This is for the newcomers to recording/mixing: When using the Top Down Drum Bus compression method; Use a side chain on the compressor that is triggered by the low end of the Kick and Bass to remove the pumping effects on the cymbals. Some stereo bus compressors have a built in side chain that can also avoid triggering from the extreme low end.
Your experience with bottom up is the exact reason people fail while doing bottom up, you just started mutilating the kick track without listening to it. When I work this way, I always keep AT LEAST the overheads and maybe even the room mics active the entire time while I'm working on the kick, snare and toms. This way I can hear how my moves are effective the overall picture of the kit.
What I found myself doing a lot of times is to route the overheads to a buss inside the drum buss, I also route the remaining drums to another buss inside the drum buss. Both busses still go to the drum buss. This approach allows me to treat the drums (toms, snare, ect.) and the overheads (symbols, HH ect.) with individual processing and when the balances are completed I fold everything to the drum buss to where I can tweak the volume or whatever else that may be necessary on the overall drum mix. This works well for me.
Hey Joe. If bottom-up then I would focus on the Overheads ang get the main vibe from then in this recording and mix in context while tweaking individual channels. Looking forward to your thoughts on that.
I used both bottom-up and top down. In short, bottom-up work way better for me. Especially when I got "bad" or "not great" recording to mix. In this exemple your drums is well recorded and it work great. When you got a live recording with not so good sound, I need to work on the track. Moreover, nowadays I use a system with a mix of bottom up and top down, all depending on my songs needs. I realise that it is way more effective to deal with low end bottom up than top down. Again, it is just a personal way. Both techniques are amazing.
Well, if you do buttom-up mixing, see what it as a preparation for the bus processing. Cleaning up the frequencies and adding some energy by compression and saturation, can be done before the bus processing. It don't has to be perferct: you can always do bus (and parallel) processing.
This is for the newcomers to recording/mixing: When using the Top Down Drum Bus compression method; Use a side chain on the compressor that is triggered by the low end of the Kick and Bass to remove the pumping effects on the cymbals. Some stereo bus compressors have a built in side chain that can also avoid triggering from the extreme low end.
Your experience with bottom up is the exact reason people fail while doing bottom up, you just started mutilating the kick track without listening to it. When I work this way, I always keep AT LEAST the overheads and maybe even the room mics active the entire time while I'm working on the kick, snare and toms. This way I can hear how my moves are effective the overall picture of the kit.
To be honest - I have a v3 of the Top-Down approach.
Routing the OHs to the main was really cool! I didn't even know you could do that. Thanks Joe :)
Routing the OHs to the main solved a problem that was drivin me crazy. Thanks again
Love your REAL approach to everything you do. Thanks for the honesty!
One of the best videos on drum mixing I've seen in the last 10 years.
Joe Gilder is great, i learned a lot with his videos. Thanks!!
Bottom-up can work fine on acoustic drums. Just don't solo anything. EQ and compress the kick in the context of the whole kit.
What I found myself doing a lot of times is to route the overheads to a buss inside the drum buss, I also route the remaining drums to another buss inside the drum buss. Both busses still go to the drum buss. This approach allows me to treat the drums (toms, snare, ect.) and the overheads (symbols, HH ect.) with individual processing and when the balances are completed I fold everything to the drum buss to where I can tweak the volume or whatever else that may be necessary on the overall drum mix. This works well for me.
These raw drum tracks sound amazing even without any plug-ins.
This is fantastic! Within the first 2 minutes.... WOW
Haven't watched this channel, or Joe's, for a few years and this is a good reminder why.
Hey Joe. If bottom-up then I would focus on the Overheads ang get the main vibe from then in this recording and mix in context while tweaking individual channels. Looking forward to your thoughts on that.
You can engage a sidechain filter on your conpressor so that the kick doesnt pump the cymbals so much.
I used both bottom-up and top down. In short, bottom-up work way better for me. Especially when I got "bad" or "not great" recording to mix. In this exemple your drums is well recorded and it work great. When you got a live recording with not so good sound, I need to work on the track. Moreover, nowadays I use a system with a mix of bottom up and top down, all depending on my songs needs. I realise that it is way more effective to deal with low end bottom up than top down. Again, it is just a personal way. Both techniques are amazing.
Great vid thx man
Well, if you do buttom-up mixing, see what it as a preparation for the bus processing. Cleaning up the frequencies and adding some energy by compression and saturation, can be done before the bus processing. It don't has to be perferct: you can always do bus (and parallel) processing.
Man, you have an awesome voice. Nice Video!
Hey Joe, love your work. Could you please consider doing a video on mixing easy drummer?