Looking for some ideas on correct compression of drums,I really dont have a problem with compressing the drums,but the compression of cymbals has always intreged me.
Please list compression type if possible.
Thanks in advance.

Hey, I've been recording in my home studio for a over.... well I don't wanna give away my age but it's been a while. I think cymbals sound best if you record them at the proper level (not too loud in relation to the rest of the kit, rather softer so you can hear/feel the backbeat/snare and kik) then tweak the levels at mixing time. No EQ either except maybe a very slight increase at around 15 for sparkle. Hope this helps. Hank

I usually just eq accordingly in order to save the "crisps".I use an aux track with the overhead bussed to it so i can controll how much is eq'ed. try micing the overheads a little higher and further apart. also if your cymbols are crap, they will sound like it in the mix.

Hmmmm, I thought the consensus around here was that you should never compress cymbals. Someone correct me if I am wrong. I have never compressed cymbals. Kick Snare and snare yes, but cymbals? Seems like I tried it once and made them sound really harsh and bright.

Compressing cymbols CAN be very cool with the right comp or very wrong not done properly. I have some old DBX VU comps that work great on cymbols as well as 1176 (not plugs). I will add compression to where I think its right and then back it off a little. Try it you'll like it.

Jeff

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I will add compression to where I think its right and then back it off a little.

That always seems key - Not just with cymbals either.

I personaly think that the overall compression applied in the pre-mastering is enough to tame the overheads, but a subtile compression can be the right way to go in some cases.
In the recording and mixing of overheads/cymbals
phasing problems tend to cause more problems than the need for comp or limiting, if the recording and/or mixing engineer "drops the ball" My personal experience suggests that, see to that you minimise phase problems, and you will no longer reach for that bantam cable...

/Thomas Nystroem

Not to be pedantic, but this is more of a recording/mixing question than a mastering question.

Anyway, I don't normally compress my overheads, but have in the past. It depends on your reason for doing so. Are you trying to control levels or change the tone/envelope? I tend to agree with the above posts that it can be a bit finicky and that it's easy to overdo.

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Anyway, I don't normally compress my overheads, but have in the past. It depends on your reason for doing so...

In the past, I've often compressed my overheads, and for this reason: I'm using a four mic (2 OH, Kick, Snare) setup, and I find that the crashes are too loud and the toms & ride too quiet. Is this a good situation to compress the OHs, or is there a more effective way of getting the tom/ride volume I need?

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In the past, I've often compressed my overheads, and for this reason: I'm using a four mic (2 OH, Kick, Snare) setup, and I find that the crashes are too loud and the toms & ride too quiet. Is this a good situation to compress the OHs, or is there a more effective way of getting the tom/ride volume I need?

I read recently in an interview with Glyn Johns that, when the crash cymbals were too loud on tape, Glyn would just tell the drummer not to hit them so damn hard.

mud

Yeah, I'd say you have three options: have the drummer hit differently, try to use EQ to bring out the toms and push the cymbals back without it sounding weird, or compress the overheads. I would go in that order, and it's possible a combination of any or all will work best.

Obviously, being a better drummer with more control would help me more than anything else. I need to keep my dynamics at the forefront of my mind next time I record drum tracks.

But, considering these tracks are already laid and there ain't no way in hell I'm cutting them again, do you all agree that EQ is a better way to bring up-the-toms/down-the-cymbals than compression? That'd be too bad, cause I suck at EQing. And drums too, apparently. Maybe it's time to look into another career.

For this situation try parallel compression. This way you keep the cymbol dynamics in the original track. Compress the parallel track and EQ out some of the cymbol to bring out the toms. I reallize this response is a bit late but I would like to see if this works for you.

Jeff

No man, not too late at all. I work in a broad, shallow way, so I'm always working on something, but not finishing much of anything. The tracks which need drum help are still very much in the works.

That's a really interesting idea, and honestly one I've never thought or heard of. So, double the OH tracks, and then optimize one set for toms and one for cymbals? Totally makes sense - I'll give it a shot and report back.

Thanks for the suggestion!

You don't have to double it -- You can set up an aux and send them (assuming you have latency compensation). Works very well for bass and vocals also.

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Originally posted by John Scrip:

quote:

I will add compression to where I think its right and then back it off a little.

That always seems key - Not just with cymbals either.

Cool,thanks for the input,,,took a while,but its all good.

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Originally posted by GUITARDAZE:
Hmmmm, I thought the consensus around here was that you should never compress cymbals. Someone correct me if I am wrong. I have never compressed cymbals. Kick Snare and snare yes, but cymbals? Seems like I tried it once and made them sound really harsh and bright.

I have never compressed cymbals either. It makes them sound too gritty in the overall mix. I just eq them correctly, and depending on the song, will put a high cut on them anywhere from 16-18kHz. My experience is that otherwise they have too much highs. I hope you find something that works for you!

I'm glad this thread resurfaced, because I've been experimenting with this the past few days.

I made duplicates of both overhead tracks, edited out everything but the tom hits, and am using them to boost the toms. It's not perfect, but it's MUCH better than before.

One question: I copied the tracks (ctrl+c) and then pasted them to new tracks. For some reason, though, the original and new OH tracks are out of phase. What's up with that? Since everything is being done digitally within the program, shouldn't they be lined up exactly? Kind of annoying.

Couldn't tell you on that one... Is the waveform actually inverted? As in, if you zoom in, does the initial attack actually go up instead of down? If not, it could be some sort of latency... Or if they jumped forward or backward on the time line even the tiniest amount...

There is paste & paste at origin in Nuendo. Every software has its little things with this paste thing. Look slike you didn't paste it right. Try to duplicate the track instead.