Here's the step-by-step drum mixing process I
always go through.
I hope it helps.
- Balance the faders according to the sound I'm looking for. Sometimes I want a bigger sound that emphasizes overhead and room sound. Sometimes it's all about that kick and snare.
- Check and fix any polarity issues when it comes to multi-miked drums.
- Route all the tracks into my drum mixing template.
- Get an overall mix on the drum bus
using EQ and compression. Use any fancy third-party plug-ins I'm playing with that week.
- Mix the kick drum using a combination of EQ, compression, transient designers, and sub-bass plug-ins. Wonder if the Pulteq trick will work on this kick drum. Shrug when it does because it always does.
- Mix the snare with EQ and usually a VCA-style compressor. Add saturation and transient designers if needed. Route to my snare-stretch parallel bus to create additional depth.
- Mix the
toms together with saturation, EQ, and compression to make them big and punchy if needed. Use a reverb insert if they need additional space. Use a limiter to bring them up if they keep vanishing in a busy mix.
- Mix any overhead tracks with EQ and compression. Decide how aggressive I want to drive the compressor on the overheads. That's usually dictated by the genre of the song.
- At this point my drums should be sounding pretty big, powerful, and punchy. But they may also sound a
little flat and dry.
- Add parallel compression to make the drums cut through the mix.
- Add reverb to place the drums in the soundscape of the song. Go through multiple reverbs to find the right vibe.
- Rebalance the drums with the rest of the mix.
That's the jist of it. Although the details may change every mix, the process is ususally the same.
If
you'd like to see it in action, hear how it transform weak drums into powerful drum mixes, and ask any drum mixing questions you may have, join us for our drum mixing masterclass tomorrow.
Get all the details about the drum mixing masterclass right here.