Drums FX / Processing.

ICN

How are things?

I've been messing around with sending a little bit of the drums - Snare/Clap /Hats / Perc etc.. to a Reverb bus - but to be honest, I dont really know whats the best.

Typically I have them all eq'd etc.. and then buss them all to a light Compressor.

Would like to know if y'all do it? and what type of Reverb you use?

I'm been using small room based ones in space designer.. but suppose a couple of pointers would be greatly appreciated.

I've been taking a little of the High's off and rolling off the Low's & adding a little in.

Would standard practice be to stick a little of Reverb like this straight over most of the mid / higher tone stuff in the mix?

seannash

guess its different for most tracks.

i actually just noticed that i dont really put any reverb on my drums.i have tried it with snares before but it never helped them to be honest.i do know people do it though

but that could be the reason why some peoples drums sound alot better than mine so maybe i should start experimenting.

if i apply reverb to anything i always seem to do a new reverb bus for each individual element.again this could be very wrong.

i actually dont bus my drums to a comprssor either ha ha(im definitely wrong not to i know that)
i work with a compressor on my master from the begining of the track so i guess my drums in a way are being bussed to a compressor,but so are all my elements i guess

ICN

seannash wrote: »

guess its different for most tracks.

i actually just noticed that i dont really put any reverb on my drums.i have tried it with snares before but it never helped them to be honest.i do know people do it though

but that could be the reason why some peoples drums sound alot better than mine so maybe i should start experimenting.

if i apply reverb to anything i always seem to do a new reverb bus for each individual element.again this could be very wrong.

i actually dont bus my drums to a comprssor either ha ha(im definitely wrong not to i know that)
i work with a compressor on my master from the begining of the track so i guess my drums in a way are being bussed to a compressor,but so are all my elements i guess

I think it was one of the older Logic reverbs that I had in a track.. Put a little bit of slapback on (I think) - a "dry" snare / clap (it had a mix level on it) - sounded pretty cool. I think sending everything to a drums buss does make it sound as one in my mind anyway. Obviously its a common enough thing to do.

I've just been shortening the reverb time way back in SD & just adding a little over everything bar the kick.. but its all trial & error stuff. Saw a few Vids in Future Music with a bit of reverb added to drums.. but as regards to the vaguely optimum types & settings, I'm at a loss.

I really must start writing this type of stuff in my notepad.. what works & what doesn't. Its a bit ****ing ridiculous not remembering.

Need to start Googling it I think.


What compressor / settings do you have on the master Sean? Is it a full mastering chain type thing?

seannash

ICN wrote: »

What compressor / settings do you have on the master Sean? Is it a full mastering chain type thing?

i have the sonalksis compressor on it

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again probably all set up wrong but i just run everything to it from the begining.that way i can eq the sounds better without having to worry about whats going to happen when i place a compressor over the whole track at the end

i do have a sort of matering chain(well with just a limiter on the end of it so i guess its a mastering chain)

its usually widener,multi band for the lowend,compressor and limiter.
th multiband is all dependant on the sort of track to be honest.i sometimes also have an exciter in there too.

i just got massey tapehead so i reckon thatll be included in there too but i havent had the chance to test it.

ICN

Sound - I usually keep everything as low as I can at the start level wise & then about 1/2 way through I might add one of the mastering strips from Logic..

They dont really seem to distort too much & less is more when your not sure :pac:

hubiedubie

I'm not sure what the standard practice is but I'd usually have 2 reverb sends. One room type reverb which I'd send all the drums to (bar the kick). Just a tiny amount (can barely hear it). The snare/clap may have a little more sent than the other drums. I generally don't use compression on this send.

The second send would be a Reverb FX send. This would be a longer hall type reverb (I usually use AudioDamage EOS) and I'd send certain parts (e.g. clap or shaker) to this during a breakdown. I sometimes compress this with the kick as a side chain.

Re. eq I just cut out the lows for each (cut is usually between 100 and 200 HZ).

ICN

hubiedubie wrote: »

I'm not sure what the standard practice is but I'd usually have 2 reverb sends. One room type reverb which I'd send all the drums to (bar the kick). Just a tiny amount (can barely hear it). The snare/clap may have a little more sent than the other drums. I generally don't use compression on this send.

The second send would be a Reverb FX send. This would be a longer hall type reverb (I usually use AudioDamage EOS) and I'd send certain parts (e.g. clap or shaker) to this during a breakdown. I sometimes compress this with the kick as a side chain.

Re. eq I just cut out the lows for each (cut is usually between 100 and 200 HZ).

Cant remember Mate - You're using Logic, are you?

Would you mind me asking what type "type" of room you'd recommend starting with?

It is EOS you're using for room & hall or are you mixing up different reverbs?

hubiedubie

Using Ableton. I use Ableton's for room (far from ideal) and EOS for FX type reverb.

Clanket

ICN, sorry if this is a stoopid question but when you say you send the drums to a reverb bus, do you mean you insert a reverb on the drums channel? Or is there another way to bus drums to a reverb thingymabobby.

Also, I presume you are using Ultrabeat for your drums? If so, do you use a different channel for each type of drum or do you do them all together on one channel? I've seen a few tutorials where they use different channels for their different drum types and this makes sense.

I've another question on Ultrabeat that's wrecking my head. I'm gonna do a new thread on it. If you get a chance and can throw me some help I'd be much appreciated.

ICN

Alofthedunnes wrote: »

ICN, sorry if this is a stoopid question but when you say you send the drums to a reverb bus, do you mean you insert a reverb on the drums channel? Or is there another way to bus drums to a reverb thingymabobby.

Also, I presume you are using Ultrabeat for your drums? If so, do you use a different channel for each type of drum or do you do them all together on one channel? I've seen a few tutorials where they use different channels for their different drum types and this makes sense.

I've another question on Ultrabeat that's wrecking my head. I'm gonna do a new thread on it. If you get a chance and can throw me some help I'd be much appreciated.

Alright Man - answered this a little in the other thread.. I have multiple UBs on different channels - One for perc / hats etc..

The Bus that I was talking about is a seperate channel with some fx running on it. I have a send coming off the UB channel routed over to it.

Theres a send amout on the chan, which allows you to choose how much of the signal you want to send over to the FX.

Whatever fx that you have - Reverb or whatever - make sure its 100% wet.

Theres another way of doing it too.. by going down to where it says "Out 1-2". You can route it to a bus - rather than the master channel. This is useful if you want to process a couple of things together - such as drums or pads or vocals etc.. This is called Grouping & allows you to "glue" the different elements together with a bit of compression / Eq etc..

If you make a bus - You can select - "create track on arrange" (or something like that) - and it'll let you automate any fx / channel fader etc.. on the main arrange page like all the other tracks you have.

Typically -with lots of UB's I have all of their individual "Out 1-2" on their channels going to bus 30 - which is my drums bus.

Rockshamrover

ICN wrote: »

Alright Man - answered this a little in the other thread.. I have multiple UBs on different channels - One for perc / hats etc..

The Bus that I was talking about is a seperate channel with some fx running on it. I have a send coming off the UB channel routed over to it.

Theres a send amout on the chan, which allows you to choose how much of the signal you want to send over to the FX.

Whatever fx that you have - Reverb or whatever - make sure its 100% wet.

Theres another way of doing it too.. by going down to where it says "Out 1-2". You can route it to a bus - rather than the master channel. This is useful if you want to process a couple of things together - such as drums or pads or vocals etc.. This is called Grouping & allows you to "glue" the different elements together with a bit of compression / Eq etc..

If you make a bus - You can select - "create track on arrange" (or something like that) - and it'll let you automate any fx / channel fader etc.. on the main arrange page like all the other tracks you have.

Typically -with lots of UB's I have all of their individual "Out 1-2" on their channels going to bus 30 - which is my drums bus.

Would you not be better processor wise, having one instance of UB as a muli output instrument? You end up with lots of aux channels that you can process individually or collectively.

Here's a vid of how to do it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjmP-pEBErQ

ICN

Rockshamrover wrote: »

Would you not be better processor wise, having one instance of UB as a muli output instrument? You end up with lots of aux channels that you can process individually or collectively.

Here's a vid of how to do it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjmP-pEBErQ

Cool..

However - I think it'd be a waste of time for me though - Multi timbral would be better than multi output.

I like being able to keep things seperate & have the different midi tracks & change things if / when I need to.

Suppose it depends on whether you're computer is having a stroke when you're making a track or not

Guru is multi timbral - its got 8 engine's - so you can have 8 different things going on at once on the 1 Guru, while running the midi patterns on different channels on the arrange.

Havent checked that out yet - theres a vid on youtube for that too.

Will watch that when I set up my Mac again. Going to install Snow Leopard & Logic 9 at the end of the month when my exams are over.

Hoping to set Guru up like this in my Autoload.

Quiggers

with percussion its best to gate the reverbs, stops mush developing and them sinking away into the backround,
fav trick of mine is to send the reverb (set to big room, cathederal type settings) and use a compressor to duck this, but instead of the usual slow attack quik release of normal ducking, set the attack to 1mS and the release to whatever half a beat is, ie 120bpm, 1 beat takes 500mS, 60/120, half =250mS. now instead of using a kick to key the comressor, use a burst of white noise, approx 1/4 beat long ie a 16th note, and place this on every 1/4 note, this will cause the reverb to pump but it will sound like reverse reverb, and by varying the lenght of the white noise burst you can add a swung feel, ie shorten it for a triplet feel. then high pass to remove low end mud.
when done right this will not sound like another eric prydz copy

ICN

That sounds cool :pac:

Definitely will mess around trying that.

Do you do this over whole track - or in a section, like an effect?


& another Q - Do you make any changes to the duration / length of the Big Reverb?

Quiggers

use it thru out, its very subtle and varying what you're sending to it helps it keep evolving,
you dont really hear the reverb so adjusting the size isnt really gonna change it much, you just dabbibg in bits of the reverb wash, its handy for adding width to a track without the sinking back feel the reverb normally gives. and leaves space for other elements.
i set the reverb time to be about 2 beats long, a bar at the most, if not it'll build up and swipe precious headroom.