If you've ever had to deal with a kick drum track with an annoying reverb tail,
this trick will help you out.
Yesterday I was mixing a track for an artist that bought one of my Custom Mix Tutorials.
It's a really interesting track with a cool arrangement that's fun to mix.
However, as I was trying to get a good drum mix I noticed the kick drum had a reverb tail I didn't like.
I'd rather create my own space for the drums with reverb than having to settle for whatever room sound the recording had, so I wanted to get rid of it.
How did I do it?
Enter My Transient Designer
Transient designers are great for shaping sounds.
You can use them to give sounds more attack or sustain.
Conversely, you can also use them to kill the attack of the transient or reduce the release of the track.
It really came in handy on this particular kick drum track.
By simply pulling down the
release on the transient designer I managed to completely kill the entire reverb tail, making the kick drum much punchier and clearer in the mix.
Shape Your Sounds
Next time your drum sound leaves you uninspired, slap on a transient designer and see whether you can shape them to your standard.
In that particular case, I just used the stock transient designer in
Logic, the Enveloper, but there are multiple options out there:
It's definitely a great tool to have in your arsenal for punchy drums.
Learn to Mix Acoustic Drums
Speaking
of mixing drums, a bunch of you took us up on the Acoustic Drums Workshop special yesterday so I wanted to make sure everyone knew about it.
Mixing Acoustic Drums is a brand-new workshop from The Pro Audio Files and they've given Audio Issues readers a coupon to get it for 25% off.
All you need to do is use the code 'audioissues' when you're checking out and your discount will be applied to any workshop or bundle.
Check out the workshops here. (affiliate link)