Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[musicman1705]

Hi

I am a guitarist and not a great one either.I am also still learning to trust my ears in the studio as i am an even worst recording engeneerI am still trying to find my way around jamstix2 and my studio also.The Question i am asking is realated mixing jamstix drums with the mix .When you use jamstix to record your drum part of the mix.Do you have to make up any kind of sub mix to make the drum seem fatter.
I can,t help but notice other peoples mixes.I saw Five audio drum tracks(snare/toms/kick/highhat/symbals) and then one other track(submix) this creates a natural reverb room effect,right?.
Anyhow if i am starting a new song with jamstix2 in Automatic mode,say on track 1(recording midi in case i want to make changes).Then fine tune it myself (add little Comp/verb and a few other small FX changes).Once this is done is this all i have to do to get full sounding drums? Or do i break down the drum track in to seperate parts kick/snare/toms/highhats/, ect and then make a submix?.
I am still learning to trust my ears when recording and right now they don,t seem to trustworthy,LOL.So i Ask these question hoping to get some good direction on recording and mixing drums and the diffrent ways it can be done.Thanks all.


P.S
I am just trying to find out what are some of the best ways to get great sounding drum track in the studio mix.

[sammy24]

Loaded question. For most "real" drum production, each element is processed separately. Meaning the kick gets its own processing , such as any eq or compression, etc. u might want. Then on to the snare, toms. In a typical studio recording setup, the kick is often recorded with two mics, and then u mix these two sounds to taste. So some people process these two tracks together, a kick "subgroup". And some ppl. process them separately, and then find the proper balance of levels between them.

Same goes with snare, which is often recorded w a mic on top, and a mic underneath. U can process the toms all together as well, a toms subgroup. If you work with a program like BFD 2, for example, u will have a good idea what a typical studio drums session look like. With Jamstix internal sounds, it's a little different, but u can process the different elements separately like i was talking about earlier.

EQ and compression have to be applied separately, pretty much, because otherwise tonal or dynamic changes you make to improve the kick will affect the snare negatively, or vice versa. It is hard enough to fine-tune the tonal aspects of different instruments when you are working with them one at a time!

Btw, if you are looking to improve your engineering skills, check out Dave Moulton's Golden Ears CD training course. It is excellent. I am working on it, it's the kind of thing u need to set aside time for every day, but if u do u will definitely start to improve your listening skills, drastically. Hope this helped a little.

[Doublestop]

Musicman1705,

Check out ProfRhino's drumsound tutorials. You will see a sticky in this forum. He shows two ways of recording jamstix drums, one simple, one more complex. Give them I go and they should help you to get the sound you want. I found them a godsend when I began working with jamstix and Cubase.

Good luck.

[musicman1705]

Thanks for the info and direction guys.Sometime the info you seek is right under your nose in the form of a "Sticky" .I should open my eyes before i walk into something .Thanks Doublestop for directions.The drum sound much more realistic and fuller.I like the fact that i can also still tweek seperate drum parts in the kit window of Jam2.