Over compressing a drum track in PT

[Forrest77]

This isn't a new trick, but I have found that I can get a lot of attack on the drums from over compressing the room mic. My question is; when I do this, I totally send the fader into the red on that track, but as long as I keep the Master Fader out of the red, it seems ok, so how far, and by what means do others over-compress drum tracks?

(does anyone bus each track individually too?)

[Roly]

I can't comment on the gain structure issues but I would be very conserned about the room mic high end smearing the high end of your overheads and destroying the stereo image.

[Forrest77]

I still have my stereo overheads in the mix which should protect the stereo image and the high end.

[vonbleak101]

You have to be careful not to overbalance the mix with really up front drums. By nature drums are a dynamic instrument, so while a bit of compression is fine overdoing it may make the drums sound unatural. In my experience compression is the most overused tool.

Dynamics are a natural part of music so elimnating most of the dynamics for the sake of a 'loud' mix is not always a good idea. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[mjames08]

I agree with vonbleek.. I have overcompressed a lot of my mixes and they just don't hit when the music gains emotion