Skip to main content

Drum Bus Compression

Lesson 4 from: Robert Lang Studios Mixing Class

Casey Bates

Drum Bus Compression

Lesson 4 from: Robert Lang Studios Mixing Class

Casey Bates

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

4. Drum Bus Compression

Next Lesson: Mixing Bass

Lesson Info

Drum Bus Compression

And now let's go back to the kick Snare and Toms. And let's look at the drum bus I have for these guys. I like to compress rather than compressing the kick snare individually the kick in the snare in the toms. I like to bust them all together and compress them is one. It seems to me to breathe a little more, have some more life when it comes in and out of fills the way it it's grabbing everything at the same time. So here I'm using the good old stock plug in here for pro tools. We've got, ah, 5 to 1 ratio. A slow attack, quick, quicker release. And what I'm getting is control. And one of the things that ah lot of mixtures I think have problems with, especially it started out, is they're worried about going too far with something or, you know, I I don't see a problem like this. Seems crazy. Hit him this hard, but I want control of the mix like this stuff you're gonna see. I put a lot of compression on everything, and I think most music nowadays has a ton of compression on it. And so I w...

ant absolute control over everything. The dynamic range. I know there's a there's there's a whole movement for more dynamic range and this isn't the right song for that. Ah, this is something that I want full control over. If I want something to be quieter, I'll go back later and automate those sections to dip down. So let's listen to maybe a busier part. Okay? Now what? I've gained in control. I've lost a lot of my hump to this stuff. Like there's not a big I'm losing the big feel I had before that compressions taken. I like what is doing for tone, but it's taking out the feel of it. So what I also do here is I run another bus right next to it. So they're both being fed by the same inputs of those tracks. The drum calm. So this kick snare Tom Mix is going to two buses now, and the second bus I'm compressing with same compressor, so I'm using the exact same settings here. So if I were to even just mute this one, you're gonna you're gonna hear the same thing, but I want to bring some beef into it and There's no better way than toe throw some giggle distortion on it. So one of my favorite plug ins is the sound toys decapitate er and I pulled up the drone, fatten her pre sex. That's pretty much exactly what I'm trying to dio. And I think I think I moved from these knobs around a little bit. But let's listen to what just this Mike sounds like Now I probably change this tone right here from this, you know, somewhere and Maurin this darker range so that I'm not getting too much more simple bleed going. So now I can blend these two. So if I I'm gonna mute what I just did, I'm gonna play the compressed drums here. Kind of bring it up to where it just gives you the right amount. So now let's listen to all these drums going together. The room sounds awesome. It's like that is my favorite things about how he did this stuff like watch if I take these room mikes out is what it sounds like. It sounds fine, but you really the drums really start to come alive, especially these verses where the guitars air a little sparser and you actually here The life of the song. The last thing I'm gonna do is let's go with more compression when I say we're gonna compress the drums again The now, Now I'm running, uh, all of the buses into one final, all drums bus. So the the to kick snare Tom buses and the one symbol bus are going to go down to an all drums bus that I'm gonna compress everything and I'm not gonna hit it too hard. It's more I This is the This is the time to throw on the SSL mixed bus compressor something just to kinda they call the mixed glue. You know, put it on there and let it just kind of hold everything together. So let's listen to the drums without compression on the mixed bus air on the on the drum bus and without. So here's Here's without and here's with. It's not a big difference. There's just a little bit of just pulling things together a little bit more. A little more control. So that's it for the drums were gonna come back around when I'm doing a drum mix. This is how it is exactly what I'm gonna do, I will. I will move a little even quicker than I am now, but I'll kind of just get my mixed going, get it all set up, move on to base, move onto guitars and get get. Get a feel for what the song is and like what? I'm what I'm trying to go for. So let's let's let's ah, move on to base.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Audio Tracks from 'I Want My Money Back' by The Money Pit

Ratings and Reviews

Joe Wilkinson
 

Regardless if you've listened to the music Casey has personally worked on or not, you'll find a lot of great information on his methods for mixing. It is such a great idea that this class comes with the files that Casey is actually work with so you can work side by side. This class includes best practices in organizing mixes, using busses, and what I consider the most important take away: listening to the MIX and not necessary just a single track over and over again. My requests: attendees had better formed questions to ask and to do another class -- I would love to hear some of the techniques and mixing that went into Church Mouth by Portugal. The Man.

fbuser 42790ebd
 

It was straight forward and helped show everyone it doesn't take fancy plugins or shiny toys to make great records. Even his vocal chain is mid tier but he yields excellent results with years of knowledge on his side. Casey you should come back to do a song off Emarosa's 131 album. There has to be some cool tricks there.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES