pman wrote: How much gate should be used on drums?

3.5

pman wrote: How much compression?

I like to start at about half-tilt and run it wide open

pman wrote: And whats good plug ins to make the toms and snare sound half dry and bouncy?

[url=http://(Dead Link Removed)

If all else fails, maybe try a basic search on this site or numerous others on the internet.

try experimenting till you figure it out...
thats what worked for me when I was starting out..
and when you do figure it out , you wont forget it...

It takes alot of time to figure these things out.. if you havent got the time buy some at a local Studio..

otherwise sit down and figure out what you hear in your head and have fun...

cool thanks guys

I don't like gates for the most part, if the noise is bothersome (usually only when the drummer doesn't know how to hit well), I'll just edit out all that stuff and then smartly fade out the trails.

As far as compression goes, it depends on the compressor and what your after. Experiment. Try starting with a moderate setting on everything and work from there.

Half dry/bouncy ...ya lost me there.

with something like drums, you can never have a set anything. especially with compression. every band deserves a drum sound to suit their style of music, even if it is the same kit. compressors are an amazing tool for shaping sound, not just managing levels.

try messing around with the attack and release time on the snare and bass. you can really punch in some life into a recording this way. the last recording I did, the snare was all this thud like attack. with out even EQing, just using a compressor I was able to bring out the natural resonating snare sound.

Can can really make the same kit sound 100 different ways just by taking the time to play with your compressors.

thats why i am not a big fan of only compressing the drum bus. you tend to just stick to settings rather then using your ears and picking out what sounds the best.

Drums

What's your Mic set up like?

I've ran into mostly phasing issues and bleed over as the major problems on drums. Are the overheads causing a cancellation anywhere?

Bleed over is what I look for when it comes to gating. Like, is the snare bleeding into the Kick Drum mic? Try gating the Kick. Stuff like that.
Other than that, I don't do a lot of gating. Starts sounding "munched."

For compressors we use a Waves Rcomp. Love it!

Theres not too much bleeding just i dont wanna over gate cos it tends to sound lame in my opinoin.
All the advice is cool guys thanks
Im using Smack think its a good compressor and the API collection i love the sound from them
Bouncy i meant the toms you have not a deep sound yet still sounding full

try doubling the tom tracks.
on the second track compress the toms so that the action is pretty much gone and you are left with a big dull tom sound. no blend that in with the originals (you can also compress this one to make the attack nice and big, and to minimize any of the drum sound).
what you have now is the the attack on one track, and the large tom sound on the other. This way you can create as natural or as unnatural sounding big drums as you want.

you can also do this one one track, by allowing the attack to go uncompressed and then adjusting the gain of the compressed tail.