The EXACT Science of Mixing Drums Perfectly!

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Hello, I'm Nicholas Di Lorenzo, Studio Owner, Mixing and Mastering engineer at Panorama Studios.
I'm an Italian-Australian born and raised in Melbourne. I've been a creative professional for 10 years managing some pretty awesome projects for artists, labels and producers all around the globe.
What motivates and drives me?
My family,
Good food,
Great coffee.
You can find me on many platforms:
Instagram: / panorama_mastering
Facebook: / panoramamastering
Twitter: / panoramamasters
Kit: kit.co/Panorama_Mastering

[@EdThorne]

Thanks for the shout-out, Nicholas! Look forward to hearing your final mix! 🔥 Interesting different approach to phase aligning, I'll have to try yours, I totally do it the lazy way - all off the kick, haha.

[@mosermichael4404]

Your mix sound good, different to me mix..😉

[@hummarstraful]

Dude, this channel is the bomb. You're teaching concepts I don't think anyone else is on KZbin or anywhere else. I've got a 100 gigs of mix videos from Mix With The Masters, Pure Mix and others. I've watched the greats mix, but no one has talked about the phase issues with such detail as you, nor many of the concepts in your other videos. You're bringing us something fresh I and love it!

[@dannyblau3850]

This came at a perfect time. Was literally in the middle of a tough mix. the drums were recorded well overall but it was really the wrong type of kit for the sound that was being sought after. it got surprisingly in the ball park, but there was definitely some phasing issues because of the kit design itself and what was being attempted at time of recording. i had forgotten about phase aligning the drums, then with all the over analyzing trying to solve issues, i saved a new project, turned off most everything, phase aligned and then did top down. ended up turning on only about a quarter of what i had before and not only were the drums in a better spot overall, it cleaned up the mix itself. so glad to have found your channel. if anything, it forces me to just step back and think through things or remember stuff i forgot to do.

[@seanrichards9569]

Specific alignment method and technique, as well as what metering plug ins you use would be an excellent exploration, since many people wouldn’t know where to start with this.

[@JC-if9dl]

Thank you for all the amazing educational content. Practical, technical and yet easily digestible. You are my go to audio education channel. Thank you for reminding us of fundamental mixing principles and advanced concepts all in one.

[@panorama_mastering]

Wow, thank you! It’s my pleasure

[@mikkifrompreston4396]

Sick video :) i would love to watch a full in depth video on phasing issues/solutions when mixing. Not just with drums, but an entire mix

[@chris_share]

Great tutorial, thanks! It would be great to see another tutorial on the individual drum processing. Also, not mention of rooms - what do you do with them? Cheers!

[@panorama_mastering]

Noted! I'm starting a mix this afternoon which I'll be recording for the channel with live drums; the tutorial won't be specifically on this; but surely there'll be some context around the drum mixing

[@chadhowat3392]

What are you using for phase alignment?

[@carlos_novais]

I believe he uses Auto Align by SoundRadix. There's another video where he used it to phase-align drums.

[@dirkbrouns5293]

Interesting approach. I prefer the center channel sound from the original. There is something to a strong phantom channel in a mix coming from kick, snare, bass that really sets a quality soundstage. The approach is interesting from a phase perspective, the question though if that is the main challenge for the drums in a mix.

[@GxkMix]

I want more, you are amazing. Something is explained methodically in exactly this way. Bravo 👏👏👏

[@liamcoombes2697]

Awesome video! I'm trying this ASAP!

[@Dosxxx]

Great video, thanks!

[@sleonse]

Fucking thumbnail is great

[@panorama_mastering]

You're welcome!

[@mosermichael4404]

Hey nicolas nice to see we are you drumsound mixing! A littel different to me about the workflow. 😉 I have yous the softube germanium compresser.. have a very nice drive feedback option sound very nice by drum bus in parallel mode! I love this compressor (saturation option)

[@drummerpouk]

As a drummer i have to tell that the natural bloom of the snare on the raw tracks is absolutely beautiful, i would definitively keep that. congrats to the tracking engineer. that's something that you loose with your method, but on the punch/clarity side you win Sir ! speaking of that, it's all a matter of personal taste.. as the title of your video i would rather say: The EXACT Science of Mixing Drums Efficiently ! I love your channel, looking forward to see the next videos. Cheers from France !

[@drummerpouk]

one question by the way, you top down mix the drumbus starting with just overheads. would you do the same on a live situation that requires a higher lowcut on the OH ( let's say 250Hz ) to get rid of all the junk and bleed from the stage ? thanks

[@nj1255]

I've always phase-aligned to the wurst mic. Although, if I mix something that's been recorded by someone else and it doesn't include a wurst mic, I phase-align to the overhead mics. I don't always phase-align though. If it already sounds great without phase-aligning I just leave it be.

[@MattGarwood777]

I like this idea. super close to everything and central. I’m gonna try this next mix! thanks

[@andreifilip]

Thanks Nicholas, great video as always. This processing workflow resembles mine also, and I have a small question ( I think important one ). Where do you send all of your parallel compression to? Is it the same drum bus or do you send them to your mix bus ( I'm sending mine directly to the mix bus ) Cheers

[@pierre-alexandrelapointe6738]

I was wondering the same thing

[@DaftFader]

Another huge reason you align it to the overheads, is they contain ALL drum information. If you went through a mix and just randomly picked drum tracks and randomly aligned them one by one (or in groups of single, already aligned drums - snare top+bottom for example) to another track that contained the same type of drum's info (that you are wanting to use .. not bleed - like kick into snare mic), eventually, you would have either fully aligned the entire drum mix to the left or right overheads as they contain every drum. Starting with one of the overhead mics is just a fast and efficient way of getting to that result. There are other reasons you might want to align it to the overheads, like the one you mention about kick and snare distance to the mic and the left overhead. There are also reasons you might not want to align them to it too (depending on the sound you're after) as you can get a more spacious sounding drum mix at the expense of punch if you make sure the mics are in phase, but not phase aligning them (with the phase flip buttons - for example flip the bottom snare so it's in phase with the top, but don't move it in time). This is ofc only going to work if the drums are recorded well though. You have to look at it like this. If you want the drums punch to be the focus phase align the drums. If you want the room they were recorded in to shine, you leave the phase relationship alone, which keeps the rooms reflection's phase from all the different mic positions in tact, creating a much better, more natural sounding space that the drums can live in. Again this is ofc provided the drums are recorded well, in a good room, with good mic placement, and you want to keep the room in the mix. If you are tightly gating absolutely everything, then phase align as there's no point not to, but if you spent a bunch of time setting up a room, some people might want to keep it's character in tact in the mix, and by shifting the drums around so the drums are all phase aligned, you are destroying the rooms phase in the process. Always worth keeping that in mind. Test it out with a recorded drum session. Flip between the phase aligned version, and the in phase but not phase aligned version and listen to the difference of the room (and the punch)! I find in phase but not phase aligned gives a much more live sounding performance, but you do loose some of that punch. Phase aligned and in phase gives what I class as a "studio recorded" sound. A good happy medium could be to phase align some drums (important ones with a fair bit of low end/low mids like kick snare and maybe toms) and not others - but I've yet to play about with that, so just throwing it out there as an idea.

[@panorama_mastering]

Great share!

[@SayajinKanak]

Thank you

[@memeswillneverdie]

Nicholas, would you be willing to do a video on how you use notion and what your workflow is and how it helps you?

[@samuelpeters7139]

all killer info. i personally liked the drums more without the alignment? i feel like they hit a bit harder when not perfectly aligned.

[@kapilsharma033]

Dig your every single video..but still would like to demand EDM drum mixing vs full acoustic drum mixing approch content

[@prinxemmy_]

Plz could u go step by step on how to phase aline each element of the drums

[@superyellowman20]

What alignment plug-in is in the first slot?

[@ivanrachath6646]

Which plugin do you use to align your drums? Or do you do it manually?

[@kimseniorb]

I like to leave the relative phase relationships intact. you can nudge stuff around a bit but I try to avoid aligning oh to close 100% it just sounds one dimensional

[@davidpurple3698]

Thanks for the video. Just a suggestion - maybe start by stating who this video is for - live recording and mixing etc - so we know upfront if its relevant for us

[@justinharrison7517]

Great video! If there is a next video, would good to cover panning ideas for the drums.

[@panorama_mastering]

Great idea!

[@djvoid1]

Hey Nick, just wondering if you've had a chance to check out the Cenozoix compressor? It looks pretty dope

[@shadowkyd]

cool vid. how does your phase aligning process look if you don't have the OH sources separated in Mono?

[@kiaeshghi6999]

You can just drag the stereo track onto 2 mono ones, no?

[@bbender76]

Enjoyed this tutorial and your other content. What are the techniques you use to align the phase of the drums to the left overhead? When I look at the waveforms for my overhead there doesn't seem to be distinguishing transients that allow me to pinpoint where I should align my shells to

[@panorama_mastering]

Check this out, The EXACT Science of Mixing Drums Perfectly! kzbin.info/www/bejne/kJquc6iFhtKtl9U Using auto align!

[@engmix]

Have you ever tried doing your sub-group in multi-mono? I find this way emulates working on an ssl desk quite well, unless of course I'm linking. I don't always do it, but just another way of slicing the cheese. Cool video!

[@panorama_mastering]

No I haven't!

[@felixblandin295]

I definitely agree with you that it does sound better when the phase is allign and it all makes sense as you explain it because of the effect of an EQ curve will have depending on what it is applied to, but when I record drums, I choose how im dealing with the phase intentionally and I'm not sure I'd like the mixing engineer to change it.

[@kiaeshghi6999]

Came here to say this. I use a phase meter while tracking and am extremely intentional about the textures that occur as a result of the specific distances / phase relationships.

[@MattGarwood777]

left overhead… which perspective? do you mean the one over the floor tom or hi hat side? thanks, man!

[@panorama_mastering]

The hats

[@djvoid1]

Also, how does this process differ when using already heavily processed electronic drum samples?

[@ibezzlive6814]

what if I'm using all samples like trap /dance music basically sampled base music how do i phase align my sample and what sample should i choose to align my drumz to

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

How are you aligning them?

[@waliddeui6725]

11:17 i feel that and i'm laughing my ass off hahahahaha

[@philippgrunert8776]

This is not subtle. It's awesome. In my entry mix to the contest the drums were the total weekness imho