Mixing Drums

it's time to start working on your mix and the first time you want to start with are your drums, when mixing your drums it is very important that your instruments are kicking at the right level, so when the time comes to mix your track and add the rest of the elements, each sound will find its place in the mix making your job a lot easier and joyful.

One thing I make sure every time I start working on my drums is to turn my whole mix on mono, that way I would have a clear perception of each audio take and from there begin by bringing the elements back into the mix, starting for what do you want to be most predominant sound on your drum bus it could be your kick or your snare depending on what approach you're taking on this particular project you might be working on, after that you could start playing with the levels on your instruments and start finding the sound that you might be looking for, note the difference that you might be getting when you mix your kick in , also note the effect of the whole sound when you bring your snare up and down in context with your overheads . from there it's all about finding a level that all of your sounds can breathe and not fight for space, once you find a spot that sounds good to you , bring your mix back to stereo and start working on some panning always leaving at this stage some headroom on your master of maybe -8/ -10 dB taking in consideration that you would need that too when its time to start processing.

A good trick I've had also learned is that once I found a right level on my drums and everything its sounding good to me, bringing back my mix to mono to start EQuing my elements it can also be a game-changing thing for you. As I mentioned there is so much clarity that you get from your sounds/takes when your whole mix its turned on mono that when u start fixing problems with frequencies and doing some subtractive EQ it helps a lot to identify what's wrong and where.

A bit of concept behind this if you are wondering what subtractive is?.

Subtractive EQ is a technique used on audio mix and mastering that involves cutting or ducking down frequencies, Cleaning the sound, and focusing on getting rid of everything that might be affecting your mix instead of adding or boosting. by doing this when your mix is still on mono it helps you to shape your audio for the next steps ahead.

What have we learned from this?

Fining the right balance between your instruments when your mix it's on mono is essential and crucial, its basically 70% of the job to a great sounding mix. by doing this with your mix on mono you will find clarity in each sound when leveling, also you will find a great perception of the sounds you are working on or the sounds involve in your project when applying subtractive eq. the idea is not to leave your mix on mono forever but to tets and listen to how your sounds interact with each other on the mix. once you have done all these little steps and you feel like you are happy with the progress you have made, maybe its time to start working on your general mix, maybe bringing in your bass, your guitars or the rest of the sounds you have on your track can help u to have a clear idea on the sound you might be aiming for or the results you are getting on this