this: Use fast attack and
release settings. Set the threshold low enough to catch the attack
of the drum, but high enough to be above the sustain level. This
lowers the attack and helps bring up the body of the snare.

⟶ To emphasize the attack of your snare, use a slow attack with

medium to slow release settings. The threshold has to be set low
enough to attenuate the sustain of the signal.

⟶ Is the tail of your snare too long? In this case, a compressor might
not help, so use an expander/gate to fade out the tail of your snare.
Go for a fast attack with a fast or medium release and set the
threshold high enough to eliminate as much ‘tail’ as needed.

Toms
⟶ When it comes to toms, they’re somewhere in-between a kick and
a snare drum, so you can easily adapt the above tips to your tom
tracks.

Page 21
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

In aggressive genres, such as rock and nu-metal, using heavy

compression settings can thicken your toms a whole lot.

Overhead microphones

⟶ Overheads can take a special compressor and carefully adjusted

settings to get the compression just right. For instance,compression

that releases too fast may make your cymbals distort. For many

mixers, a FET compressor provides the fast attack needed for drum

control, while a tube compressor, like the Manley Variable-Mu®, can

add color and depth without messing up clean transients.

⟶ If there is too much snare drum in the overheads, here’s what you

can do: Open a sidechain compressor on your overhead track and

use the snare track to trigger the compressor that affects the

overheads. (See the sidechain compression explanation in this

post). Use fast enough attack and release settings so that the snare

track brings down the snare in the overheads.

Page 22
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

⟶ Make sure the compressor fully releases the overheads as soon as

the snare’s attack is finished. This way you’ll have less snare in the
overheads, without bringing up the hi-hat.

⟶ Sometimes, the drummer nails the kick while only feathering the
snare drum. To level out this type of playing style, consider using a
multiband compressor on your overheads. Set the crossover points
to where one band only affects the kick and one band mainly
affects the snare.

⟶ Try to leave the cymbals and hi-hat untouched. Izotope’s Neutron 3

Compressor makes this type of compression easy. Press the Learn
button, play the drum track, and Neutron 3 will automatically set
the crossover points for you.

⟶ Multiband compressors have attack, release, and ratio controls for

each band, so once the crossover points have been set, tweak the
kick and snare bands until the drum mix sounds more balanced.

Drum room microphones

⟶ Room microphones can be used as the connective tissue or the

glue of a drum kit. This approach to using the room microphones
greatly benefits from a pretty serious amount of compression —
anywhere between 6-10dB of gain reduction.

⟶ In most modern productions, room sounds are heavily compressed,

which thickens the overall drum sound. Most mixers go for more
than 10dB in order to achieve this effect.

⟶ Your aim is to increase the size and tone of the room sound, so use
a slow enough attack time so that the transients are unaffected by
the compressor and have the release set timed to the track. Use a
high ratio or even limiting.

⟶ If you want the room tone or natural reverb to be emphasized more,

use a faster release time.

Page 23
K iller Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

⟶ If the drums have been recorded in a bad-sounding space, with

unpleasant sounding reflections and a low ceiling, you might have a

problem. One way to mitigate a bad-sounding drum room is to set

the attack time fast enough to cut the transient. Then make sure

the release time is long enough that the ambience isn’t

exaggerated.

⟶ The next step is to bring the compressed room tracks up under the

other drum tracks just enough so you feel them, without

necessarily hearing their awfulness.

Pictured here on Waves’ CLA76 is the classic

FET-style exploding drum room compression

setting. Notice the slowest attack setting,

fastest release setting, and the “All-Buttons-In”

ratio. This type of setting will push the drum

hits down and let the ambience of the room

quickly explode, giving a “rock-n-roll pump” to

the room.

Page 24
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

Serial Compression

is a fancy way of saying “more than one compressor in your signal

chain, one feeding into the next.”

Say you’re compressing your kick drum track and the drum bus,
followed by compressing the all-instrument bus. Lastly, you add a bit of
compression on your mix bus to glue everything together. By the time
you’re done with your mix, you will have compressed your kick drum
(and other drums) at least 4 times.

Alternatively, you may want to put more than one compressor on an

individual track. One advantage of using multiple compressors on a
single track is to apply only a slight bit of compression with each
compressor. The end result of serial compression winds up being
moretransparent than if you simply use one compressor and work it
hard.

Page 25
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

There are (almost) no rules when it comes to

great-sounding music, but there are some
important guidelines when it comes to the order
of your serial compressors:

Important rules!
faster compressors go before slower compressors ⟶ higher ratio
compressors go before lower ratio compressors

The reasoning behind the above is this: the faster, more aggressive
compressor will shave off some of the initial transients, making each hit
more consistent. The more even sound is then fed into the slower
compressor, where you can bring back some of the initial attack, but
more consistent than before.

Page 26
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

Parallel Compression
is a trick that mixing engineers have been using since the 1970s. It’s
used to greatly increase the punchiness or attack of a track while
keeping it sounding natural.

How do you know you’ve chosen the right compressor settings? The
key to this is knowing what you’re trying to achieve. Once you know
that, you’ll be able to decide whether the compressor settings are right
or not.

Thick Drums with Parallel Compression

To add density and power to an entire drum mix, make a copy of your drum bus and put a
compressor on the parallel copy. Set your attack to be as fast as possible and a threshold where the
drums are constantly being compressed and set the release fast enough where the compressor
releases before the next sound and allows in some of the drum’s ambience to fill out the sound.

A gentle ratio, such as 2:1 will sound natural but intense since the threshold is so low. Higher ratios
give you a more distorted/crumbly sound. As the ratio gets higher, the compressor will start
introducing pumping artifacts, culminating with it distorting.

Hard-Hitting Drums with Parallel Compression

To create a forward-sounding drum track, make a copy of your drum bus and put a compressor on
this parallel copy. Begin with a 2:1 ratio, but even lower ratios can still be very effective. Set the
release to be slow enough so that the room noise isn’t brought up. Any “air” noises are undesirable
as well. Your gain reduction meter should show a number as close to 0 as possible during the later
part of the sustain of the sound.

Urban Bottom with Parallel Compression

808-style kicks usually have a lot of low end, which sounds much better when controlled. To achieve
control without taking away the power of the 808 sound, apply some parallel compression, with fast
attack and release, but watch out for distortion if your release becomes too fast.

Page 27
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

Rock Punch with Parallel Compression

Try a parallel kick and/or snare track with a VCA compressor (dBx, SSL, Focusrite, API), set with a
15ms attack, 25ms release, and a 6:1 ratio. Adjust the threshold for 5-10dB of compression and mix
this track with the original to add a bit of punch and clarity. Many plugin compressors provide a
dry/wet mix knob. This allows you to apply parallel compression without having to duplicate tracks.

New York-Style Parallel Drum Compression

This type of parallel compression was developed in New York City and used by many mixers that
worked in the city. The name was coined by engineer/author Bobby Owsinski in his book The Mixing
Engineer’s Handbook. The following steps will help you get a bigger, more controlled-sounding
rhythm section, without it sounding overcompressed.

Page 28
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

What you
↗ Route the drums (and often
also the bass) to a bus with a
want to do
stereo compressor inserted.
This bus will play along with
is this* your current drum bus, hence
parallel.

↗ Adjust the threshold until

you’re getting 10dB (or more if
it sounds good) of gain
reduction

↗ his is optional but worth

doing: add some high end and
low end to the compressed
signal. Go for 6-10dB at 10kHz
and 6-10dB at 100hz.

↗ Bring up the level of the

processed bus right to where
you can barely hear it.

↗ Many mixers like to pan this

parallel bus in to make it mono.
This will have the effect of
centering the punch of the
drums while maintaining a wide
stereo image on the high-end.
Try panning both ways to see
which fits your mix.
Page 29
Killer Drum Tracks: Compression By Tiki Horea

Conlusion
Compressing your drums is definitely a fun activity, but don’t get lost in
the weeds. The end goal should always be the overall feel of the song
you’re mixing. If you’re working on a jazz tune, you probably shouldn’t
process the drums to make them sound like cannons. Similarly, if you’re
working on a Muse-inspired track, one mustn’t have wimpy drums.

Page 30
Sonarworks

Rupaul

I dance to the beat of a different

drummer.

Page 31
Killer Drum Tracks: with
By Brad Pack
Layered Samples

Killer Drum
Tracks:

with Layered
Samples*

Modern musical productions tend to be much more complicated than a

4-piece band performing live in the studio. Because productions wind
up with so many layers of sounds, we may not know how our drums will
fit into the mix until we get pretty far along into the production. It would
be great to be able to re-record drums after most of the production is
complete, but because of time and money constraints, this isn’t usually
possible. For this reason, drum samples have become an essential part
of modern music production in everything from ripping rock records to
EDM bangers to country jams.

In this blog, we’ll share some of our favorite tips for layering drum
samples to help you make the most out of your next project. You
shouldn’t feel like you’re cheating by adding drum samples to a
production. Just make sure the samples compliment the original sounds
and contribute to realizing the original intention of the production.
These tips relate not only to augmenting or replacing live drum
recordings but apply just as well to programming realistic-sounding
drum performances.

Page 32
Killer Drum Tracks: with
By Brad Pack
Layered Samples

Find 🡒

samples that
complement

your tracks
Killer Drum Tracks: with
By Brad Pack
Layered Samples

Perhaps the biggest mistake most people make when working with
drum samples is trying to make one sample do all of the heavy lifting.
Drum samples are best used to augment and improve the existing
recorded sounds. The trick is to blend the samples with your recording
for a cohesive sound. With almost an unlimited number of samples
available to us, it can still be difficult to find the exact sounds we need.
Layering samples on top of your existing tracks can help augment the
punch, low-end, attack, or ambience of the recorded sounds.

Information!
See the list at the end of this article for information on where to
find great samples.

Drum replacement, rather than layering, completely replaces the sound

of a live recording with samples, and should only be used when
absolutely necessary, as it almost always sounds sterile and unnatural.
With that in mind, analyze your drum recording and decide what you do
and don’t like about it. Is the kick too boomy? Is it lacking low-end?
Does the snare have enough snap, crackle, and thump? Or does it
sound like you’re hitting a wet cardboard box? Only then look for
samples that provide the elements that are lacking in your original
tracks.

You can also find samples that complement the

timbre, as well as the tone of the drums. For
instance, if your snare drum recording sounds
tight and dead, you might look for a sample with a
longer sustain or more room tone.
Alternatively, if your toms are dull but ring too long, you could look for
samples with a pronounced attack to add clarity to the tom hits.

Page 34
Killer Drum Tracks: with
By Brad Pack
Layered Samples

Here we see a high tom track (top blue) and a mid tom track (lower blue) with added tom samples
(orange). The added samples have more ring and sustain, while the original drum tracks have been
edited to remove the bleed from other drums. The original toms provide the punch, while the
samples provide the body and ring.

Try layering multiple samples to get the right sound. One kick sample
may provide the bottom, one the mid-punch, and another the click. The
goal is to find a blend that enhances what you like about your current
drum recording and compensates for anything you don’t like. The
samples shouldn’t replace or overpower your existing tracks.

Tune your ⟶ drum samples

Even after locating what sounds like the perfect sample, you find that it
doesn’t sit quite right in the mix. You might not be able to put your
finger on it, but something sounds off. In many cases, this occurs
because the drum sa ple isn’t in tune with the rest of the drums or the
key of the song.

Even though most people don’t consider drums to be “melodic”

instruments like a piano or guitar, many musicians feel that the tuning of
each drum, especially the snare and toms, should relate to the key of a
song. Improperly tuned drum samples can cause the song to sound
dissonant or confusing. You may not even notice the issue until you

Page 35
Killer Drum Tracks: with
By Brad Pack
Layered Samples

finally get the drums in tune everything will lock into place and the song
will feel more cohesive.

While recording, the drummer and producer need to ensure that the
drum kit is appropriately tuned for the song. If you have to mix a song
with improperly tuned drums, you can use standard pitch correction
tools like Autotune or Melodyne, or specialized drum tuning plug-ins like
Waves Torque to help dial in the appropriate drum tones. As an
engineer, you should familiarize yourself with how to tune and dampen
drums — it might just save a session.

Waves’ Torque plugin applied to lower the fundamental frequency of a low tom sample so that the
sample plays a note that matches the key of the song.

Page 36
Killer Drum Tracks: with
By Brad Pack
Layered Samples

Check for phase issues

Phase issues that cause comb-filtering leading to weak sounds can
arise during recording and also when layering samples with live
recordings. If your samples don’t line up properly with the original
tracks, even by as little as a few samples, it can throw the whole
recording out of whack. Hopefully, the drums were recorded with
proper microphone technique and attention to phase, and you should
continue to be aware of phase issues as you add samples.

If you’re using a dedicated drum replacement software like EZ Drummer,

Drumagog, or Steven Slate Trigger, the samples will automatically
trigger based on the transient of the original sound. In the plugin, you
can also tweak the timing, polarity, and in some cases the envelope of
the samples to ensure there are no timing or phase issues. After you
have dialed in the triggered samples, you should print the samples as
audio to verify and adjust the samples’ timing and phase relationship
against the original tracks. I’ll often find one or two hits during a song
that didn’t trigger the same way as all the other hits.

Steve Slate’s Trigger plugin provides for up to eight layered drum samples to be triggered by the
original audio track. Note the volume, mute, pan, polarity/phase, and tuning for each sample.
Additionally, the samples can be mixed and blended with the original sound and their envelopes and
dynamics can be edited.

Page 37
Killer Drum Tracks: with
By Brad Pack
Layered Samples

If you’re manually inserting drum samples, you’ll need to adjust the

timing of the samples by hand. Plug-ins like UAD’s Little Labs IBP
(In-Between-Phase), Sound Radix’s Auto-Align, and Waves’ InPhase can
be useful tools for identifying and correcting phase issues between
multiple tracks. If you’re looking for a free solution, you can manually
zoom in and visually align each transient by nudging the waveform in
your DAW.

A tom track (blue) and a layered sample (orange) seen here with proper time and phase alignment so
that they combine in the most musical way. You may have to zoom in on each occurrence to verify
the best alignment.

Keep in mind
a typical song contains a couple of hundred kick drum hits, so
manually aligning samples can be quite tedious.

Fit sounds together with EQ*

After selecting samples that complement your original drum recordings,
use EQ to carve out space for each sound to help create a more
cohesive sound. For instance, in the previous example of a bright,
snappy kick drum recording with the bass-heavy sample, you could use
a high-pass filter to roll-off the low-end on the live kick track to make
room for the sample. Similarly, you could use a low-pass filter on the
sample track. This will help ensure that the tracks compliment each
other without masking one another. When using high-pass or low-pass
filters, you’ll need to re-check the best polarity of the sounds, as steep

Page 38
Killer Drum Tracks: with
By Brad Pack
Layered Samples

You should also try linear phase EQs in this case.

It’s also important to consider any overhead mics, room mics, and any
other tracks with a significant amount of drum bleed. You may need to
EQ these tracks to allow room for the samples.

Just be careful not to carve these tracks up so

much that they sound unnatural.
You won’t need to cut as drastically as you did on the close-miked
tracks — just use those frequencies as a starting point and cut as
needed. Check out our blog post on drum EQ techniques for more info.

Bus compression for glue

Route all of your tracks to a drum bus and use a “gluey” compressor like
the SSL G-Series, API 2500, or Fairchild 670 to apply 2-4 dB of

Page 39
Killer Drum Tracks: with
By Brad Pack
Layered Samples

compression. Use a gentle ratio, like 2:1 or 4:1 to keep from

over-compressing the samples. Use a slower attack time (> 20 ms) for
more impact or a faster attack time (< 20 ms) to help tighten up the
sound. Time the release to the tempo of the song for a punchy sound,
or use the auto release setting for a smooth response. Review our blog
on drum compression for more tips.

Parallel drum bus compression and multi-band compression are

powerful tools for creating powerful and controlled drum mixes. Use
your favorite multi-band compressor, like FabFilter Pro-MB, Waves C6,
or TDR Nova to compress each frequency range with unique settings.
Boz Digital Labs’ Manic Compressor provides parallel compression
ideally suited for drum busses.

Page 40
Section Heading
Create a
space with ⟶
reverb
One of the reasons that drum
samples tend to stick out in
mixes is because they are
typically dry, close-miked
sounds. When we listen to a live
drummer, we don’t listen with
our ears six inches from the
kick drum — at least not more
than once!Hearing the sound of
the drums reflecting off the
walls is part of how your brain
makes sense of what it’s
hearing. That’s why it’s impor-
tant to add a little bit of reverb
to all of your samples. Yes, even
the kick and toms.
Page 41
Balance
I know, I know ⟶ one of the
golden rules of mixing is to
never use reverb on the kick or
the bass. But your kick sample
will stick out like a sore thumb if
it doesn’t sound like it’s in the
same room as the other
instruments. Be tasteful ⟶ too
much reverb on a kick drum can
sound like a basketball boun-
cing! Many sample libraries and
drum instruments provide sam-
ples with varying amounts of
reverb or real room ambience
baked in.
Killer Drum Tracks: with
By Brad Pack
Layered Samples

To achieve a convincing drum ambience, send each of your drum

samples to an aux track with a reverb that sounds similar to the tone of
the drum room in your recording. I typically use either an ambience or
small room preset, with the reverb time between 200 and 500
milliseconds to create the effect of the drums reflecting off the walls. I
may also add an additional medium-to-long plate or room reverb to give
the drums a natural sustain. Applying the same reverb(s) to the samples
and original drum tracks will help create a cohesive, natural drum
sound.

If a reverb adds too much low-end mud to your mix, place an EQ before
the reverb plugin and roll-off everything below 200 Hz or even higher.
Blending short, punchy reverbs with longer reverbs or even mono
reverbs can help create a convincing sense of ambience around your
drum mix. For more tips on reverbs, review our reverb blog post.

Summary
Don’t be afraid to beef up your drum tracks
with layered samples.
Just follow these suggestions and develop your
own techniques and style to create the best drum
tracks you can.

Page 42
Section Heading Balance

Drum samples

library

There are many amazing drum

sample libraries out there, but
here are a few to get you started:

Page 43
Drum EQ Tips By Tiki Horea

→Drumforge Drumshotz
produces drum libraries used by top producers and mixers.

→Steven Slate Drums

is a great source for drum packs and drum replacement plugins.

→GetGoodDrums.com
produces plugins and live drum libraries as well as groove packs.

→FXpansion’s BFD3
provides software and samples for many genres.

→XLN Audio’s Addictive Drums 2

provides software and ADpacks for live drums.

Page 44
“I've always had a
fascination with making
your own music but never
have been skilled enough
to play the instrument, so
to be able to make music
without the ability was
awesome.”

Avicii
Page 45
Spice up your drum loops
By Eli Krantzberg
with creative sampling

Spice up your
drum loops

with creative
sampling
Every modern music genre includes the use of drum loops and samples,
from Dance and EDM to Hip-Hop and Trap. The main groove is often
enhanced with sampled percussion phrases, layered loops, and stacked
drum samples. Our ability to incorporate, tweak, mangle, and transform
drum and percussion loops have come a long way over the years. In the
early days of hardware sampler-based drum loop manipulation, one or
two bar samples could be timed to a song’s tempo only by speeding or
slowing down the sample, which also changed its pitch. Before DAWs
and sophisticated software samplers, editing a drum loop was a
time-consuming and difficult process.

Gone are the days of merely looping a single pitch-shifted drum pattern
throughout your song. With modern tools, pitch and tempo can be
manipulated independently or simultaneously. Slicing, extracting,
replacing, and layering bits of samples and loops has become intuitive
and commonplace.

This article presents some new and some tried-and-true ways to spice
up the drum loops in your music.

Page 46
Spice up your drum loops
By Eli Krantzberg
with creative sampling

Special moments

A straightforward way to create interesting variations of a loop is to

resample, or bounce/record passes of your loop(s) while applying
resonants filters, or modulation-based effects like flangers and phasers.
These new sonic variations are useful for different textures,
breakdowns, or other special moments in your arrangement. For a
reminder on how to perform real-time effects processing, check out our
blog post by Enamour.

Important Note:
There are several plug-ins, like Sugar Bytes’ Effectrix or iZotope’s
Break Tweaker and Stutter Edit 2, that can slice, process, and
re-sequence audio regions with built-in multi-effects. These are
great tools, but you don’t necessarily need dedicated plug-ins to
create your own unique sonic bits.

Page 47
Spice up your drum loops
By Eli Krantzberg
with creative sampling

Re-sequencing loops with slices and MIDI

Many modern samplers include the ability to slice up drum loops and
assign midi notes to each slice. Imagine cutting a 4-beat drum pattern
into eighth-note slices and playing the slices with your MIDI keyboard,
where C1 plays the first slice, C#1 plays the second slice, D1 the third,
and so on. If you play a chromatic scale as eighth-notes, you will
“reconstruct” the original loop, but if you change the order of the notes,
leave out certain notes or play the notes with different timing you can
create custom variations of the loop.

The new Quick Sampler plugin in Logic Pro 10.5 is perfectly suited for
this. Drag a drum loop onto Logic’s Track Header and choose to load it
into Quick Sampler. Quick Sampler automatically slices up the loop and
assigns a midi note to each slice. Use the action menu to copy/paste
the MIDI note data into the workspace. This function creates a MIDI
region with trigger notes representing each slice, mapped out
chromatically across the keyboard. It is then a simple matter of
rearranging the MIDI notes that represent each slice for exciting
variations. Besides Logic’s Quick Sampler, check out Spectrasonics’
Stylus RMX and FXpansion’s Geist2. These two plugins have been the
reigning kings of time-sliced beats for quite a while.

On the left, we see a chromatic scale that would play all the slices of drum loop in the original order
and timing. On the right, we see a variation where the slices are sequenced in a different order and
even stacked and overlapped.

Page 48
Spice up your drum loops
By Eli Krantzberg
with creative sampling

Re-sequencing loops as audio clips

Suppose you don’t have a software sampler with this type of
functionality, not to worry. Every DAW makes it easy to divide a region
into equal length slices. This function usually involves setting up a
quantize grid and separating audio clips from within a region. Simply
slice the audio clip into bits of equal lengths and then rearrange the
slices by snapping one after the other to create new patterns while
maintaining the same tempo. With this method, you can create
“unplayable” drum patterns that stutter, overlap, and cut off in new
ways.

Page 49
Spice up your drum loops
By Eli Krantzberg
with creative sampling

Adjusting the pitch of sample slices or 🡒

drum loops

Once a loop has been chopped up, either within a sampler or on an

audio track in your DAW, transposing the pitch of individual slices can
yield exciting sonic variations. In Logic Pro 10.5, replace the Quick
Sampler instrument containing your sliced-up loop with an instance of
the more fully-featured Sampler plugin. The same loop will be loaded
and sliced in the new plugin. Use the plugin’s mapping pane to
transpose individual slices by changing the root key for each slice.
Moving the root key lower will cause the sample to sound higher in
pitch and vice-versa.

If you are working with a sliced-up loop as audio on a DAW track, use
the region transpose feature to change the individual slices’ pitch.
Depending on the DAW, you may need to enable elastic audio or flex
editing for this type of audio region functionality. Some DAWs have
offline transpose tools, such as Pro Tools’ Pitch (Audiosuite) plugin.

Logic’s Sampler plugin shows each slice/sample assigned to a MIDI note. The selected (yellow) slice
is assigned to D1 and the parameter box (highlighted in the green box) shows the root note
assignment (E0 in this case) and any tuning or pitch offset. By varying the root key and tuning the
speed/pitch of the slice can be dialed in.

Page 50
Spice up your drum loops
By Eli Krantzberg
with creative sampling

Effects*

Process individual slices of your loop in different ways to create

interesting sonic or rhythmic variations. If you are working with the loop
chopped up on your DAW timeline, the procedure is simple. Drag each
of the slices onto its own audio track and experiment with different
plugins on each track. Try filters, modulation, or bit-crushing effects.

If you have your slices in a sampler, you may be able to assign

individual slices to different outputs of the sampler. The outputs should
appear as separate tracks, busses, or channel strips within your DAW,
and once your audio slices are sent to different channels in your DAW,
the processing possibilities are endless! Many samplers also provide
built-in effects that can be applied per sample or per output channel.

Stacking loops and samples

Why limit yourself to a single loop? Find a second loop that

complements the first loop either rhythmically or sonically. Load the
second loop into a new sampler instance to slice it up, or slice it
manually on a fresh DAW track. The idea here isn’t to simply slap two
loops on top of each other but to use only certain slices from the
second loop to enhance the original loop.

If you’re working in a software sampler, export the MIDI file and edit the
pattern by deleting some of the slices, so that only a few selected
slices are left in place. These will augment the original loop when both
are played back at the same time. If the second loop is already
chopped up on an audio track, play around by muting or deleting
various slices to create interesting patterns. For even more variety,
apply the processing techniques mentioned above to this new loop.

Another technique is to program the drum loop in real-time by

triggering the slices from your MIDI controller. Playing the drum slices

Page 51
Spice up your drum loops
By Eli Krantzberg
with creative sampling

like sounds from a drum machine will almost definitely lead to some
serendipitous patterns you might not have otherwise considered. A
drum pad controller or MIDI keyboard will work for this technique.

In this image, the top stereo audio track is a looped drum pattern and the bottom track is used to
layer an additional rhythmic pattern along with the original loop.

Layering and Stacking Individual Drum Sounds onto a LoopThe idea of

adding additional elements to enhance a loop can be approached
vertically as well as horizontally. What I mean by this is, instead of
adding slices to enhance the rhythm, slices can be lined up vertically on
top of the original loop. Do this to fatten the tone of the kick and snare,
for example. Slice the kick or snare out from different loops, and line
them up on top of the original drum loop.

Here a drum loop (top audio track) is supplemented by adding additional kick and snare hits (bottom
audio track)

Page 52
Spice up your drum loops
By Eli Krantzberg
with creative sampling

Plug-ins like Regroover simplify this process. Regroover extracts, or

un-mixes, the individual drum hits from sampled drum loops. This
allows you to isolate sounds, remix loops, or combine elements from
different loops together. With Regroover you can replace a kick, snare,
or hat sound while keeping the pattern and feel of the original loop.

You can achieve this same effect without Regroover by using sidechain
processors like duckers or compressors. Create a snare track and bus
the snare to a sidechain input of a ducker or compressor on the original
loop. The compressor or ducker will turn down the loop in the spots
when your new snare plays. Volume automation applied to the original
drum loop track will do the same trick, but requires more mouse clicks!

Old school sampler mode

Modern processors can alter the pitch and tempo of audio

independently. Classic hardware samplers could only speed up or slow
down samples, which changed the pitch and tempo at the same time.
Although considered a limitation at the time, this linked pitch/tempo
sound became a legitimate aesthetic of its own. Replicate this behavior
and sound by loading your loop into a software sampler, like Logic’s
Sampler or Native Instruments’ Kontakt.

Page 53
Spice up your drum loops
By Eli Krantzberg
with creative sampling

Instead of chopping a loop into individual slices, use the default

mapping where the loop can be triggered from any note on the
keyboard and the pitch/speed of the loop will change for each note
played. Classic time stretching dictates that intervals of an octave will
playback at even ratios of the original. An octave higher, for example,
will playback twice as fast — an octave lower gets you half-speed
playback. This also means that half-speed playback sounds lower in
pitch and plays twice as long as the original sample.

As you trigger the entire loop at its normal pitch/speed, also trigger it
with the same MIDI note an octave lower for half-speed playback (also
an octave lower in pitch). You don’t need to trigger the lower octave for
the full length of the loop. Vary what beat you start the transposed
notes on and how long you hold them for interesting pitched rhythmic
variations. Use the half-speed downbeat kick stacked on top of your
regular-speed loop for that familiar break-beat sound! Play around with
your sampler’s loop mode for “one-shot” or “play-until-end” to find
interesting ways to play your loop.

Page 54
Spice up your drum loops
By Eli Krantzberg
with creative sampling

The sound of vintage samplers

We are all familiar with the sounds of the classic Akai, E-mu, Linn, and
Ensoniq samplers. A big part of the sound of these samplers is due to
their crude analog-to-digital converters. These vintage converters
create aliasing distortion and quantization noise artifacts that make
drum samples sound “tougher” and more aggressive.

Notes:
Modern samplers and converters do not create these distortions,
so if you wish to recreate that vintage sound, try bitcrusher or
saturation plugins on your drum sounds.

Avid’s Lo-Fi plugin and Logic’s Bitcrusher plugins, along with many other
plugins, can add vintage-style distortion that emulates vintage sampler
converters. Some producers and mixers, like Michael Brauer, keep a
vintage Akai sampler around and run sounds through its converters
when they want that particular flavor of distortion.

The final dirt

Don’t be afraid to really twist your loops and drum samples to create
unique and interesting sounds. One unique element in your groove may
be just the thing that sets your song apart or becomes a hook of the
track. Gone are the days of a simple single one or two bar loop used
throughout an entire song.

These techniques and any other experiments you

come up with on your own will serve you well in
creating interesting sonic and rhythmic variety in
your music.

Page 55
Quick Tips: Killer Drum
By Adam Kagan
Reverb in 2 Steps

Quick Tips:
Killer drum
reverb

in ⟶ 2 steps

Reverb on live and triggered drum tracks provides

punch to close-miked drums along with a sense
of space around the kit that blends the drums
together. We don’t necessarily want to notice the
reverb, but we want to create a sense of a real
space for the drums and to fill the cracks in the
mix with the tonality of the drums.

This reverb technique is the foundation for drums in many top pop,
rock, and metal records. Follow this simple recipe and you can create
this effect with almost any reverb plugins you own.

Stock DAW reverb plugins will certainly work for this technique, but as
you progress, you may come to find certain plugins that shine for this
application. Two individual stereo reverbs create this effect. One reverb
creates a feeling of the drums filling a small space with sound. The
second reverb creates sustain and a tail for the drums.

Page 56
Quick Tips: Killer Drum
By Adam Kagan
Reverb in 2 Steps
Verb 1
Send the snare first to a short reverb. Start
with a stereo ambience or nonlinear preset
and set the reverb time between 200 and 500
milliseconds. Send a lot of snare to this reverb
and listen to what it sounds like. Then turn
down the reverb until you barely notice it. Too
much of this and your drums will sound like
the ’90s! Send any combination of the snare
top, snare bottom, toms, overheads, and
maybe even a touch of the hat and kick to this
reverb. This reverb also works well for
programmed drums, percussion, and even
electric guitars.
overheads to this reverb. Some mixers send
Page 57
Verb 2
Mute the first reverb and send the snare to
the second reverb. This reverb could be a
stereo room, hall, plate, or chamber set to a
decay time between 1.5 and 4 seconds with
10ms to 20ms of predelay. Send enough snare
to make this reverb loud and then turn the
effect return down until you feel a long decay,
but the reverb is softer than the snare. You’ll
find that the softer this reverb plays in the
mix, the longer the decay time should be so
that you hear more of the tail. Try sending
different combinations of snare, toms, and
the overheads but not the snare to this verb,
while some prefer the opposite.
Viola! Play the drums along with both reverbs
in the context of the mix. The long reverb
should disappear in time with the
beat—usually an eighth- or quarter-note in
length. You shouldn’t even notice the short
reverb until you mute it, and then the snare
will lose its body.
Quick Tips: Killer Drum
By Adam Kagan
Reverb in 2 Steps

Extra Credit
Insert a high-pass filter from
200 to 400 Hz after the long
reverb. Also, try compressing
the output of the long reverb by
4 dB with a 20ms attack and
50ms release to enhance the
character and density of the
reverb. Some mixers only send
layered snare samples to the
Below are some useful starting
points for a few common
plugins, but try whatever
reverbs you own. Any
parameter not mentioned here
should default settings that
work well, but feel free to
experiment with your own
settings

reverb and keep the original

snare dry for extra clarity.

Page 58
Quick Tips: Killer Drum
By Adam Kagan
Reverb in 2 Steps

Short reverbs↘

In general, try any preset called

nonlinear, ambient, or small
room.

⟶AMS rmx16 (UAD): Use program 8 “Nonlin 2,” decay time 4,

predelay 0, decay filter -4. Adjust decay time as desired.

⟶Dear VR (Stereo): Use preset “Drum Room 1,” Size 50, Output
Format 2.0 Stereo (2CH). Adjust Size as desired.

⟶Avid D-Verb: Ambient + Small setting, Decay 280ms, HF Cut

10 kHz, LP Filter 10 kHz. Adjust Decay up to 500ms as desired.

Page 59
Quick Tips: Killer Drum
By Adam Kagan
Reverb in 2 Steps

Long reverbs↗

In general, try any preset called

medium room, large room, drum
room, or studio.

⟶Lexicon 224 (UAD): Use a drum room preset that uses

Program 7 (Room A). Adjust Mid Reverb Time to 1.8 to 3 seconds
and Low Reverb Time to below 2 seconds.

⟶Waves H-Verb: Use preset “Blue Plate Special,” Output

Echoes OFF, Adjust Reverb Time as desired, from 1.5 to 3.5
seconds.

⟶fabfilter Pro-R: Use preset “Mellow Narrow Hall for Snare,”

Adjust Space between 1.5 and 2.8 seconds and adjust Stereo
Width as desired. Set Predelay to 15ms.

Page 60
Quick Tips: K iller Drum
By Adam Kagan

Reverb in 2 Steps

When I was in the

marching band, I used to

take my snare drum and

turn it over and use my

drumstick and scratch

on the other side. That

was just being creative*

— E-40

Page 61
Drum EQ Tips

Key → takeaways

While EQ is a powerful tool, the drum balance should be of first priority.

Base the drum mix on either the overhead mics or the close mics.

Use the drum EQ cheat sheet as a guide to locate critical frequencies

Compression, when applied properly can enhance the clarity and punch

of drum tracks.

Both series and parallel EQs work to enhance drum tracks.

Layering drum tracks with samples is a powerful tool for enhancing

recorded and even programmed tracks.

Drum loops can be sliced and layered to add interest.

Reverb can add realism and character to live and programmed drum tracks.

Layering a short and long reverb creates the sound of modern drums.

Page 62
 Keith Moon

“I told people I was a

drummer before I even
had a set, I was a mental
drummer.”

Page 63
Try SoundID

Reference for Free

⟶ A fully functional 21-day free trial.

⟶ No credit card required, no hidden conditions.

⟶ A quick and guided setup.

www.sonarworks.com