Getting Big Drum Sound without Drowning out the Mix

This is a problem I've always had - I'm sure its a rookie mistake.. When I get my drums, (bass and snare) sounding just right, with the amount of pop I want, etc. and it all sounds good on my monitors, it almost always seems like the drums way overpower the rest of the mix on a home or car stereo... And if I try and fix it by compressing the whole mix, I have the problem of the drums making the other sh*t duck out...

Are there any tips anyone can share for making the drums pop, but still fit right in the mix?

Thanks
J.

mctravel wrote:This is a problem I've always had - I'm sure its a rookie mistake.. When I get my drums, (bass and snare) sounding just right, with the amount of pop I want, etc. and it all sounds good on my monitors, it almost always seems like the drums way overpower the rest of the mix on a home or car stereo... And if I try and fix it by compressing the whole mix, I have the problem of the drums making the other sh*t duck out...

Are there any tips anyone can share for making the drums pop, but still fit right in the mix?

Thanks
J.

dog no offense but turn down the channel your kick is on, sounds gay but if it helps, close your eyes with your hand on the fader.

DOVESKI wrote:

mctravel wrote:This is a problem I've always had - I'm sure its a rookie mistake.. When I get my drums, (bass and snare) sounding just right, with the amount of pop I want, etc. and it all sounds good on my monitors, it almost always seems like the drums way overpower the rest of the mix on a home or car stereo... And if I try and fix it by compressing the whole mix, I have the problem of the drums making the other sh*t duck out...

Are there any tips anyone can share for making the drums pop, but still fit right in the mix?

Thanks
J.

dog no offense but turn down the channel your kick is on, sounds gay but if it helps, close your eyes with your hand on the fader.

word that closing your eyes shit really works

its crucial. people get distracted by what they see.

get your kick peaking at say -6db....build everything around that, if it still goes over 0 db when everythings is, rip it all down and start again wth the kick lower.....
eae cd and note how low the kick is...get your beat at that level and see if your kick is louder or quiter than the source...

try and match it and do a similar thing with your snare...just get rough levels- you should rely on meter readings but knowing that the main elements of your beat is not sending your track over 0db gives you the headroom to mix everything else in balance...then when you turn it up the bass is there but the top and middle are balanced with it

greg

try mixing at a lower than normal volume level. I mean turn it down as a reference. If you can still hear everything at a lower volume then you should be o.k. I had the same prob when i was mixing on house speakers (which is almost pointless), it was a trick i used that seemed to help out a bit until i could afford monitors.

Hey thanks a lot for all the advice! I'm still working on it...

xx

jonathan morris wrote:try mixing at a lower than normal volume level. I mean turn it down as a reference. If you can still hear everything at a lower volume then you should be o.k. I had the same prob when i was mixing on house speakers (which is almost pointless), it was a trick i used that seemed to help out a bit until i could afford monitors.

That is excellent advice....if you can clearly hear all aspects of your mix at low volumes it will usually translate well to other listening systems. Be sure to crank it one time too, just to make sure your highs are not too high and your lows are not too low.....basically low volumes for mixing - higher levels for fine tuning EQ's