How to Mix Live Drums: EQ, Compression & Gating

[@angledcoathanger]

Came here to mix drums, ended up letting Jesus into my heart

[@collabworship]

👏👏👏

[@angledcoathanger]

@@collabworship :)

[@brendan_dc]

Why do you have that username lol

[@angledcoathanger]

@@brendan_dc Ah man, I keep forgetting I have that name.. 😅 it was for a music project, I wanted it to be like the album Loveless but more vaporwave, so I figured in internet language love = hentai and "less" = 404, the error code for not found.

[@brendan_dc]

@@angledcoathanger 👌 ok

[@Mrmikeytheaccountant]

My secret to gating snare is the bottom snare mic controls the gate for the top snare mic and the snare reverb return. I do the same thing for kick where the inside mic controls the outside mic’s gate. I’ll then route all the drums to a stereo group where I’ll lightly compress and EQ the kit as a whole before it goes on to the main stereo output (and I’ll mess with the group compressor’s sidechain so it’s a little less sensitive to the LF coming from the kick). May be the fact I do both live sound and studio work but it seems to work well in both situations!

[@teguhdewaprasetyo.]

I'm from Indonesia, thank you teacher for the knowledge you have taught me, I really like it. I got additional lessons from the teacher, this was very useful for me.

[@WholeHeartedPro]

Thanks Kade! A few more things. Not all drum mics are created equal. I recently was working with some drums that sounded pretty decent by themselves, but had horrible ringing when mic'd. I am pretty sure that if the mics were replaced with some higher quality drum mics, I would not have had to shape the response of the drums with a gate/expander. I didn't look at your cheat sheet, but snce every drumset is tuned differently, fixed frequencies are questionable in my mind. One thing I like to do for the kick and toms (as long as it does not create ringing) is to give a slight bump to the fundamental frequency of the head and seriously cut the harmonic frequency. Usually sounds great. But back to drum mics. I think you can tune any drum mic to sound like a drum set, but some mics just make your drums sound amazing out of the box. Currently a huge fan of the Sennheiser 600 series.

[@collabworship]

Thanks for the tips! The Drum EQ Cheat Sheet actually has a frequency range recommendation, not an exact frequency placement, since drums are tuned differently. I have not tried the Sennheiser 600 series, but I love the Audix DP7 kit! (amzn.to/30hUmhb)

[@thomasstafford7870]

Man thanks for this insight, I am gaining more experience in live sound, and one thing I noticed today that is that no matter how much I eq the sound of the instruments the head engineer would say he hears ringing, so today I decided to play around with the dynamics trying to fix a snare that's to loud on impact, I shared what I did with our drum player because I feel like the drums are the heart of worship in my church. Mind you we have cafeteria kind of flours and school building type walls, the bass player, paino player and drummer or like hugged up in a corner, we dont have no padding or nothing separating the bass kick snare or the drummer some how we managed to get the band sounding good, but in all that eqing and playing with gating and compression today my team members and me still heard ringing. I am still kind of fresh when it comes to live sound mixing, but I am curious could the ringing we hear based off what I describe could it be that we need better mics, or is it that I going about useing my understanding of audio engineering and the tools used mix inaccurately

[@PanRider939]

"Not all drum mics are created equal. " Totally agree, our church bought a $NZ400 set of mics and one of them died. We've quite a few spare SM57, I'm adding them where I can.

[@kyrdalanglyngdoh8720]

Hello there, Please help me out regarding which instruments can be used for compressor and gate during live sound.

[@muhammadmuhdnazri8752]

Thank you for sharing

[@praneethdhanushka207]

Dear Sir, your all demonstrations are pretty great and sounds congratulations!!! I am a beginner on electric guitar. When I fixed my guitar to amplifier there is a big hum ( ground loop).But if I touch strings then hum will fade away. The problem is that the power cable is a fixed one to the amplifier and it doesn't have a ground pin to connect to the 3 phase power socket. Only 2 pins plug. So have can I kill the hum???? thanks

[@spiderpig4939]

Have you tried a ID box?

[@xinhengc]

Check out hum eliminator

[@praneethdhanushka207]

Dear friend, please I need to get clear on how to fix a stage monitor to a amplifier. In my view one AuX send has one 1/4 inch jack. So how we can fix it to amplifier???

[@collabworship]

Does your amp have an XLR input?

[@praneethdhanushka207]

@@collabworship yes and Banana plugs too.

[@Cruzathon]

Kade, I have an Allen & Heath QU24. can I use your course to learn It better?

[@collabworship]

Hey Eli - Church Sound Made Simple (my flagship training) was created to work with any digital mixer, including the QU24. Get access here: collaborateworship.com/church-sound-made-simple/

[@descentjka2]

Any tips for electronic drums?

[@collabworship]

Generally, you do not need to mess with EQ/Compression on electronic drums. The sound are already mastered to perfection. Instead, spend time at the drum head unit dialing in the sounds you like, and the volume between each different drum.

[@marc5763]

Dope channel man! Thank you

[@collabworship]

Thanks, Marc!

[@JoshBlandon]

Hey Kade what do you think about parallel compression where you “link” two channels? I’ve been seeing a lot about it... would you recommend?

[@collabworship]

Hey Josh - I've heard of this technique but have yet to try it out. I tend to stick to the simplest way to get great sound, that way it is not so overwhelming for new volunteers to jump in and be part of the sound team. No doubt techniques like parallel compression can get great results. Just have to weigh out if the added workflow is worth it.

[@JoshBlandon]

Collaborate Worship thank you for the reply Kade! Makes sense! I may just try it out and if not I can always go back

[@collabworship]

@@JoshBlandon Good plan.

[@djmxp]

Behringer x32 does not have delay compensation, using parallel compession will create phase issues.

[@moyimowi7961]

when i live streaming, i can't hear the kick.. it's like dissapear :O my kick sound mud like 'bup.. bup.. bup..' (very smol) I put foam in it, then on the head kick where the beater hit I put cloth too, does that affect? i've gain up the volume, but nothing change, should i boost the low freq kick on mixer? or anything to get my kicks heard? btw i use analog mixer and vmix for livestream, does that affect??

[@collabworship]

Start with trying different mic placements for your kick drum. You'll be surprised how much it changes things.

[@richardwooten8646]

I like your advice for the settings, but I'm using a 4 band EQ. It looks like the cheat sheet is a 3 band. What band do I not touch is using your settings LM or HM?

[@collabworship]

Hey Richard - what mixer are you using?

[@richardwooten8646]

@@collabworship Allen & Heath QU-16

[@collabworship]

@@richardwooten8646 Looks like you have the same EQ options as the X32 (mixer referred to in this video). You should be able to implement the EQ cheat sheet without a problem. (Although, I've not use the QU-16. This is just what I gather from seeing it online.)

[@richardwooten8646]

@@collabworship thank you!

[@MickDarkstar1]

"Never use signal processing cause it's available, only use it to solve a problem". This is like, worth so much compared to most mixing tutorials/guides on youtube (even studio stuff). Polish a turd and it's still a turd. If it's not, why polish it. Bring forth what's good!

[@collabworship]

Solid!

[@eskuadron4-407]

Hey guys is range the same as depth Db or threshold?

[@collabworship]

Range would be the same as depth.

[@cjramseyer]

While I respect what you saying, the settings that are applied for dynamics are very dependent on the room, the band, and the instruments. Just blindly adopting specific settings is really a recipe for disaster. techniques are one thing, and you are certainly correct that dynamics should not just be applied simply because you can. Use where needed, and each sound person will develop their own style. For example, I might use bottom snare top and bottom mics, but whether or not I use much if any compression, depends on my own style and the effect I am looking for as well as the specific settings.

[@collabworship]

Great point, CJ. My recommended settings are just a good starting place and should be fine-tuned from there.

[@PanRider939]

Remember Kade is speaking to the amateur church volunteer not a seasoned professional. As an amateur you don't even know what some of this stuff does let alone how and when to properly use it. You have to start somewhere or you'll never start at all so adopting specific settings are a good place to start. Nobody in our church including myself used gates or compressors or much else and precious little EQ. But I wanted to up my game a few years ago and I found Kade and a couple of others there to help. A tutorial some cheat sheets and having a go with some well known recommended settings gave me the confidence to know how and when to use some of these tools. Now I'm using everything with confidence to my own desires, It took my mixes to the next level and people noticed. Did a youth concert last year and it rocked, I'm 65 🙂

[@epicdude999]

1:36 i disagree. i get better snare tones compressing it compared to EQ'ing it setting a mid-high attack and long release lets tons of the snare goodness through

[@bennydrumming...2339]

Is there any help for e drums users?

[@collabworship]

When it comes to electronic drums, you generally don't have to use EQ, compression and gating. The sounds coming from electronic drums are already mastered. The biggest challenge is getting the levels right between each drum, which happens at the head unit on the drums. You can usually choose different sounds there as well if you don't like how a certain kick is sounding, or snare, etc.

[@GamerGosuGrid]

My mixer only has HF and LF on EQ

[@TFaminu]

❤️

[@wildecorrea6477]

Great tips!!! We identify when people of God begins to talk!!! God bless you!!!

[@XOCailleach161XO]

So you don't really pay much attention until someone panders to your religious beliefs? "God" gave you a brain with the intent of it being utilised better

[@sofabiru6852]

🥁😅 the drum begin to peak.... 🔴

[@ItzTooSik]

Hello, I need your help with something. Lately, the drummer at my church has been telling me his drum mix sounds really bad. To be specific, the drums EQ sounds really bad in the drummers in ear monitor. We had a guy (who we paid) go to our church recently to fix the EQ in drums in the House speakers & the guy did an amazing job with that, however, the EQ for the drummer’s IEM was left “untouched” therefore it sounds really bad (or at least it doesn’t sound as good as in the outside speakers). I want to help the drummer fix that problem (without messing up the House mix). Is there any way I can do that? I’ve been YouTubing about PreFader, PreEQ & PostEQ since I have a feeling something relating to that can help. As well as messing around with the DRUM MONITOR EQ?

[@collabworship]

Hey Oscar - Are you using a bus for the dummer's in-ears, or P16 personal mixers?

[@ItzTooSik]

Thank you for replying. We are using a bus currently.

[@collabworship]

You could send all the drum channels to the drum bus PreEQ and see if that satisfies your drummer. If you do this, I recommend making a pretty big cut on the Drum Bus somewhere between 400-700Hz (e.g. peaking filter, Q: 4, -6dB) to cut out the nasty part of the drums.

[@ItzTooSik]

I’m sorry for this question, but, PreEQ means that the individual channels’ EQ (Kick, Snare, Toms, etc) won’t go to the Drum Bus (drummer’s in-ears). Is that correct?

[@collabworship]

Correct.

[@positivegerald2199]

So basically this video is just a video to tell you about other videos 🙄

[@collabworship]

Hey Gerald - thanks for the comment. That actually wasn't the purpose of the video. But since I had already created videos focused on each of these issues, I thought it would serve you best to point you to each so you could focus on the issue you are currently working on. Didn't realize it would cause inconvenience for some, so you've definitely given me something to think about. -Kade

[@XOCailleach161XO]

All I wanted was a nice video with tips on drum EQ, instead I got preaching. Wtf.

[@collabworship]

Hey Tallis - did you grab the Drum EQ Cheat Sheet? It probably has exactly what you are looking for: collabwrshp.com/drumcs