Parallel Drum Compression

[soundboy35]

I want to start using this technique, but my initial results have not been the greatest. I'm using EZ Drummer with my own patterns to make a song.
I'll bus all those (instrument) tracks into a stereo audio track and print it.
When I go to line it up with the original MIDI track and hit it with the compressor, (so far only BF76), no matter which way or how much I nudge, there is some kind of comb filtering, phasey sounding thing happening.
Not sure where the mistake (if any) is being made, but it's not giving me the results I need. Do I need to have Delay Comp on when printing the track...or after when lining it up? Should I not be printing the Room and OH tracks from EZ Drummer?
Anyone who does this frequently, give me some insight please

[Keith Moore]

Do you have Automatic Delay Compensation turned on?

[Top Jimmy]

Your problem comes from trying to line an audio track up exactly with an instrument track. Once you've printed the audio track, disable the instrument track.

Now, you could do a couple of things to get the parallel comp, but a real easy way is to copy the audio track and add your processing to one while leaving the other clean. Also make sure that delay comp is turned on.

[soundboy35]

Yes ADC is on. If I disable the Instrument track, doesn't that cut out the original EZ Drummer track? I need it to play WITH the printed track, yes?
I will also try copying the audio track and processing one of them.
I thought about printing the Room and OH tracks, and maybe turning those off on the Instrument tracks after, so as to eliminate any other phasing?
Not in the studio at the moment...

Thanks!

[Stig Eliassen]

• Route the audio outputs of the printed drum tracks to any free stereo bus (i.e. Bus 1-2)
• Create two new stereo auxes, and set the inputs to be the same bus pair as in the previous step (i.e. Bus 1-2)
• Name the auxes to your liking (i.e. "Drums Clean" and "Drums Comp")
• Instantiate a compressor on the "Drums Comp" aux, and go to town

[Mark Dann]

Originally Posted by Top Jimmy

Your problem comes from trying to line an audio track up exactly with an instrument track. Once you've printed the audio track, disable the instrument track.

Now, you could do a couple of things to get the parallel comp, but a real easy way is to copy the audio track and add your processing to one while leaving the other clean. Also make sure that delay comp is turned on.

If you want to avoid using delay compensation, put the compressor plugin on BOTH channels, but bypass it (NOT disable it) on one channel.

Another solution, which does cost some money, is to use the new Waves HComp, which has parallel compression built-in, by way of a mix control. It also happens to be a great sounding compressor, and works exceedingly well in this application.

[soundboy35]

I bussed all the tracks to an Aux as well at the main outs, and put the compressor on the Aux track, and am getting good results so far with no phasing. I use the RTD process in my sessions, so all tracks get routed to a submix Aux by default, and then this has it's own Aux. I will try the idea of having the plugin on both channels, as you mention to avoid ADC, and see how that goes.
Thanks for the responses...