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Drum Mixing Cheatsheet

This document provides several tips for improving drum mixing, including: 1. Slowing down compression attack times to preserve important transients that add punch and impact, unless specifically trying to soften transients. 2. Considering tempo, as slower tempos allow for more low end in drums while faster tempos often sound best with thinner drum sounds. 3. Checking polarity problems which can destroy impact and low end, making tracks sound thin, by flipping the polarity of additional drum samples and listening for improvements. 4. Using parallel compression to add punch, weight, and impact to drums, as employed by top mix engineers.

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Marcos Avila
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683 views

Drum Mixing Cheatsheet

This document provides several tips for improving drum mixing, including: 1. Slowing down compression attack times to preserve important transients that add punch and impact, unless specifically trying to soften transients. 2. Considering tempo, as slower tempos allow for more low end in drums while faster tempos often sound best with thinner drum sounds. 3. Checking polarity problems which can destroy impact and low end, making tracks sound thin, by flipping the polarity of additional drum samples and listening for improvements. 4. Using parallel compression to add punch, weight, and impact to drums, as employed by top mix engineers.

Uploaded by

Marcos Avila
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Drum Mixing Cheatsheet

Slow Down The Attack


Fast attack times are deceptive. At first listen, they make compression seem easy. They
effectively control even the most unruly drum tracks, yielding a smooth, consistent sound with
minimal effort and tweaking.

But are fast attack times as magical as they seem?

Not quite.

You’ve probably heard about transients. People certainly seem to like talking about them. Turns
out, they’re pretty important.

Transients are the sharp, percussive onsets of sounds. They add punch and impact to tracks.
They help our ears pick out drum sounds in busy arrangements. They make music exciting.

Fast attack times annihilate them.

Overusing fast-attack compression is the quickest way to destroy the punch and impact of your
drums. This will make hits harder to hear, decrease clarity and intelligibility, and make your
drums sound like they sit several feet behind the speakers (no pun intended).
Sometimes this is what you’re looking for. Most of the time, it’s not.

In most situations, medium to slow attack times are a better choice. ​Unless you’re
purposely trying to soften transients, make sure to slow down the attack time enough to
preserve them.

Consider Tempo
Tempo plays a significant role in determining how much low end is appropriate in a mix. The
slower the tempo, the more low end you can typically add to drums. On the other hand, faster
tempos often sound best with thinner drum sounds.

For more information, ​watch this video​.

Check Polarity
Polarity problems are the silent killer of drums.

They destroy impact and obliterate low end. They make tracks sound thin and lifeless, or cause
them to disappear entirely. But most of all, they are seriously frustrating. (If you’ve ever
wondered why a kick still sounds wimpy after adding 18 dB at 60 Hz, you know the feeling.)

Follow the steps below whenever you have multiple drum samples that play together:

1. Pick a “master” drum sample that you’ll compare the others to. Solo it.
2. Solo the next drum sample as well. Listen to the two together.
3. Flip the polarity on the second sample.
4. Listen to the punch and low end of the combined sound. Flip the polarity in and out, and
choose what that sounds best. (Sometimes, there won’t be a clear answer. Make a
decision and move on.)
5. Add in another sample, and repeat steps 3 and 4 until all samples are playing together.

Use Parallel Compression


Grammy-winning mixers like Andrew Scheps, Michael Brauer, and Manny Marroquin use
parallel compression to add punch, weight, and impact to their drums. Wondering how you can
do the same?

Watch this video for details.


Additional Tips and Tricks
- When EQing acoustic drums, be careful when boosting top end on close mic’d tracks. This can
accentuate cymbal bleed and make the drums sound harsh. If you’re struggling to achieve
brightness without bringing up the cymbals, try using gates to reduce the bleed between hits.
You can also layer in drum samples (my first choice) and EQ them for brightness without
bringing up the bleed.

- There are two approaches for EQing overheads. You can either:
1. Filter out all the low end and use them as cymbal mics, or...
2. Leave them as-is and use them to form the overall sound of the kit

Option #1 will create a separated, sculpted sound that works well in modern genres.
Option #2 will lead to a more natural sound that works well for folk and acoustic music.

- Try rolling off everything below 40 Hz on the kick. This can often tighten things up.

- Since acoustic drum tracks have bleed, you should always EQ them while listening to all tracks
together.

- You can often filter hi-hat tracks aggressively. Try cutting everything below 500 Hz.

- Acoustic drums will often need lots of EQ. Don’t be afraid to boost or cut by 10 dB or more.

- Listen to a few modern records and notice how bright the kick is. The key to getting your kick
to cut isn’t more low end, but more top end.

- If you're mixing a sub-kick with nothing above 200 Hz, a boost at 5 kHz won't do you much
good. Instead, augment the track with a hi-hat sample, or add another kick with a high-pass filter
(set so just the click cuts through). This is more effective than trying to boost something that isn't
there in the first place.

- The upper-bass region—from 80 to 200 Hz—is crucial. Pay close attention to it while mixing. If
you can center the punch of a kick at 80 or 100 Hz instead of 60 Hz, it will often translate much
better on small speakers.

- When it comes to drum reverb, timing matters. Reverbs that ring out too long will trample over
the rhythm of a track. Set your reverb so it covers the space between hits, but gets out of the
way before the next hit.

For more mixing tips, visit ​BehindTheSpeakers.com​.


Mix By Design is an online training course that will teach you
how to mix like a pro. You’ll discover a simple, step-by-step
system you can use to break through overwhelm, sink into
the creative flow, and make your best mixes yet.

Ready to get on the path to pro mixes?

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