Compression setting for punchy drums

[jonothon]

I hear this sound all the time, the punchy compressed drum sound.
Gives a nice "thuddy' sound to kicks and snares. What's the setting?
the closest I've come is using a fairly slow attack (like 50 ms or so)
and the fastest release I can get. Can anyone give some help with
finding this sound? Is it a particular plugin or comressor that people
use to get the sound?

[David Grant]

> I hear this sound all the time, the punchy compressed drum sound.
> Gives a nice "thuddy' sound to kicks and snares. What's the setting?
> the closest I've come is using a fairly slow attack (like 50 ms or so)
> and the fastest release I can get. Can anyone give some help with
> finding this sound? Is it a particular plugin or comressor that people
> use to get the sound?

There's no magical plugin or setting. There are many techniques used to get
such sounds and none of them are thoroughly learned in a matter of days or
weeks.

[RD Jones]

jonothon wrote:

> I hear this sound all the time, the punchy compressed drum sound.
> Gives a nice "thuddy' sound to kicks and snares. What's the setting?
> the closest I've come is using a fairly slow attack (like 50 ms or so)
> and the fastest release I can get. Can anyone give some help with
> finding this sound? Is it a particular plugin or comressor that people
> use to get the sound?

The drums are the most demanding source for
evaluating a dynamics control device,
since drums are by nature all dynamics and
little if any continuous sound.

Depending on how much peak clipping (distortion)
you are willing to endure there are several ways
to process drums to control dynamics.
You can combine the dry source with the compressed
output for one, but you still have the uncontrolled
peaks from the dry part of the mix to contend with,
usually later on in the final master processing.
You can use gratuitous tooob distortion to chop
peaks but I don't think that's the sound you describe.
(It's also not always symetrical, which is another issue
with drums and some other sources)
When I hear the term 'punchy' I think of something
with more dynamics, not less, so there may be some
loss of translation here ?

Take into account also that there are differing methods
to sense the signal and create the control voltage
that is used to process the sound. Generally, peak
limiters use the peak voltage values and compressors
sense the RMS voltage values but there are exceptions
and combinations. Digital does things differently too,
crunching numbers instead of sensing voltages.

You might find that by running the drums dry or
slightly peak limiting the main sound and then mixing
in a bit of compressed room mike will keep the drums
punchy but still allow the compressed ambience to
fill in for a full sound.

Wheew ...
Hope this helps
rd

[[email protected]]

You also might want to experiment with compressing some mics and
leaving others uncompressed. I often squash the beejeejus out of a
bottom snare mic and use the balance of that and a beefier, more
natural top mic to get the sound, rather than adding more or less
compression or eq to the overall snare. I also like to find a spot in
the room that hears a good snare sound and stick up a mic or two,
squash 'em, and key them from the snare, so it only opens up when it
hits and doesn't roomy up the rest of the drum sound. Blend to taste.


V

[Mike T.]

On 5 Jul 2005 09:11:45 -0700, "jonothon" > wrote:

>I hear this sound all the time, the punchy compressed drum sound.
>Gives a nice "thuddy' sound to kicks and snares. What's the setting?
>the closest I've come is using a fairly slow attack (like 50 ms or so)
>and the fastest release I can get. Can anyone give some help with
>finding this sound? Is it a particular plugin or comressor that people
>use to get the sound?

I think I know the sound you mean, and it's a combination of gate,
compressor and EQ.

On RnR kick, I like
gate: 30dB, fast attack, 100ms release
comp: 4:1, slow attack, 100ms release
EQ: boost 80Hz, cut 250Hz, boost 3K, cut above 10K

This is just a starting point for one particular recipe, using one
kick drum, one player, and I haven't even begun to discuss choice of
microphone, preamp, gate or comp.

Mike T.