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Hey everyone --

Whats some tips and tricks to get the bass drum to really thump,
and to get the snare drum to sound punchy?

Thanks in advance!

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AudioGaff Thu, 05/06/2004 - 01:10

Simple really. A great player, playing on a great and well tuned kit, in a great sounding room, captured with great mics through great sounding mic preamps and mabe some great sounding compression even if it is more for tone than dynamic control. Then durring mix some mults of each for layered processing and a touch of bus compression.

I don't think there is a real trick to it. To get it, it really needs to be there to begin with. You just capture it and mabe enhance/sweeten it a bit. Otherwise you can only fake it by overprocessing it into something useable.

anonymous Thu, 05/06/2004 - 04:04

So if these drums are already recorded (samples),

1. Create a new MIDI track to sequence the drums again with, so depending on what your using to sequence the samples with just do exactly what you did the first time around.(make a duplicate)
2. This time though leave the sequenced Hi-Hats out of the duplicate sequence. (I don't like tha sound of compressed Hi-Hats)
3. Using a Compressor (PlugIn or Outboard), compress the drum sequence (this is the one without the Hhats) until you like the sound (thump & punch). Use the solo function to check this sound.
4. Now turn off solo, and blend the two drum tracks back together.

It's as simple really as duplicating the drum track without Hi hats, then compress the crap out of it till it 'Thumps', then just blend them back together on different channels.

I will actually seperate the Kick and Snare (on different channels) when I want it to sound a certain way. This way you can use different treatments on the individual sounds, like say a little less compression + reverb on the snare.

Hope you understand what I'm trying to explain.

David French Thu, 05/06/2004 - 14:09

A few other tips...

Sounds described as having punch or thump generally have a very quick onset followed by a 30-50 millisecond burst of high amplitude. Sounds can be shaped to give them these characteristics. The common trick is to use a compressor with a high ratio and a 30-50 millisecond attack time. Another trick is the use of a device that can alter the transient nature of a signal such as SPL's Transient Designer or or the great free plugin (Dead Link Removed)

anonymous Fri, 05/07/2004 - 20:10

Roswell-CS wrote: Thanks BladeSG -- I totally get what you're saying...

You're basically layering drums with similar yet different characteristics?

So just duplicate the kick and snare tracks, and compress/eq one of them to add more thump with the original.

I'll try this today... good tip :)

Yeah it's a pretty simple technique, I use it alot for guitars and certain keyboard sounds. It's also good for bass when your tying to control the playing attributes of the sound but also need some dynamics.

I'm glad you understood, Good Luck!