Mixing Drums 101?

Since I don't use live drums I'm not going to comment on the miking techniques other than to say, if you like the sound, that's really all that matters. 

Be careful cloning tracks.... you can get some sound problems start to happen with that method. It is better to record the tracks 2 times..... but I can immediately see the difficulties of doing that with a drummer. 

WhiskeyBurn


Recorded mic'd drums for the 1st time this weekend and began incorporating them into a mix using MC6. The set up was as follows: 1. 5 total mics 2. 2 Overheads 3. 1 on Snare 4. 1 on Bass 5. used a ribbon mic about 15 ft away. Not sure of the mics, they're part of the drummer's mic kit, except for the Ribbon mic which was a CAD. Ran those inputs into a Tascam 2488 NEO, and exported those tracks to MC6 computer. Very happy with the quality of the tracks. I set the Bass drum on "Center", the Snare on "Center", panned the left OH "100% Left", and the right OH "100% Right", and room Mic on "Center". Cloned the snare and bass, and sent all those tracks to their own bus and added a limiter. Very happy with the result, but seeing as this is my 1st time doing this method with drums I figured I'd ask for any advice on techniques. Maybe a bit of delay on the Overheads? I know that there is not a "Cookie Cutter" method for any of this stuff, but thought I could pick up some guidelines on what to try. Thanks!

 
most of what you've done here sounds good, however why did you clone the bass & snare tracks?  if you simply want to run parallel compression there's a better way to do that using SENDS.  if you cloned and time shifted them to make them "fatter" then you're introducing comb filtering and personally I wouldn't do that.
 
for running parallel compression, just insert a SEND on each track of the bass and snare to a NEW bus and add your limiter/compressor there.  you can then adjust the send level if you want to get better control over the blend.
 
for the overheads, a delay might work out nicely if you don't over do it.  I'd also compress them pretty heavily.
 
you might also want to add some transient shaping to the snare and kick.  there's some freebies out there available, I think.  I use the ones that come with X1 myself.

if you need to bump the volume use a bit of compression..... it will sound better in the long run. 

another option is to turn the other things down a few db.  that works well. 

Turn the guitar down? BLASPHEMY! :)

Normally I tend to agree with that sentiment being a guitarist and all...... but.... in recording..... sometimes that is what is needed. You gotta do what you gotta do. 

You have a threshold which the loudest instrument in the mix can not exceed. That alone, dictates that everything else must be lower than the loudest.  Set the bass and drums first. Most of the audio power is going to be in those lower registers anyway. 

Next bring in the vocals and be sure they are clear and clean. Then add everything else. 

Use busses to group things. I often place the bass and drums in the same buss so that I can easily turn both up or down as a group one I get their balance set. 

If you take your time and set the levels properly you will not have to resort to compressors to get the various instruments into the mix at "proper" levels. Guitars however, do use compressors for effect so I do understand that. 

It is so much better to simply pop one compressor into the master buss to bump the entire, superbly balanced mix a few DB at the end. Truth be told, I rarely use compressors in the tracks and just a light compression on the master. Get your balance right and let the listener use the volume know to turn it up as loud as they want. Your job is to give them the source material in the mix that allows them to do that and have it sound good...I mean really good.... when they do.