Compression techniques for single drum track

Hi Experts,
                  Can anyone offer some pointers towards how best to use compression for a single MIDI drum audio track,ie where all the instruments are contained within the same .wav file.I normally break out the instruments into individual tracks,but just by way of a learning exercise,on this occasion I've bounced all the drum parts from the TTS-1 Channel 10 into one track.

This obviously presents a different challenge,and is probably not the best approach,however..

Is the use of a multi-band compressor the way forward here?

All ideas welcome.

Many Thanks

NeilC
Warrington
UK

It all depends on the frum track you have and what you are trying to achieve. Sometimes paralell compression (bus the drums to two separete buses and compresse one a lot then bring it up under the original) can sound great. For normal bus compression I've gotten great results with LA3A emulations as well as the more obvious SSL, Neve 33609 and API 2500 bus compressors. Keep the attack not to fast to let the initial transients through and match the release so it's recovered before the next hit. If you need to tame cymbals or something then a multiband is the way to go, try to sweep with an EQ at first to find the offending frequencys.

Lege's suggestion on parallel compression is a good one. I always do that on drums. With parallel compression you can really squash the daylights out of it, then mix it back with the raw drums to keep the dynamics. For that, I like to use Sonitus > Compressor > "Drum Destroyer".

The problem, though, is when compressing a single drum track, the kick drum sometimes becomes overpowering. That can be good if you're going for the John Bonham sound. But if that's not your style, you need to split it up so that the kick doesn't get out of hand. Multi-band is one way, though I've never used it. Another way is (if you're doing parallel compression) to put a hipass filter on the compression bus and chop off anything below, say, 300Hz. Now mix that back with the raw drums, and voila... cool compression on the kit while the kick stays raw & crisp.

Hi Guys,
             The parallel compression method looks interesting,so I tried Spaceduck's suggestion using the Sonitus compressor "Drum Destroyer"
setting,which proved very effective.
 
One question I have with regard to this method,is there any rule of thumb as far as the relative output settings of the non-compressed vs compressed buses? They can both obviously be lowered to keep the summed level below clipping,but should the compressed output have
an ideal level below that of the dry signal before summing?
 
Cheers
 
Neil
Warrington
UK

bristol's right, the idea is to provide MEAT with the compressed track, and dynamics and attack with the non processed track.

the compressed track should only be 'filler' underneath the original track.
there is a sweet spot, your job is to find it.