Fixing Bad Drum Sounds

Weak drums make your mix sound weak. And sometimes you just can't fix it at the source (all good audio starts at the source). So how do you resurrect it? I'll show you.
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[@djjazzyjeff1232]

I just tried something for an inconsistent drummer that worked AMAZINGLY so I have to share it. I had a drummer who was a good player but plays the kick pretty softly, so to get that definition and beater sound, I have to boost 4k-6k a lot, which is fine, until the ending where he really stamps on the kick, then it's ALL beater sound that you hear. So what I tried was putting a de-esser on the kick track, and it worked amazingly for that. 6:1 ratio, 4000hz and up, (if your de-esser allows you to change that) and then, Set the threshold so that it's 1-3dB of Gain Reduction when he's playing normally, then when he stamps on that last kick of the song, it'll be anywhere from 12-16dB of Gain Reduction, just on the beater sound, so it'll keep the body and punch without just being a nasty "snap" sound. I worked incredibly well, so well that I'm considering using this trick for practically all live kick drums. Because the definition is great to have, but when it's that nasty snap, it doesn't sound good, it's hurts your ears, and is hard on your speakers for that matter. And as James always says, Safety First!

[@Ricardo-_-]

Thank you for this excellent video! 🥁

[@alamakluke]

great video, thanks for sharing. Cheers from Canada

[@darkstardan3309]

Super helpful! Thank you!

[@Brian1Mwangi]

Thank you James

[@paolodizer]

Great content! 🙏🏻

[@AttawayAudio]

and great editing!

[@markwilliams-jg7hg]

Thanks for the lesson.

[@AttawayAudio]

you bet! happy to help

[@stang1748]

It's GOLD!

[@rohandhanushka128]

Thanks, Gob bless you!!!

[@DjPr0d1gy]

i like the idea to duplicate a channel so you can mix and match the kick sounds! great video, as always!

[@AttawayAudio]

Thanks Cody!

[@jonathanarleys]

Can I using some surround digital effects for simulate a virtual O.H. mics? I done it about 2 years ago, and it sounds quite similar but doesnt that close... Does digital drums "by factory preset" just bring us a close mic sounds? Or it contain a O.H. mics sounds to? At church, I using a real drum kit with 5 mics (Kick, Snare, Rack tomb, Floor tomb, and mono O.H.).. At home recording, I using caustic 3 drums (android apps), sending it to Reaper, and apply some digital surround (internal VSTi)...

[@nerd-the-potato7222]

Hey! My church uses a drum cage where it is completely surrounded to reduce stage noise. The problem I am having is that he is using a very large kit in a very small area so 9 open mics. Each mic picks up most of the kit and the drums just sound muddy. Is that something that the gates would help to fix or will that just be a side effect of using a full drum cage? Thanks!

[@AttawayAudio]

Gates can help. Mics that have good off-axis rejection can help too, as well as utilizing your HPF as much as possible

[@Timetofly8888]

Mate, I'm not Religious whatsoever.. I believe in my own spiritual connection with the universe so struggle with Spiritual "Institutions" , ie any "Church" , maybe I'm a Heretic ??.. However .. when it comes to Live mixing, Mate, I'm LOVING your tutorials. I utterly respect how and where you've learned your craft and I can say this after 20+ years in live sound, at the international touring level, I've pointed your videos to many others and told them "This Guy has earned his knowledge and is right so listen up" ! I just wanted to say, *great work* ! and thank you for sharing,... from New Zealand.

[@AttawayAudio]

Thanks for the kind words! If you ever pick up the Bible and read the books by Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, you'll see that Jesus struggled with spiritual "institutions" as well. I'll be sure to look you up if I'm ever in NZ!

[@Timetofly8888]

@@AttawayAudio by all means do! Best regards.

[@Timetofly8888]

@@AttawayAudio Just replied to your personal Email address. Thanks, buddy!

[@kidcupid07]

I hear you speak about all the time in your new videos on duplicating the drums. How are you doing that?? Is that a special feature of your board? Or are you using a Y-Splitter on the input?

[@AttawayAudio]

you can select two different channels to look at the same input (analog or digital)

[@kidcupid07]

@@AttawayAudio got it ! Yes I know how to do that on X-32 board. I didn’t hear you say that in your video that you are going to the next channel (ch2 for example) and telling it to pull the XLR input from CH1

[@benjamin.kelley]

Our drums sound like poop because we don't have an audio mixer, and we have a hard time with blocking out gross crappy drum set live sounds and sending good mixed sounds through the house.

[@jasonreeves9705]

How can I do this with an eDrum kit with a single channel output? Do I just need to set it all up on the eDrum controls?

[@AttawayAudio]

Yeah each module is different, so it's hard to say.. I can't imagine gating it would be very good with cymbals mixed in. That's what makes it worth it to buy the one with an output for each drum. Or you could work hard on the samples that you load into it.

[@jasonreeves9705]

Ok, new way to attack the problem on the Roland td-17kv. We are running everything in mono currently but I could take the left and right from the drum module. Then I could pan each piece to one side or the other and potentially have more control of the sound. That would be like 2 groups. What are your thoughts?

[@superdrummer3578]

@@jasonreeves9705 I have a TD-11 and I do exactly this: snare hard panned to the left and the rest of the kit to the right. I am quite happy with the results because the snare is the one thing that seems to not cut through on its own without some extra processing or just plain turning it up and this really let's me tweak it in the console the way I want. Just make sure the ambience level in the module isn't too high, otherwise you'll get artificial bleed between the two channels. I hope this helps!

[@anenesimeon2213]

Hi I want to setup a sound for a church and I don't know what type of digital console

[@AttawayAudio]

There are almost zero bad options... but the x32 is really popular and has a lot of info out there. The SQ series is fantastic, and so is the Presonus StudioLive series iii.

[@sqwekee8657]

how do u duplicate a channel?

[@AttawayAudio]

usually it's through digital patching on a digital console. Have two channels look at the same mic input. With analog, you need a mic splitter that has 1 input and 2 outputs, one of which is isolated through a transformer (preferably).

[@alanduncan1980]

Church? Wut?

[@dwaynearthur1476]

Badly tuned drums , with all kinds of weird resonance frequencies. The gate will hide the trash sound . The eq trick works also , seek and destroy . Your using the same kungfu techniques as me ! 👍🏽🤣 The other ( channel cloning ) is a bit trickier, like mixing left overs to make a meal . Your the Master Chef ! All are good , the challenge comes when you have no sound check to get as much as these done as possible , because guess what the band or drummer is late and the smoke is coming out of your ears . May I Suggest playing back a multitrack of the said horrible sounding drums and practice on them !? 🤔😄

[@AttawayAudio]

Thankfully I can hold my tongue a little better than Gordon Ramsey 🤣

[@danielfmyers]

Trigger 2 lol

[@AttawayAudio]

well there is that...

[@Joseph-st1xl]

Can I have a mixer that can multi track for free😭

[@AttawayAudio]

depends who you ask

[@Joseph-st1xl]

@@AttawayAudio who should I ask

[@Joseph-st1xl]

@@AttawayAudio if there is any mixer you have that can multitrack may i pls have it for my band😭🙏🏾

[@Freakingbad89]

@@Joseph-st1xl dude are you asking for free gear?. How low can you Go?

[@itownmusicians]

@@Freakingbad89 he’s not serious 😂🤦‍♂️

[@Joseph-st1xl]

First