August 26th, 2010 – I’m working on a track for my brother’s upcoming album, and while I was working with the drum part, I thought of a tip that might help some of you out. In situations where we cannot record live drums (definitely the case for a lot of us home studio guys), it’s pretty easy to pull up a great sounding drum plugin.

Many producers I know use Addictive, BFD, or Superior drums, and I’m also partial to the Steve Slate Drums I got for super cheap. While software instruments of this quality sound fantastic, it’s easy to forget that while the plugin is one “instrument”, each part of a drum kit is a separate sound source.

What I mean is that inserting an instance of Kontakt on a stereo track allows you to load a stereo kit that you can independently adjust levels for, and some other basic effects depending on what software you’re using. However, you will find that you have more flexibility if you route each drum and cymbal to a separate track in your DAW. This allows you to leverage all the effect and dynamic plugins that your DAW has instead of being limited to the few that are in the drum plugin. If you don’t route each drum and cymbal to its own track and add an effects plugin from your DAW (either as an insert or a send), you will be effecting the drum mix as a whole, not each piece of the kit.

Keep in mind that drums that sound great solo’d may not sound as good or impactful in a full mix. You cannot mix a set of drums with itself; it must be mixed in the context of all your instruments. Most high end drum software in combination with your DAW will allow you to have separate tracks for each drum and cymbal which is different from independently adjusting the level of each instrument within the drum plugin. While the simple mixer in a drum plugin will do in a pinch, it’s limiting in a full mix.

If you want to save processing power while mixing your drums, I’d suggest printing each drum to its own track as audio. This will reduce the strain of the real-time processing your drum software takes up. Hope this helps those of you who aren’t already doing this. Happy mixing!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 8:01 pm.
Categories: Engineering, Featured Articles, Producing.

5 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. Dave

    Great tip Sean,

    One thing I’d add is that if you don’t feel like processing EVERY track seperately, then at least the kick and snare – get them out and leverage the plug-ins you have. The K & S are the heart of the beat and getting them to sit nice will go a long way.

    Aug 26th, 2010

  2. vinayk

    Hey Guys,

    I have the same Steven Slate Plugin (Also got for supercheap). A question – when I play them via my electronic kit – they seem to play at a much lower volume than the corresponding synth parts – is that because they are mixed quiet as is – so that you can add effects – or am I just not giving them enough oomph with the midi volume from the drums?

    Aug 27th, 2010

  3. Sean

    @Vinayk: There could be a number of reasons for this problem. One might be that the velocity the pads are picking up from your electronic kit is not very high. I would check the velocity note values first. You might also try recording MIDI for the drums with a keyboard and see if there’s a volume difference, and to check the difference in generated velocity.

    If that doesn’t seem to do the trick, you might need to turn down your synth parts, to match the volume. If you turn up your drums, you might peak out your master, so I would start low and work from there.

    Aug 29th, 2010

  4. Tommy

    Good writing SEAN.
    Like the other commentor was asking about the different levels being in this or that. I have been using a cheap, but good sounding drum software called P.C. DRUMMER. It’s been out for awhile and you set each drum inst. at any time no matter how many different times and pan, etc.. and export together or seperate files in mono or stereo. They sound very good and their home page boasts of how many pros use it.My question is , what is a good volume level to export these tracks at. I know all will be different , but is their any guidelines? Lately I’ve been putting them into Pro tools at 52%. This is too low but if I go higher I will have to constant play around to avoid clipping. They have a layout with a limit vol. and panning , and it works great but pro tools seem to enhance their vol.
    Also could you take the time to answer what should be always in stereo and what mono? So many sites but I never found anyone addressing this.

    Lately I’ve been exporting 2 of the same dr. inst. as mono xcept the overheads and toms I keep in stereo and the room track. I keep changing yet wonder is their a sort of guideline to follow here also? This sure would help me and I’m sure others also. Also , to note; these are naturally not compressed yet or equalized. I’m confused here. Would really Appreciate any help you or others could give please!!
    Thanks and Take Care,
    TOMMY…

    Sep 19th, 2010

  5. Sean

    @Tommy: Hi Tommy, I’m not sure what 52% refers to. Is that the velocity of the MIDI hits in your software, or is that the top most peak of the audio it’s putting out in relation to 0 dB? Is your clipping on the drum track only, or is it on the master fader?

    As for your questions about Mono and Stereo, as in many things, there is no “always”. That being said, there are certain common conventions. Usually the kick drum will be recorded in mono and will be panned in the centre for maximum impact. The other drums and cymbals are usually panned in the stereo space as if you were viewing the drum kit from the audience. So imagine panning as placing an instrument in a 3D physical space. In these situations, the audio in the track is usually a mono-recording but that audio is then panned in a stereo space. I hope that makes sense!

    Sep 26th, 2010

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