Magic Compressor Settings for KICK & SNARE

Summary

This instructional video offers a detailed guide on setting compression for kick and snare in a rock drum mix. The presenter uses a track to demonstrate the process, focusing on the importance of slow attack and fast release settings to emphasize the initial hit's transient for a modern, punchy sound. He recommends the SSL Channel plugin for its simplicity and sound quality, and provides a visual aid by processing a waveform to illustrate compression effects. The tutorial also covers drum bus compression for additional punch and introduces parallel compression for an aggressive, explosive drum sound. A free mixing cheat sheet with go-to settings is available for download, ensuring viewers can apply these techniques effortlessly.

Takeaways

• 🎚️ The video is focused on teaching how to set compression for kick and snare in a rock drum mix.
• 🔗 The speaker provides a free mixing cheat sheet with go-to compression settings for various tracks, including kick and snare, and EQ starting points, available at mixcheat.com.
• 📍 For close mic compression on the drum kit, use a slow attack and fast release setting to emphasize the transient of the hit and achieve a punchy sound.
• 🔊 The SSL Channel plugin is the speaker's go-to for drum tracks due to its simplicity and sound quality.
• 👂 A 3:1 to 4:1 compression ratio is typically used for drums to achieve the desired effect.
• 📊 The importance of a slow attack is demonstrated visually through waveforms, showing how it allows the initial transient to pass before compression kicks in.
• 🔁 A fast release is crucial to avoid squashing the sound and to ensure the compressor can return to normal before the next hit.
• 🔄 The video demonstrates how to achieve similar compression settings using different plugins, including a stock Avid compressor.
• 🔄 The speaker explains the use of a drum bus compressor with a 2:1 ratio for a subtle punch and snap to the overall drum sound.
• 🔄 Parallel compression is introduced as a technique to create an aggressive, punchy sound, using a 10:1 ratio on a separate drum bus called 'crush'.
• 🔧 The final step involves blending the compressed 'crush' bus with the regular drum bus to achieve the desired modern rock drum sound.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is how to set up compression settings for kick and snare in a drum mix.

What is the purpose of using a slow attack in drum compression?

A slow attack allows the initial transient of the drum hit to pass through the compressor before it starts reducing the level, which emphasizes the transient and gives the drum a sharper attack and punch.

What role does the fast release setting play in drum compression?

A fast release ensures that the compressor fully lets go before the next drum hit, preventing the compressor from being in the middle of returning the signal to the original level and affecting the full strength of the next hit.

What is the recommended compression ratio for drum tracks according to the video?

The video suggests using a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio for drum tracks, which is generally suitable for achieving a punchy drum sound.

What is the purpose of the 'crush' bus in the video's drum mixing approach?

The 'crush' bus is used for parallel compression to add an aggressive, pumpy front-end attack to the drum sound, enhancing its character and making it more explosive.

How does the video demonstrate the effect of compression on drum sounds?

The video demonstrates the effect of compression by showing waveforms before and after compression, as well as by playing audio examples with and without compression applied.

What is the SSL Channel plugin mentioned in the video?

The SSL Channel plugin is a compressor plugin used in the video for its simplicity and sound quality, particularly for drum tracks.

How does makeup gain in a compressor work?

Makeup gain in a compressor automatically turns the signal back up to compensate for the amount of volume reduction that has occurred due to compression, ensuring the overall level of the sound is maintained.

What is the significance of the sustain and ring in drum compression?

The sustain and ring are important because they contribute to the tone and character of the drum sound in a mix, especially as more compression is applied.

What is the recommended approach for setting up compression on the drum bus according to the video?

The video recommends using a 2:1 ratio with a slow attack and fast release on the drum bus for a more controlled and natural sound, with just a couple of dB of gain reduction.

How can the compression settings discussed in the video be applied to electronic drum sounds?

The same compression settings can be used for electronic drum sounds or EDM to enhance punch, attack, and make the sound pop and explode out of the speakers.

Where can viewers find the free mixing cheat sheet mentioned in the video?

Viewers can download the free mixing cheat sheet from mixcheat.com or through a link provided in the video description.

Outlines

00:00

🎛️ Compression Settings for Kick and Snare

The video focuses on optimizing compression settings for kick and snare in a rock drum mix. The presenter uses a specific track to demonstrate, muting additional samples for clarity. The approach to compression for both kick and snare is similar, emphasizing the importance of a slow attack and fast release for the close mics on the drum kit. This technique allows the initial transient hit to pass through before the compressor engages, enhancing the punch and attack of the drums. The SSL Channel plugin is highlighted for its simplicity and effectiveness on drum tracks. A free mixing cheat sheet is offered for download, providing go-to settings for compression and EQ across various tracks. The presenter also explains the visual effect of compression on a waveform, illustrating how it can enhance the dynamics and sustain of the sound.

05:00

🔊 Enhancing Drum Transients with Compression

This paragraph delves deeper into the specifics of drum compression, discussing the importance of release speed and how it affects the sustain and ring of the snare. A slower release can cause the snare's ring to be less pronounced, whereas a faster release allows for a more natural sustain. The presenter demonstrates this by adjusting the release speed on a compressor and comparing the results. The SSL Channel plugin is again praised for its ease of use and sound quality. The video then moves on to discuss drum bus compression, using the SSL bus compressor with a 2:1 ratio for a more controlled and cohesive sound. The aim is to add punch and snap without losing the natural feel of the drums. Parallel compression is introduced as the next step to achieve a modern, explosive, and punchy drum sound.

10:05

📈 Achieving Modern Rock Drum Sound with Parallel Compression

The final paragraph of the script explains the use of parallel compression to create a modern rock drum sound. A secondary drum bus labeled 'crush' is used to heavily compress the drum signals, employing a 10:1 ratio with a slow attack and fast release. The presenter listens for a sweet spot where the compression adds punch and attack without detracting from the drum's tone. The SSL bus compressor settings are replicated on a stock compressor to demonstrate the process's universality. The video concludes with a reminder that this compression approach is a staple in the presenter's mixing template and is applicable to electronic drum sounds as well. The presenter invites feedback for future videos in the series and mentions existing videos on EQ frequency.

Keywords

💡Compression

Compression in audio engineering refers to the process of reducing the dynamic range of an audio signal. In the context of this video, compression is used to emphasize the attack of drum hits, such as the kick and snare, and to provide a punchier, more controlled sound. The script mentions various compression settings, such as attack and release times, and ratios, which are crucial for achieving the desired effect on the drum tracks.

💡Transient

A transient in audio is the very beginning, high-energy part of a sound wave that occurs when a drum is struck or a cymbal is hit. The video script discusses the importance of allowing the transient to pass through the compressor before it engages, which helps to maintain the attack and punchiness of the drum sound. The term is used to describe the initial impact of the drum hit that the compressor is designed to enhance.

💡Attack

In the context of audio compression, the attack setting determines how quickly the compressor starts to reduce the volume of an audio signal after the level exceeds the threshold. The script emphasizes the use of a slow attack setting to let the initial hit of the drum through before compression kicks in, which is essential for preserving the punch and attack of the drums.

💡Release

The release setting in compression dictates how quickly the compressor stops reducing the volume of the audio signal once it falls below the threshold. A fast release, as mentioned in the script, ensures that the compressor does not interfere with the next drum hit and allows for a quick return to the original signal level, contributing to the sustain and ring of the drum sound.

💡Ratio

The compression ratio is the amount by which the compressor reduces the volume of the audio signal that exceeds a certain threshold. The script uses different ratios for different purposes, such as a 3:1 ratio for individual drum tracks and a 10:1 ratio for a more aggressive, pumped sound on a parallel drum bus.

💡SSL Channel

SSL Channel refers to a specific plugin used for compression in this video. It is favored by the speaker for its simplicity and sound quality, particularly on drum tracks. The script mentions using this plugin for its straightforward controls and the desirable effect it has on the drum's attack and sustain.

💡Drum Bus

A drum bus is a part of a mixing setup where individual drum tracks are grouped together and processed as a whole. The script discusses using a drum bus compressor to add extra punch and snap to the overall drum sound, with settings similar to those used on individual drum tracks but with a lower ratio for a more natural sound.

💡Parallel Compression

Parallel compression is a technique where a copy of the original audio signal is heavily compressed and then mixed back in with the original. The script describes using a parallel drum bus called 'crush' with aggressive compression settings to create a pumped, aggressive sound that is then blended with the main drum bus to achieve a modern, punchy drum mix.

💡Gain Reduction

Gain reduction is the amount by which the volume of an audio signal is decreased by a compressor. In the script, the speaker adjusts the gain reduction to find a balance between emphasizing the attack of the drums and maintaining their natural tone, which is a key part of achieving the desired sound.

💡Makeup Gain

Makeup gain is used in compressors to boost the overall level of the compressed signal to compensate for the volume reduction caused by compression. The script explains that makeup gain is essential in bringing the signal back up after compression, ensuring that the initial attack of the drum sound is emphasized without losing overall volume.

Highlights

The video discusses how to set compression for kick and snare drums.

A track is used to demonstrate the drum compression process.

The drums are grouped together for a similar compression approach.

Compression layers in a full rock drum mix are explained.

A free mixing cheat sheet with go-to settings for every track is offered.

Slow attack and fast release settings are recommended for close mic compression.

SSL Channel plugin is the preferred tool for drum tracks.

3:1 ratio is commonly used for drums in compression.

Visualization of compression effect on a waveform is demonstrated.

Makeup gain in compressors is explained to compensate for volume reduction.

Fast release allows the compressor to reset before the next drum hit.

Sustain and ring of snare are emphasized with fast release settings.

SSL Channel plugin is praised for its simplicity and sound quality.

A step-by-step guide on how to apply compression settings on any compressor is provided.

Drum bus compression adds extra punch and snap to the overall drum sound.

Parallel compression is introduced to achieve a modern, punchy drum sound.

A 'crush' bus is used to aggressively compress the drum sound for more attack.

Finding the sweet spot in compression to maintain tone and attack is discussed.

Mixing the compressed 'crush' bus with the regular drum bus is explained.

The compression approach is consistent and used as a template for every mix.

The video promises more content on magic compression settings for different instruments.

Transcripts

hey guys in this video I'm going to talk

about how to dial in your compression

settings for kick and snare so here's

the track I'm going to use to

demonstrate and for the sake of this

video I'm just going to solo out the

drums and I've muted the kick and snare

samples that I've added so here's what

the drums sound

like and I've also grouped the kick and

the snare together for this video

because I essentially approach them the

same from a compression standpoint but

there are multiple layers to compression

that's used in a full rock drum mix so

we'll dive in and cover all of that and

by the way I've got a free mixing cheat

sheet you can download and it's got the

go-to compression settings for every

track in your mix including kick and

snare and also go-to starting points for

EQ for every track in your mix so don't

worry about taking notes or remembering

this stuff I've got you covered there

you can download it for free at mix

cheat.com or there's a link down in the

description below so let's start with

how to compress the close mics on the

drum kit and the main thing you want to

remember here is slow attack fast

release all right and that slow attack

is really the crucial part because you

want to allow enough time for that

initial hit of the transient to

essentially get through the compressor

before it fully kicks in and reduces the

the level which is going to have the

effect of actually emphasizing the

transient of the hit and that's what

gives us the extra ra punch and that

attack that we're used to hearing on a

modern rock drum mix so let me uh show

you what I mean here so let's uh focus

on the snare

first so I'm using this SSL Channel

plugin uh for my compression this is

what I use on all of my drum tracks on

on every mix I love the way it sounds

and it's got really simple controls you

know pretty much just three or four

controls to dial in the compressor and

it doesn't give you like time options

for attack and release it's just either

fast or slow and then we have the Lee

knob here which is set the fastest it

can go uh 100 milliseconds so with this

bypass button on this is no

compression now let's hear it with the

[Music]

compression so you can hear right away

we have a sharper attack and that front

end punch is just emphasized and by the

way this is a 3:1 ratio that I'm using

3:1 4 to one um usually works fine for

drums and we've got this attack button

set to the slow setting and just to let

you hear what it sounds like if this

attack was too

[Music]

fast so with the faster attack it's

really squashing it a lot more because

uh it has to do a lot more gain

reduction because it's starting a lot

sooner it's not allowing that initial

transient to get through and maybe a

cool way to let you visualize this is

just actually process a waveform Okay so

we've just got a block of white noise

here now let me show you what happens if

we go ahead and process this with

compression so let's just copy the exact

same settings over and as you can see

this is just a block of audio there's no

transience here but if we go ahead and

process this and we can see visually on

the waveform that now we have some

Dynamics so what has happened here is

the signal has been allowed through

initially as the compressor starts

kicking in and turning down the signal

and it takes a certain amount of time

for that um signal to be reduced as much

as we want right and so that's why we

have this gradual slope here and we've

now got the front end of the signal

enhanced or kind of turned up and the

reason it's turned up is because there's

makeup gain in this in this compressor

right so the signal is getting turned

down and then the plugin is

automatically turning it back up to

compensate for the amount of volume

reduction that's happened so essentially

you know without the the makeup gain we

would have ended up something like that

right but because we've got the makeup

gain the signal is brought back up up

overall and now we've got the effect of

having turned up the initial attack of

the sound now let's visualize the same

thing on an actual snare track as well

so let's paste this over here and let's

pull up the audio Suite version again

okay so here's the original audio now if

we process it with the compression boom

you can see just flipping back and forth

we've turned up we've emphasized that

transient now what about the fast

release well a couple reasons for that I

mean number one you want the compressor

to fully let go before the next drum hit

right because you don't want the the

compressor to have turned down the gain

a certain amount and then it's still

kind of releasing and and returning the

signal back to original level you don't

want it somewhere in the middle there

before the next hit comes or the next

hit is not going to be full strength

full volume right you're not going to

get the same effect and the other part

is that you actually want the compressor

to return the signal back very quickly

because it's going to give you the

sustain again and I can demonstrate this

for you so let's go back to the course

now again listen to the the compression

settings that I've got dialed

in oops let me get the gate back

on and I'll mute my reverbs just to

really emphasize what I'm talking about

[Music]

here okay so if I make this release a

lot

[Music]

slower listen to the ring out on the

snare not much

faster release we get the sustain and

the Ring of the snare back and that

might seem like a small detail but in

the context of a mix it's actually

really important and the more we

compress as we go on which I'm going to

show you the more that ring is going to

be important that's what gives it a tone

and character in the mix and I'll show

you what this sounds like on the kick

drum as well so again we've got the

exact same settings 3:1 ratio slow

attack fast release here's no

compression with compression

and again it has the effect of actually

making it sound like he's hitting the

drum harder which is exactly what we

want now I really like this SSL Channel

plugin because number one it's very

simple and fast to dial in the

compressor settings there's very minimal

controls I'm not distracted by all this

visual stuff and and extra uh complexity

with it and it also just has a great

sound baked in you know whatever the the

actual tack time is in there uh it

sounds good on on drums especially on

Kick and snare but just to further drive

this home I'll show you how to dial this

in on any compressor here so let me

bypass the compression on the SSL

Channel and I'll bring up this uh stock

Avid compressor

[Music]

here so again we've got 3:1 ratio here

now let's start

compressing now we want to uh slow down

the

attack release around 8800 it should be

fine okay there's the gain reduction now

now everything's quiet here right

doesn't have the auto makeup gain so

let's turn that

[Music]

up sounds like it's almost squashing a

little too much there so let's slow this

down somewhere between 30 and 40

milliseconds usually pretty good for

drums

[Music]

so there you go we've achieved a very

similar sound a very similar effect I

just find this way more cumbersome and

difficult to dial in compared to an

analog model plugin like the SSL channel

so that's step one compressing the close

mics and this is not something that

changes from song to song all right I

don't mess around with different

compressor plugins or different

compression settings on my kick and

snare from from track to track when I'm

mixing a drum hit is a drum hit right it

you don't need to try different settings

on every mix this is in my template it's

the same all the time all right but you

know this clearly isn't enough

compression to give us that modern

explosive super Punchy drum sound so

let's go up a layer now to the drum bus

and I like to do just a couple more DB

of gain reduction on the drum kit as a

whole using essentially the same

settings so here's my drum bus

compressor it's the SSL bus compressor

this time but you can see we've still

got attack uh slowest it can go 30

milliseconds uh fastest release time

same release time as the channel and

it's lower ratio this time two to one so

I'm not trying to be really aggressive

here I just want to add a little bit of

extra punch and snap to the front end of

the drums so it's bypass

now I'll AB it one more time for

you so not doing much I like to only do

a couple DB here just to level off the

hits a little bit make it a little more

consistent and it does add a little bit

more front end attack to the drums there

but I want to keep this drum bus

sounding pretty natural so it's more

controlled and glued together now but we

still don't have that really explosive

Punchy energy and that's where parallel

compression comes in so I've got a

second drum bus here which I call crush

and as the name implies I'm really going

to crush this Channel with compression

so it's got all the drums going to it

now again same bus compressor here the

SSL bus compressor same attack and

release so still slowest attack 30 100

millisecond uh release but this time

we're using a 10:1 ratio so we really

want to start uh getting that pumpy

aggressive compression so check out how

this

sounds

so kind of pumpy in on natural but we're

really getting a lot of that front end

attack let me dial this in from scratch

just so you can really hear what I'm

listening for and I'll solo just the

kick and snare into

it and I'm trying to find a sweet spot

and I find it easier to just hear this

on the snare itself so so check this

out so as we start getting uh more gain

reduction we start getting that front

end attack but at a certain point it

actually starts to kind of Choke out the

tone and makes it sound kind of bad so

listen to

this so to my ears that's too much it's

a little too slammed and choked out so

if we back that off we're going to find

a sweet spot where we get a lot of that

front end attack from the compression

but we still have some tone to the drum

and it still sounds you know somewhat

okay so right here it's not

[Music]

enough here it's too

[Music]

much so right around there we've got the

smack we've got the attack but we still

have some tone it's still sounds

somewhat natural and let's add the kick

back

in

and the whole

kit and now we have that character that

we're used to hearing on modern rock

records right that really Snappy Punchy

front end

attack and then from there it's just a

matter of mixing that back in with your

regular drum

bus

and just to demonstrate this again I'll

show you how to dial in this compression

on just a stock uh compressor plugin so

let's pull this up let's go 10:1 ratio

slow down the attack a

bit all

right

so that's how you would dial this in

with any other compressor and that

completes the the stack of compression

that gives me that Punchy mainstream

drum sound that we all want to hear and

I want to emphasize this does not change

all right this compression approach is

baked into my mixing template so I

import this template on uh pretty much

every track that I mix and I don't

experiment with different compression

settings like a drum is a drum a drum

hit is a drum hit transients are pretty

much all the same drum to drum you don't

need to experiment with different

compression settings okay this is what

gives you this sound and this approach

also will work for electronic drum

sounds uh EDM type stuff if you're

trying to enhance the punch and the

attack and the smack and really get it

popping and exploding out of the

speakers this is how you do it with

compression all right hope that helps

guys I'm just getting started with this

magic compression settings video series

so if you want to see more of these let

me know in the comments below and let me

know which instruments you want me to

tackle and in the meantime I've got a

whole series of Magic EQ frequency

videos already done for you and you can

check those out right over

[Music]

here