Compression on drum room mics
Man, the only thing I changed was adding the XTComp1 to the ambients! I really need help with drum compression. I just now tried the Purple2 and it did the same thing — it made them sound less big (it seems to take off some low end?).
It's good to take a step back and think about what compression is doing: it's reducing the volume! It's not always instantaneous, so some amount of the transient information will get through before the attack time happens and the compressor clamps down.
So, what you can expect from compression on the drums is a couple different behaviors, depending how you have it set:
The punch of the drums becomes more emphasized relative to the body (decay) of the drum. This is because maybe you have a medium attack on the compressor, so the stick hit gets through at full strength before the compression clamps down.
The decay of toms is what makes them sound big — that quarter of a second after the attack where the shell blooms — that's where the meat is.
This can potentially explain why the compression makes the sound smaller — particularly when you are compressing the room mics, which is where all that beefy sustain lives! The stick hit is getting through full strength, and then the body is being compressed (i.e., turned down) — so the drum hit as a whole sounds smaller (less body) and more focused (more stick hit relative to body).If you have the attack of the compressor set super fast — a Distressor can do this, or an 1176-type compressor like the Purple — an opto compressor like the LA-2A can’t do this, it’s too slow — the super-fast attack will catch all of the transient, even the initial stick hit.
Using compression on your room mics with a super-fast attack can be extremely useful when you have a tight room sound, and you want to boost it without also boosting the attack of the drum, so that the room sound increases in volume relative to the sound of the drum being hit. This can be so helpful for making the drums sound punchy and big without taking up a lot of space.
Use the fastest attack on the compressor for this — 1 on a Distressor, 7 on an 1176 — and a medium decay.
And the cymbals started to sound like ass.
Yeah, cymbals can distort like a mother in compression! Especially if you have the release time set too fast — it will literally distort the sustained cymbal waveform as it releases.
What am I doing wrong?
It's possible you're compressing too much? Just a few dB of compression — like, 3-4 dB — can make a huge difference.
The only thing I wonder is this: I have the XTComp on the main drum track. Does adding another compressor to the room mic track necessarily cause issues? I can’t imagine it would. Thoughts?
Absolutely! Any time you put a compressor somewhere, it will change the sound, and that can cause issues. Especially when the extra compressor is going on the room mics — the room mics are where the size and shape of the drum kit live. It’s so easy to overlook them — but they’re the most important mics in the drum kit.
Close mics are helpful, but that’s not how we hear drums; we hear drums from 10 feet away, not 3 inches away. The sound of drums in a room is the sound of drums.
Battery-powered — jamie
Currently on sale, highly recommended. This is an excellent Distressor model, with extremely helpful added features.
Also currently on a very good sale, also highly recommended. This is a model of the Purple Audio MC77, which is a modern 1176 variant.