The more time I spend talking to other musicians, not to mention individuals just starting to engineer their own music, I'm finding frustration concerning drum mixes. Their mixes are either muddy or undefined. Also, they lack pop or punch. There's multiple factors that can cause this. First, let's start with the basics. Are you recording with dedicated drum mic's? Are your drums set up for studio recording? (Quality heads, tuning and tightness are crucial) Is the room acoustically treated? These are the basics and need to be addressed first. Second, proper eq, compression and reverb have to be properly adjusted. Without proper eq'ing and compression, your mixes will sound lifeless. So, now that we have that covered, adjust your other instrument levels so the drums are in context. Now, this is considered the missing step and in all likelyhood the reason for your frustration........Bounce or bus the drums to a L & R stereo mix. This opens up the audio field to allow the other tracks to breath and will tighten the drums giving them more definiton. This will give you the ability to fine tune the eq, compression and overall reverb if needed. Hope the info helps.
Chris and Kevin
Digital Street Stduio
& Media Productions
Dover, Delaware
Serving Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
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