The BIGGEST MISTAKE When Mixing Programmed Metal Drums

Easily, the BIGGEST beginner drum compression error on programmed drums is literally using TOO MUCH.
All you have to do is put a small amount of compression on your drum group. That's it.
Many metal drum libraries come pre-processed and most of the heavy lifting is already done. You should be avoiding overcompression on your MIDI drums with 95% of metal drum libraries on the market.
Full stop.
Instead, here is a no-nonsense programmed drum compression guide along with some general MIDI drum compression tips when you're using software like EZdrummer 3, Slate Drums, and other pre-processed metal drum software libraries.
Let's go!
🟢 Links For the Assets Used In The Video:
▶️ Old School Death Metal Pack - tinyurl.com/OldSchoolDeathMetal
▶️ BUSTERse - / busterse-42658623
▶️ Drumflex - drumforge.com/products/drumflex
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🟢 My Training Courses:
▶️ Mixing Death Metal - tinyurl.com/MixingDeathMetal
▶️ Guitar Tone Mastery - tinyurl.com/GuitarToneMastery
▶️ Metal Drum Programming Mastery - tinyurl.com/MetalDrumProgramm...
▶️ Mixing Your First Metal Song - tinyurl.com/MixingYourFirstMe...
▶️ Mixing Extreme Metal - tinyurl.com/MixingExtremeMetal
🟢 Plug-ins I Recommend:
▶️ Hertz Drums 2 - bitly.ws/3gmPH
▶️ Element Bass - tinyurl.com/ElementBass
▶️ Double Tap - bit.ly/3RbHOnV
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#metaldrumcompression #programmedmetaldrums #MIDIdrums
00:00 - The Fatal Mistake
00:35 - Solution #1
03:34 - Solution #2
06:00 - Final Result
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[@LucasLeCompteMusic]

All velocities to 127 and blast beats the entire time. This is the way.

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Absolutely. It's actually scientifically proven, 9/10 engineers agree! 🤣

[@Tonepusher]

Finally someone that says it haha I always find funny videos where the person is putting 20 plugins on an already mixed and SUPER well sounding drumkit. It's always cool to create and craft different sounds. But it's WAY easier to find a sound (in this case drums) that fits your mix instead of trying to save bad sounds. There's SO many choices online. Work smart, not hard haha

[@oldmanbanjo]

The A.I's approximation of head shape in the thumbnail is proof tech companies have knowledge of aliens.

[@ChernobylAudio666]

What about the stop sign? 🤔

[@Durkhead]

I used bing image creator and asked it to make a bald guy with a beard at a computer and it gave me the exact same guy but at different angles and his head wasnt so alien shaped ,all it really proves is this is the most common bald guy with a beard on the internet

[@dmytrofranke7417]

I love that you used a free plugin in the first tip! It shows that plugins are only instruments, and in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing even the free ones can sound amazing! Great vid!

[@bebopsamurai_music]

I learned that the hard way. When i started out mixing i thought i have to compress and eq programmed drums the same way as real tracked drums. That went to shit pretty easy.... Great video dude! Wish these videos were around when i started out!

[@DEADLINETV]

Thanks for this info man! I kinda did this out of my own, but having you backing this up, makes me feel better about my music! Cheers!

[@Slugcoil]

Great video, Scott!

[@jeffbridges6110]

Super useful video for bedroom guitarists. I'll be sharing this to some of my guitar buddies. Thanks.

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Thank you!

[@musicjustice9330]

Awesome explanation as always 🔥🤘🏻

[@aheadofmetal]

Thank you for being concise with your videos.

[@midwestexiled842]

Great Video. Drumflex is in my top5 favorite plugins. The Dark/Bright knob is no joke.

[@enzojacobsen4349]

Great video! I always tend to go light when working with drum vsts

[@blackholestudios9284]

Awesome. Thanks for this man!

[@correametal]

Great video like always Scott! I must confess I have used Drumflex on real drums for some time now and it has worked great!

[@TotalOrcAnnihilation]

I would add that BUSTERse still has a bug which does not correctly displays gain reduction it does. You basically need to divide by 2 anything you see on meter to see true value it reduces.

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Oh, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for pointing that out!

[@RickMazz]

I really dig Drumflex on my virtual drum bus or the Slate FG Grey for the HP filter and mix knob! Great info as usual Scott!

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Yup, Drumflex is an underrated plugin!

[@hdaniels666]

Holy crap this sounds so good! Could you please run through that whole mix. Would love to see what you've done for guitar/bass etc.. 🤘

[@ChernobylAudio666]

No mixing anywhere on the session, the only plugins used are the two compression plugins I showed here! :)

[@matttaylor1449]

I learned this recently too. I am however using Addictive Drums for the midi drum sound and that there you can turn off all the processing and mix the raw sound samples, which is much closer to mixing real drums. The samples are 100% raw but you can turn off the bulk of the processing.

[@DouglasMelchiades]

If sounds good, sounds good.. just don't overthink and make music, best approach of one of the best in the game! Great video as always, cheers mate!

[@leearmitage]

Definitely guilty of this in the past haha, I have the drum flex which I use now and again might use it a little more often now thanks, I mainly use the Tuco from Sonimus on the drum bus which also has a mix knob and gives the drums a bit of the "analogue" feel to them

[@edwardborgoary7925]

I hope you can show us how to mix those Midi Bass...like Ezbass or Modo Bass...like you showed here about Midi Drums... Thank You so Much

[@Herrierecordsinc]

I use Superior Drummer quite a bit. I do like to split the drums into 2 tracks, one track with only high hat and cymbals, and one with the rest (I just create 2 drumkits to achieve that). Then I use a little bit of compression on the kick, snare and toms drumtrack. No compression on the cymbals because I don't like them compressed. I use the Eventide Omnipressor for drum compression, it is a great sounding compressor. 👍🏻

[@CrushingAxes]

Man took me a while to realize this mistake! I used to work on real drums, so I started doing everything by default, BUSTER SE is great man! One of the best plugins ever, Analog Obsession is great! I've been using Drumflex all the time over here too! I also like to use some headkrusher with a multiband compressor at the end of the chain. Really cool tips here man!

[@ProjectVastness]

Now we need this for programmed bass and programmed guitars xD

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Haha! Programmed bass, depending on the library, I basically do the same thing using DoubleTap from Submission Audio \m/

[@blackedelweiss601]

learn how to play music instead

[@ChernobylAudio666]

@@blackedelweiss601 So if I have an idea for piano, I need to buy a piano and record it? Or it's acceptable to use a piano VST to write piano music? Suppose I'm a pianist and I have an idea for a guitar line, is it unacceptable for me to use a guitar VST to write my idea? SUPPOSE I'm a vocalist and I want to write a song idea for my bandmates, is it not acceptable to use a guitar VST to right the riff? Just curious, asking for a friend

[@spectre5022]

Question, I bought Metal guitar tone wizardry from Spectre Academy when it was released, it doesn't exist anymore?

[@synapticschism]

This video popped up in my feed while I'm having an issue with my drums. Maybe you can help me. I'm using Krimh Drums on a proggy/orchestral metal track. The drum kit sounds amazing, but when I go from single to double kick, there's a considerable volume build up in the kick sound. I tried to compress the kick and it sounded overcompressed. Any ideas? Maybe I should just lower the velocity of the kick? Or automate the volume? Thanks in advance.

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Hey man, all you have to do is automate the sections with the double-kick down in volume and that usually does the trick!

[@synapticschism]

@@ChernobylAudio666 perfect, thanks brother. Just subscribed! I'm slowly returning to metal after some years having fun with hybrid orchestral music and I'm looking forward to learn a lot from you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@marcisupenieks1641]

Ez Drummer has the 'Original Mix' as option, which sounds as close to mic'ed drums as possible. So in principle one should be able to apply any mixing step *if necessary* and shape them to play well with guitars/bass etc.

[@ChernobylAudio666]

The original mix has boat loads of processing on it as well. Pull the Amb (room) microphone down and the overheads you'll hear how much EQ and compression are in the samples. However, you are right in that they don't include the extra sauce and stuff that the producers did. Drums recorded off the floor do not sound like they - they are closer to Superior Drummer, but SD also has a lot of processing done as well, although you can do more tweaking and whatnot.

[@VincentVegardSvart]

I like using the original mix preset and I like to put the room up. I know most People in tech and speed music like death say to put down the room, but I play Black Metal and I like the raw sound and for me it's more "natural" (EZ3 with Death Metal expansion or Made of metal)

[@nickcollins9893]

The biggest mistake when mixing programmed metal drums is the one that you seem to never mention in your videos dedicated to such topic, yet you talking about programming metal drums the "correct" way. And that mistake is - HAVING DRUM PARTS PROGRAMMED 100% ON GRID. If you searching realism in programmed drums, especially in metal, then randomizing timing and velocity should be the first thing you do not ignore. Blastbeats and fills and all that good stuff in metal drumming sounds like absolute robotic crap, when it's on grid the entire time. Let it fluctuate, I would even go as far as having occasional kick flams in double bass parts, because that's how drummers play. I'm kinda surprised you never talked about adding timing issues in MIDI notes, considering that you are a drummer.

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Metal Drum Programming Mastery. Check it out!

[@CCL1603]

The fatal mistake is all these craptastic AI thumbnails. Come on, your content deserves better. Fantastic tips tho!

[@ChernobylAudio666]

I'm going to use even more AI thumbnails now just to piss you off specifically! 😘 Glad you enjoyed the video, tho!

[@janituominen4002]

but that sounds like shit...?

[@ChernobylAudio666]

I always wondered what it would be like to go through life deaf. Much respect to you, man! \m/