wwittman wrote on Mon, 22 May 2006 15:11 |
the things that make drums cut through a mix:
arrangement level attack brightness
unless the sounds are very rounded off or lacking impact, I'd suspect attack isn't the issue.
making them brighter is one thing to try (especially in the upper mids)... but I DON'T think there's a quick "trick" or box that is missing.
it's not because they're not recorded to tape, and it's not lacking a Fatso or anything ELSE that specific.
the drums cut pretty well on about 100,000 records that didn;t use a Fatso.
it's hard to know what to tell you without hearing something, but I can be pretty sure it's not a single, simple answer.
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I agree with everything here.
There were wonderful sounding records made by just going over and over an acetate. The problem is usually with certain tracks and sounds in the mix cancelling eachother out.
I have a few tricks that I use:
1. Take every plugin or processor out of the mix. Set all the eqs off or flat and keep no effects or dynamics in.
2. If you are monitoring loud or with a sub cut the sub and turn your nearfields down to background music level.
3. Just as an exercise, reset the volume of all your channels from the gain, not the faders. Set the faders even. I always remind myself to set the volume from the gain pots and "mix" with the faders in small adjustments. (Do this even if you're in a DAW...)
4. Listen to every part on it's own and make sure you are really hearing it well at a background level from the monitors.
5. Now slowly start adding in other parts. Set a loop and listen to how things play off of eachother. Keep adding things until you begin hearing the problem. This is a good way to find what I call a "trouble track".
6. Now when you start adding in your eqs effects and dynamics make sure you are adding them in to actually do something and not just to have it there.
I'm not suggesting that eq, effects and dynamics should not be used in tracking. That can create a great instrument all its own. This only refers to mixdown.