Groovy drums are crucial to pretty much any song that has drums in it. While authentic groovy drumming only can be achieved by a real groovy drummer, there are certain things you can do in the mixing process to help shake things up a bit. Especially for programmed drums and samples, these techniques can be...
Have you ever mixed a song and whatever you did, you weren’t happy with the drums? Not just slightly unhappy… There was something wrong that you couldn’t sort out with EQ and compression. Maybe the kick drum didn’t cut it. Or the snare was just not heavy enough. Instead of tweaking the mix for hours...
One very powerful technique to increase the impact of your drums is to combine live drums and loops. Teaming up the organic performance of a drummer with the sonic possibilities of a loop opens the door to endless possibilities. But it’s not all peaches and cream. Many a producer has slapped a loop on top...
There is no doubt that recording drums is one of the most difficult and time-consuming parts of making a record. There is a lot of equipment to set up, precise microphone placement, trial and error exploring tones, and a lot of drum tuning involved. Here are my top tips to help you achieve great studio...
Drums are the backbone of your track. Unfortunately, not all drummers play them the way you’d like them to. If you edit them you can’t make them too robotic – but you can’t leave them too loose either. In this post, I’ll share 10 tips with you that will make your drum edits tighter and...
Recording drums and getting a powerful drum sound can be one of the most challenging tasks an engineer can face. One of the requirements of my final project back at SAE (School of Audio Engineering) was that it had to have real acoustic drums because the school wanted you to know how to record drums....
Recording drums is tricky. You’re just throwing a bunch of mics together, all aimed at separate drums that are somehow supposed to record a punchy and tight drum sound. Terrifying isn’t it? All those microphones phasing each other out and making your snare drum thin, your cymbals wishy-washy and your toms boomy. What’s an engineer...
We haven’t talked about drum recording in a while. But I know for a fact that it can be one of the more frustrating aspects of recording a band. Let’s look at some simple ways you can not only make your drums sound better, but you’ll also make the experience more fun. Recording drums can...
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE GUIDE: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MIXING DRUMS AND BEATS Mixing drums starts with the foundation. The kick drum sound. The kick drum sound and the snare will be the defining factors of your drum sound. If the kick drum sounds bad, the song’s foundation will lose its footing. The kick...
If you’re looking to learn how to EQ drums, look no further. The drums are the foundation of an exciting mix, and mixing punchy drums is a crucial part of making your mixes sound powerful. The bass drum keeps the pulse going, the snare drives the rhythm forward, and the feel of the drum beat...