Parallel Compression Routing and advice

[Raoul23]

Hi out there

I have my drums recoreded, an im using parallel compression to get that punch, but what is the best way to route the signal

1 Do i have the output from all the drums being sent to the clean drum aux and also the Parallel comp Aux

or

2 have the outputs sent to the the clean drum aux and then use the sends on each track to send it to the parallel comp drum aux (which can be a seperate mix to the clean drum aux)

On my Parallel comp aux i have ac 1 (should i have the yellow light just flickering), ressinance comp with gain reduction at about 10db, follow ressinance eq (which is flat at the mo) and the last DaD valve

Anyone out there care to give some advice if possible

Thanks in advance

[barters81]

I route all my drums tracks to a 'Clean' or unprocessed Drum buss.

I also have a send on each drum channel going to a Aux channel with compression running.

Then mixing the two together to taste.

Try placing a Tape Saturation emulator like the Massey Tapehead after the compressor on the compression aux track. I find the tape emulator rounds of the transients in a pleasing way making the drums sound warmer and punchier again.

In terms of compression setting......the obvious thing to do is to squash it quite hard because you're mixing it in with a clean track so everything evens out. Personally I still only compress by around 6db max. I'll also run a clean limiter like the Waves L2 as the first plug to trim off the really high transients. This way you're following compressors won't be overly influenced by one off hits etc.

Hope this makes sense....

[O.G. Killa]

for drums, here's what I do...

Create a mono aux for Kik... send all your kick mics to it using a PRE FADER send.

Create a mono aux for Snare and send all your snare mics to it using a PRE FADER send.

Create a stereo Aux for your OH and send your OH to it using a pre fader send

Create an aux (mono or stereo, depending on the mic setup) for your room mic(s) and send them to it using a pre fader send.

Set all your pre fader send levels to 0dB.

Assign all the main outputs of your drums and newly created auxes to a "drum bus". You can either have that be a Stereo Aux track (if you want to put processing on it) or a stereo audio track (to record the drums as a stereo stem).

Insert a fast style compressor (VCA or FET). Compressors like the BF76, CLA76, Softtube's FET compressor, Digirack Dyn/Limiter 3, etc work really well. The best I've found for my own personal tastes has been the CLA76 from waves. Traditionally these drum compressors were usually a real Urei 1176 compressor, a DBX 160, or an API compressor. For me the plugin CLA76 gets the closest to that sound for my tastes. At least for the moment. 2 months from now there may be a plugin that sounds even better for this job.

Do not put compression on your audio tracks. Just use the auxes for it. If using an 1176 style compressor, set the attack to "1" or "3" and the release to "7". Adjust the input so the meter gets buried to the left when the drum is hit. Adjust the output knob so it isn't clipping/distorting. Then play with the ratio buttons. Try 4, 8, 12, 20 and "All Buttons In". Pull the volume fader for the aux all the way down, then slowly bring it up until you hear it make a difference in the drum sound. Once you find the sweet spot. Move on to the next compressor and do the same thing.

IF you are doing this on some other compressor, you want to try and use an attack time of around 2-4ms and a release time of around 8µs (0.8 ms) or so...maybe a little faster or a little slower. Adjust the threshold so there is around 10dB or more of compression when teh drum is hit. The purpose is to allow the initial stick attack through the compressor and then the compressor severly clams down pulling the volume way down (by 10dB or more) and then immediately releases and returns the volume to normal. This is essentially making the attack of the drum even "sharper"/"brighter"/more "pronounced" and will bring out the snap. By itself it sounds weird. but blended in with the dry signal it adds more punch and snap as well as sustain to the drums. And it works best if you do it on each drum individually. For toms I will sometimes not use any, sometimes I'll just use one stereo compressor and send all the toms to it... sometimes I'll use a compressor in parallel for each tom. Each setup has a slightly different effect on the sound of the drums. You just need to experiment to see what works for the song and what doesn't.

Personally, I don't put any peak/brickwall limiters on the drums themselves. The one things that make drums sound "High fidelity" is their transients. A limiter like an L1/L2/L3 brings up the RMS level but changes the transients/peaks in the process. The best drum sounds are usually the punchiest ones. In order for something to be punchy it needs to have a really sharp transient (the smack) and a deep sustain. A limiter turns the smack down and brings the sustain up and can (if you aren't careful) make your drums sound dull.

The whole point in doing parallel compression is to exaggerate the transient peaks and make them more pronounced. Putting a limiter on it before the the drums hit the mix bus undoes some of the snap the compressors are adding.

[albee1952]

As usual, there's many ways to do this and mine is another option. I leave all my drum tracks going to L&R outputs. I add a stereo AUX send to all the "shell" tracks(kick, snare and toms) and feed them to a stereo AUX track and insert Waves SSL bus compressor(also tried with BF76 and softube's CL1B). The 1 sample of latency has never been audible and all 3 compressors are useful here(of course, now that I am running PT9, ADC is at work). SOMETIMES I will also feed the hat and overhead tracks to the AUX too(depends on the track). I use another AUX track with a short room reverb(under .5 seconds) and send from all drum tracks except the kick(maybe a little bit) since I don't have a great sounding drum room(its small and dry). If I have sidestick parts, I move them to a separate track from the full snare hits(so I can EQ and reverb differently). Usually, with the AUX sends at nominal, and the compressed AUX track at nominal, I get just what I need.

[Raoul23]

Cheers guys so what your saying is that you only put the kick snare and toms through parallel compression, I've been putting my room mics and over heads through to which I think is what has been giving me a strange sound. I'm after a drum sound like that of the band you me at six (their latest album) where the snare is very prominant with lots of smack.

I'm gonna try parallel comp again tonite without the overheads and rooms mics in to see how it sounds

thanks again guys

[albee1952]

You can always give the overheads their own compressor. I would route both overheads thru a stereo AUX track so compression doesn't shift the image(which could happen with a compressor inserted on each overhead track separately).

[O.G. Killa]

this is why I do each drum separately. If you have them all feeding one compressor, the detector circuit in the compressor is going to clamp down on everything, which can make the snare and cymbals sound weird. Especially the cymbals.

But even if you send the kik and snare to the same compressor, that compressor will get triggered from either... so if you have a drum part that has a kick come in right after a snare, it's going to mess with the sustain of the snare and vice versa. Same thing with OH, the snare and kick will cause the compressor to clamp down and if you have cymbals ringing you'll hear them pumping with each kick and snare hit.

So splitting them out allows you to compress each individually without the compressor reacting to the other drums/cymbals.

[Raoul23]

Originally Posted by O.G. Killa

this is why I do each drum separately. If you have them all feeding one compressor, the detector circuit in the compressor is going to clamp down on everything, which can make the snare and cymbals sound weird. Especially the cymbals.

But even if you send the kik and snare to the same compressor, that compressor will get triggered from either... so if you have a drum part that has a kick come in right after a snare, it's going to mess with the sustain of the snare and vice versa. Same thing with OH, the snare and kick will cause the compressor to clamp down and if you have cymbals ringing you'll hear them pumping with each kick and snare hit.

So splitting them out allows you to compress each individually without the compressor reacting to the other drums/cymbals.

cheers im just after that fat big nickelback sounding drum kit it sounds so gooooood so I'm asking for tips and advice off everyone

[barters81]

Some interesting ideas.....

I forgot to mentioned that I route my overheads separately from other drums.

Also, when using a limiter on the first plug, you want it clean, and not limiting 99% of the time, just in case your drummer hits the mic during an awesome take etc.

I'm always amused when people say they never, or always do something in mixing....

[barters81]

Originally Posted by albee1952

You can always give the overheads their own compressor. I would route both overheads thru a stereo AUX track so compression doesn't shift the image(which could happen with a compressor inserted on each overhead track separately).

You can also strip the low end and boost the high, then compress like crazy to add a long shimmer after each cymbal hit. Mix to taste.