Considerations
As part of the lead band, I knew hard-hitting drums were necessary to modernize Sonic Battle. I was concerned about capturing the feel of the drums in Sonic Battle’s soundtrack. That snappy Snare and electro kick is a core component of the sound.
Ultimately, it was smarter (and easier) to capture “what I wanted to hear” rather than “upgrading the samples.” After this came the search for a sound Drum library to help me do just that. I wasn’t quite hearing “metal” more so than a hard, fast-paced rock that could borrow from metal if needed.
Addictive Drums 2 (AD2) by XLN Audio was my first consideration since it was used in the old Sonic Battle remixes I did in 2020/21. I reached for it to symbolize an “upgrade” from those old versions to this new concept.
Of course, after returning to the sound of the library with fresh ears and new knowledge, it couldn’t hit the standard I envisioned. It sounded too “metal” for the style I was trying to capture. On top of that, some quirks with the library heavily deterred me from it over the process.
You can change out all of the parts of the kit but I didn’t like this for two reasons. I’m a terrible victim of Choice Overload, which has halted my productivity in more ways than one. This is one of the reasons I slow down writing songs with synths. I can’t do sound design well, so I often hunt for presets.
My next issue was how those drums were mixed. Each kit preset or global preset came with its own effects chain. When you change parts of the kit, it doesn’t change/adjust the mix balance for that kit. This makes Choice Overload worse because I couldn’t really trust that the sample sounds good. Put another way, I wanted to like the samples raw (without processing), which I didn’t do for most parts of the kit. Overall, I just wasn’t liking the sound I was getting from most parts of the kit so I decided to move on.
Studio Drummer by Native Instruments was my next consideration as it was also something I already owned. Again, it was more nuanced than AD2, but I also didn’t like the sounds it presented.
It was here that I realized that I wanted a library specifically designed for rock and not just a “one size fits all” tone. 8Dio’s Ragnarök and Blackbird were neck and neck here. Not only did both of them have the tone and style I was after, but I loved the sound of their toms and Kick. It was Blackbird’s 2nd Snare that won the race for me.
Preset Creation / Becoming “Shell’s” Instrument
After I found that sound I was after, I wanted to turn it into Shell’s personal kit. The two biggest things I did were fine-tuning the drums in a certain way, then I omitted parts of the kit I didn’t want to use.
Some toms, for example, were tuned somewhat close together, so I wanted to adjust them to create separation. In addition, I had read somewhere that they tune them to ensure that the resonances between drums don’t conflict with each other.
Low toms, in particular, have a habit of meshing with the kick in a bad way during heavy tom parts. After learning this, my first goal was to tune each drum the way I liked it. Next, I loaded a frequency analyzer (SPAN by Voxengo) to ensure there wasn’t too much crossover between drums.
Blackbird came with a lot of Cymbals. By this point, I had a simple backstory for Shell, and it didn’t make much sense for him to have all of these cymbals. Light Dash is supposed to be something akin to an after-school rock group that blew up. Shell’s backstory doesn’t justify having all these pieces, so I cut the cymbals to 2 crashes, 1 China, and 1 Ride. I also cut out a 5th “phantom” tom in the library so that Shell only uses four. Though the library comes with 3 snares, Shell only uses the 2nd/middle snare.
The last thing I wanted to determine was panning. Some drummers prefer most elements in the middle, while others prefer them spread across the spectrum. Some try to capture the audience’s perspective (low toms are on the left and high toms on the right) or through the player’s perspective (opposite).
In the end, I decided on the player’s perspective because of the natural use of LCR Panning for rock songs. Double-tracked guitars are often hard-panned Left and Right, while melodics is in the center. For the synths I planned on using, I didn’t want them in the center potentially fighting in the way melodies, and they also sounded better meshing with the Guitars on the sides. This left room for 50% Left/Right in the spectrum to which, the Toms and Cymbals fill this gap perfectly.
How It’s Used
Being the driving force of the band, programming Shell’s drums is the start of the entire production process for a track. During the production process, Shell’s drums are often used as a metronome for the other instruments I program for the band.
If you’ve read Shell’s backstory, you’ll know he’s a self-taught drummer whose style only developed after meeting the band. Most self-taught drummers (and most novice drummers) have an issue with timing. They’re either rushing or dragging the beat. I couldn’t risk emulating this too realistically, so I automated tempo changes in a musical way instead.
After adjusting the tempo, I begin the writing process using Blackbird. This process includes playing simple beats using only kick and snare, then later embellishing them using cymbals, double beaters, and toms.
This helps me focus on the relationship between fills and the main beat. You’d be surprised that some fillers don’t work well with specific beats. Interesting topic for another time (maybe another eGuide?).
I’m usually careful when watching my Velocities for the MIDI programming. For example, a drummer using double beating usually can’t hit at “high velocities” consistently. In addition, some of the cymbals in Blackbird are a little much at high velocities sometimes, so I’m often switching up cymbals or lowering their velocities.
Aside from that, I’m mostly playing through feel. I often don’t reference the original song to ensure that the final take sounds uniquely different from the source (in a way that enhances it). After the writing is complete, I prime the tracks for multi-track exporting. After that, I store them on my hard drive. Before moving on, I sum those takes together to use as a metronome for the next instrument (bass guitar).
Mixing The Drums
Before anything, I aim to be flexible when I mix, but I noticed a few things I consistently do for Shell’s drums. To which I’ll highlight here.
Firstly, I almost always delete the Trash and Snare Bottom mics from the chain. You’re supposed to use extra mics like Cymbals, Room, Trash, and Snare Bottom to “help you mix before mixing,” so to speak. For example, the Room mic provides a natural reverb for the kit. The Cymbals mic can give cymbals more power or presence than the OHs. The list goes on.
The Trash and Snare bottom mics are very bright and lack meaningful frequency information in the mids and low end. They’re normally used to brighten up the Snare and Kit overall, but in my case, they’ve always sounded bad to me. In fact, I’m getting into the habit of not using them during the Multi-Track phase.
My next goal is to get the tone I’m after for each drum roughly in the same order as the microphone placement in Blackbird.
Kick Drum
I immediately reach for a highpass/lowcut filter for the kick, as I prefer having the bass below the kick. On the other end, many engineers encourage boosting around 6-8kHz on a kick to get that click sound that helps it pop out on smaller speakers. Personally, I don’t like this click sound being too noticeable in the mix. I’d much rather focus on the thump or punch coming out of it. Depending on the song, I actually cut around this area as many plucky elements from Organ to synths are here. That said, the Blackbird kick has a natural click around that range anyway.
For the mid-range of the kick, I cut between 200Hz and 800Hz for various reasons depending on how Tom/Snare-heavy the song is. I’m usually making room for the toms or getting rid of that “basketball” type sound. After EQing, it’s simple compression to taste. My aim here is to get that thump from the kick. I use a simple compression trick of turning the Threshold up and playing with the Attack to ensure it’s hitting the way I want. After which, I’d turn the Threshold back down to where I like it.
Snare Drum
The first two things I do is tame the ringing found in most snare samples and cut the fundamental a bit as the fundamental frequency (the drum tuning) is very prominent when playing normal hits. Sometimes, I automate this cut depending on the song to put it back for heavier sections.
Once those two things are taken care of, I compress the snare for tone and high cut to tame the higher frequencies a tad so they don’t mesh with the guitars and synths. Lastly, I load up Fabfilter’s Saturn for a little saturation. I mainly use this for the Dynamics knob in the plugin which adds a nice compression I really like. The purpose of this processing is to even out the hits so each hit sound constant in dynamics and tone.
Hi Hat
I only use this mic to highlight or add more presence to specific hi-hat parts in a song. The OHs usually sound fine with the Hi-Hats in them. I do get some nassle sounds around 1-3kHz, so I usually cut that or around 700-800Hz. Aside from that, I automate the volume to where it’s needed in the mix if the OH’s hi-hat isn’t sounding too good. I’ll usually mute it for some songs.
Toms
The Toms can be tricky depending on the song. I put a High Shelf on all four to tame some clicky hits you get from high velocities. After that, I cut around 100-200Hz, depending on the Tom, then compress to taste.
Sometimes, I want the tone of the ringing out, so I’ll automate the compression to release the toms a bit.
The Cymbals Mic
Like the Hi-Hat, the OHs often do a great job capturing the Cymbals. In times they don’t however, I automate the Cymbal mic to take care of it. I also cut around 500-600Hz for a few cymbals. After which, I load Fabfilter’s Saturn again. The Dynamic’s knob mixed with the subtle Saturation setting does an outstanding job at getting more sustain out of the cymbals.
The OverHeads
As stated, my goal for the overheads is to highlight the cymbals. To this end, I either boost using a high shelf or cut the mids slightly. Similar to the cymbals, I load up Fabfilter Saturn for a subtle tape and compression via the Dynamics knob (I really like this knob if you haven’t noticed).
I view this as the primary cymbal mic, so I often automate the volume on this if the cymbals are too loud or quiet in the mix.
The Room Mic
Again, I use this mic for more of a reverb effect. In most songs, it’s very subtle, but I tend to automate volume in moments where the drums need more weight or in a solo. Of course, I don’t want the resonances of the low end to interfere with the kick/bass, so I often low-cut. I then low-shelf to make sure this doesn’t interfere (too much) with the snare/toms.
Aside from that, it’s similar to the hi-hats/cymbals. I only bring them up in the mix when needed.
The Drum Bus
The only thing I do here is compression to glue everything together. Sometimes, I use Fabfilter Saturn again; other times, I reach for Logic’s stock compression. In some songs, I’ll even use parallel compression.
After compression, I might automate the overall drum bus volume in certain spots. In most circumstances, I don’t have to touch it much.
Updates / Improvements
I plan to work with many musical styles I’m not accustomed to, so I’m always looking for ways to improve the sound of the remixes. Beyond this point is a list of adjustments, tips, tricks, and improvements I picked up. Hope this helps some of the audio producers in their music!
7/12/2024
More Sustains From Cymbals, Hi-Hat, and Overhead Mics: Although I mentioned using Fabfilter’s Saturn on the cymbals, I kept it very subtle. While mixing Eggman Plots, I noticed I got more sustain from turning up the Drive on the Tape modules in Fabfilter. This, combined with the Dynamics knob, brought more sustain out of the cymbals. I did this again for Chapter End and loved the result, so I decided to document it.
Taming The Releases Of Snare Using Noise Gate: This was a trick I picked up from a YouTube video. Although Compression is used to control the Attack (subsequently adjusting the release), it’s easier to directly control the release transient of drums when using a noise gate. Until now, I had never thought of using a noise gate for tone shaping. For Chapter End, I automated Pro-G from Fabfilter and got a nice tone from it overall.
Fabfilter Pro-R On Snare Mic Instead Of Room Mic: As mentioned, I use the Drum’s Room mic as a natural reverb to the kit. For whatever reason, it didn’t sound good when I was mixing the snare on Chapter End (too dry). Instead, I automated a Snare preset from Fabfilter’s Pro-R. It helped push the snare back in the mix and sounded more natural. Personally speaking, I wish I’d tried this on Title Screen and Eggman Plots, which have a much drier snare sound.
Narrowed Cymbal Mic Stereo Image: In line with the player’s perspective when I spoke about panning. I applied the same approach to the 4 cymbals I gave Shell. In certain sections of Title Screen, Jump Start, and Eggman Plots, I started hearing the cymbals a little too wide. For Chapter’s End, I intended to narrow both the Cymbal mic and OHs, but I lost much of the “energy” I got from the cymbals. Instead, I kept the OHs as they were in the stereo field but narrowed just the Cymbal mics to about 60% of the stereo field. It was just enough to fill the space while maintaining that “energy” I was hearing. I’m certain I’ll be using this trick again.
If you have any questions or comments about any of this process, feel free to reach out to me on Discord! Hope you enjoyed and thank you for your support.
