Compressing Live Drums?

[tommypenngotti]

in DP with live drums - how much compressing do you guys do? I have a professional drummer - killer kit - decent mics - 57's , D112, Rode overhead stereo - into Motu 828 mk2 - DP 5.13

any tips appreciated - compressing the whole kit or individually?

thx

[Phil O]

in DP with live drums - how much compressing do you guys do?

As much as needed.

Seriously, every situation is different. I think if you get locked in to presets or a particular way of doing things, you're doing yourself a disservice. Your ears are your best tool. Don't be afraid to trust them. I've had projects where the drums were heavily compressed and others where there was just a limiter to handle a few peaks. It all depends on the situation.

Phil

[bongo_x]

Individually and all together. I prefer a little on a lot of things rather than a lot on one. Unless I think exactly the opposite would sound better.

There's really no way to say unless I was hearing the music and listening to all the individual tracks. In other words, mixing it.

bb

[sdemott]

My first thought: you have a good kit & and good drummer...well mic'd. Mult the drum channels and compress the mult to mix in under the uncompressed tracks (often called NY Drum technique). That way you get the dynamics of a well played kit and still can add the punch and crunch of the compressed tracks.

Just a thought

[Jim]

If you record with compression, you can't take it off later. But, you can add it, if you record without it.

I'm not an expert on this, or as experienced as some of the other people here, but I am satisfied with my overall technique & results:

I record drums to separate tracks without compression. Sometimes, I will compress the snare upon recording, if I can get the mic to avoid too much cymbal bleed. But, if I do that, I also like to add another mic/track that goes down without compression. One of my fusion kits has 12 mics recorded to 8 tracks (the toms are pre-mixed to stereo 2 track).

Then I apply the compression to individual tracks on mixdown, plus I may apply more compression to a Drum Kit Aux track. And then possibly even more compression to the master mix of all tracks.