Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mogwailoveyou]

I'm going to be tracking our drummer for an ep and I'm curious on some various ways you all like to use compression. Definately not going for a "rocknroll" considering that the songs usually have three styles of drums...
1. light jazzlike patters and march beats
2. slow but solid snare/hihat/kick parts
3. heavy crash/ride intensive "explosions"

think mogwai/mono/explosions in the sky.

I'm curious on what parts you think should use compression, i'm pretty sure the brushed jazzy parts should use little if any, but I'm curious if I should comp the kick on most parts and most importantly if compressing the crash/ride parts would be more detrimental than good.

Another side question, on mogwai songs like "sine wave" and a couple off the new album they have a part where they have what sounds like an extremely washed out high gain non-organic drum part that has absolutely no sustain at all. I can't decide if it's being done using heavy compression, a limiter, or eq... if anyone knows what i'm talking about i'd be interested to know what technique they used to do it.

[redelephant]

off topic: did you see that movie friday night lights? I saw it on sunday and the whole time I was thinking: "this soundtrack is so good, but so out of place". I watched the credits and low and behold it was explosions in the sky who performed it. CRAZY

[Fibes]

Compression is a tool and either you can tighten it by hand or, if needed, bring out the tool that best fits the job at hand.

That said, if you don't want to compress during tracking that always leaves you with room at mixdown. A simple kick/snare buss and an OH buss in parallel might do you.

I always track with a bit of compression on the kick and snare, it's more of a shaping thing than anything but most times i run a mult for a few busses as well. Since i do a lot of my mixing ITB these days i run my kik/snare distressor buss, my OH/snare Trakker Buss and sometimes the room mics through a mult on the SC2, MXR mini limiter and beleive it or not a 1066. A lot of the time my processing is already done during tracking so all i'm left with are some level/track selections to make it work. Plug ins on drums drive me mad so this method has helped me work as usual without completely screwing the pooch if I miss...

[j.hall]

in your situation i wouldn't compress much to tape.

but in the mix i'd probably compress the brushes really hard to get them up and create some interesting textures.

the bigger open crash parts i'd compress less to flip the feeling.

the brushes will be tightly controled, then it opens up to a more dynamic louder part that feels more open due to less compression.

it's hard to recommend treatments until i hear the song, cause all the other parts (bass, guitars, keys) play a huge role in how i treat the drums.

[mogwailoveyou]

that makes logical sense... hmm. allright, i think i have enough to work with to have a place to start. thanks.

as far as friday night lights is concerned i remember months ago when i first heard about that... what is it with football movies and post-rock. first godspeed had to turn down "any given sunday" when they wanted to use moya during the dramatic catch and now this. i can just imagine it... player running down the field with godsmack playing the background... gets near to the 20 yd line, cut to slow motion, insert stock orchestral john williams crap... catches the ball mid-dive... TOUCHDOWN!!! right as sigur ros comes swelling in "eeesssiiieellloooohhnnn..." brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it...

anybody have any ideas on the mogwai song thing??