How to mix drums well in a mix!?

well first off....lovin the sample hhaha

but when you sample stuff..or compose anything in general....you want everything to sound like it is part of the same track..

You can clearly hear the sample, pianos, drums, and bass...and they all sound separate... As if you were a DJ and had each of these tracks on record, and were looping/scratching them all together or something... You can tell they're not 1 whole.

So what you'd want to do...is to mix the drums into the sample, so it sounds like YOUR drums..are part of the sample. Compression and EQ.

Same with the bass...When your bass comes in...it sounds great...but its not mixed well in the sense that it doesnt fit in with the track. In my opinion, it seems too up front..You want to bring it back a little bit and have it rest at the bottom (low end) of your mix...You acheive this all by compression and EQ...hope that helped a little bit.
 
I never really used compression alot because i never understood it but how do I compress the drum to do that? and how do I adjust the EQ too?
 
The snare is a bit dry and 'short'. The 808 kick is too loud, distorting a bit, and tuned too high in my opinion. I think if you getter better monitors, you will be able to hear the mistakes in the mix.
 
ScorchinBeats said:
The snare is a bit dry and 'short'. The 808 kick is too loud, distorting a bit, and tuned too high in my opinion. I think if you getter better monitors, you will be able to hear the mistakes in the mix.
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I hear the mistakes but i don't know how to fix it! i could hear the drums being too distorted and so but i don't know how to "calm" it down... Even if i turn down the volume it don't sound as good.. mixing drums was a problem for me since i started making beats.. any tips?
 
If the mix is bad....Turning the volume up/down will not help anything... In your case..The drums.. If they're distorted or whatever, and don't sound good IN THE MIX...turning them up/down will not solve the problem as the problem rests within the EQ and or Compression.. First, take a look at the "sticky" threads in this Mixing & Mastering forum. There is alot of good information on the subject. Secondly, use google/youtube and search for how to mix, eq, compress, etc. Compression alone can make or break a track...and EQ assures that each sound/instrument is in its own respective frequency range..Read and watch as many videos/articles as you can to learn. Its nothing that you'll get over night...mixing is an art within itself and takes time, practice, and patience to become good at it.
 
quantumleap said:
If the mix is bad....Turning the volume up/down will not help anything... In your case..The drums.. If they're distorted or whatever, and don't sound good IN THE MIX...turning them up/down will not solve the problem as the problem rests within the EQ and or Compression.. First, take a look at the "sticky" threads in this Mixing & Mastering forum. There is alot of good information on the subject. Secondly, use google/youtube and search for how to mix, eq, compress, etc. Compression alone can make or break a track...and EQ assures that each sound/instrument is in its own respective frequency range..Read and watch as many videos/articles as you can to learn. Its nothing that you'll get over night...mixing is an art within itself and takes time, practice, and patience to become good at it.
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thank you very much
 
no problem.

another thing you can do..which is how i started, as well as probably quite a few other producers here..... find a sample of one of your favorite beats... and re-make the beat....then mess with the mix until it starts to sound as close to the original as you can.. what this does, it at the least...gives you an idea how the original producer/engineer mixed the track. doing this is also helpful when learning how to sample. like when i started...i'd get samples that Alchemist and 9th Wonder used...and I would remake the beat just to get an idea of how the sampling was done..When I got a little better, instead of remaking the original beat...I'd do my own thing with the sample, then focus on the mix and try to get the drums to bang, while resting nicely with the rest of the mix.....and it does help. for me, it was great practice. and even to this day, every time i sit down and make a beat...literally, every time....its a learning experience. so with the combination of doing stuff like that, and reading/watching videos...you'll learn alot and eventually develop more skill, a better ear, and overall better sound.
 
Drums normally need to be treated as part of a collective whole when it comes to making them blend "into," the music.

This usually involves careful use of an EQ, my favorite currently is Fab Filter Pro Q.

As well a compressor definitely helps to bring out transients in different ways that make the drums sit better in a mix as well.

There is an entire world of theory, application and discussion about compression, but I won't bother trying to go into depth.

If your song has a bass line then the kick and the bass need to co exist peacefully. EQ IMHO is much more important than compression in this situation. Compression is just going to showcase how good of a job you did or didn't do with your EQ.

If you use 808s you MUST be careful with the ones with long tails, the subsonic freqs can eat up a shit ton of headroom, you need to carefully EQ these kicks not just for a "blended," sound but also overall headroom in the mix, so that you can present the frequencies of the 808 that matter but also so that the garbage in the sample doesn't put your mix in park headroom wise. A properly EQ'd 808 will hit and have body however, leave room for everything else. This is part of the issue that you speak of regarding muddying up the mix.

Learning how to do this is not something you learn over night and if you are in a hurry to get these instrumentals/songs put together you are much better off hiring a mixing engineer who can get the job done quickly and make you sound like God among men :)

Peace
Illumination
 
Illacov... nice post! +1 to that... compression will show how well you eq'd... very true... yet it is still necessary for drums in terms of beats or electronic music... you want to set a compressor so that it is only compressing the loudest parts, usually the kick and the snare and nothing else, it can make your hi hats and cymbals way too loud... To get the lower parts louder, and to bring out the tail end, and even give the high end some sparkle... do some parallel compression with a small saturation/distortion and a Hp filter or eq cutting out stuff under 100hz so not to distort the smooth timbre of the subs, which make them easier to mix
 
illacov said:
Drums normally need to be treated as part of a collective whole when it comes to making them blend "into," the music.

This usually involves careful use of an EQ, my favorite currently is Fab Filter Pro Q.

As well a compressor definitely helps to bring out transients in different ways that make the drums sit better in a mix as well.

There is an entire world of theory, application and discussion about compression, but I won't bother trying to go into depth.

If your song has a bass line then the kick and the bass need to co exist peacefully. EQ IMHO is much more important than compression in this situation. Compression is just going to showcase how good of a job you did or didn't do with your EQ.

If you use 808s you MUST be careful with the ones with long tails, the subsonic freqs can eat up a shit ton of headroom, you need to carefully EQ these kicks not just for a "blended," sound but also overall headroom in the mix, so that you can present the frequencies of the 808 that matter but also so that the garbage in the sample doesn't put your mix in park headroom wise. A properly EQ'd 808 will hit and have body however, leave room for everything else. This is part of the issue that you speak of regarding muddying up the mix.

Learning how to do this is not something you learn over night and if you are in a hurry to get these instrumentals/songs put together you are much better off hiring a mixing engineer who can get the job done quickly and make you sound like God among men :)

Peace
Illumination
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Great post!

---------- Post added at 09:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:19 PM ----------
Isturite said:
Illacov... nice post! +1 to that... compression will show how well you eq'd... very true... yet it is still necessary for drums in terms of beats or electronic music... you want to set a compressor so that it is only compressing the loudest parts, usually the kick and the snare and nothing else, it can make your hi hats and cymbals way too loud... To get the lower parts louder, and to bring out the tail end, and even give the high end some sparkle... do some parallel compression with a small saturation/distortion and a Hp filter or eq cutting out stuff under 100hz so not to distort the smooth timbre of the subs, which make them easier to mix
Click to expand...

I understood you for a second and then you started speaking alien! I know some of the terms but i haven't really ventured into compression so i know very little about it
 
I try to mix the rest of the mix around the drums/bass/vocals. After I have those three I add in more little by little
 
I put the levels where they sound best - eq out anything that bothers me - eq up anything I want to be more prominent. I'll compress things that could use a different overall shape. I'll use saturation if I want some grit. I usually use reverb and delay, sometimes in conjunction with the aforementioned effects to create a sense of space and rhythm. Sometimes I'll use special effects to excite things or make something more unique sounding. I always do a lot of listening. And a lot of thinking. I usually have to negotiate between thinking and moving by instinct. Listening is very important.

Mixing is mixing is mixing.
 
I [am still fairly new to this, so don't take my advice to heart] LOVE multi-band compressors!! I prefer multi-band compressors to conventional single-band compressors because of their subtle equalizing properties... You can choose to compress the low end differently than the high end, or choose to compress the mids and leave the highs and lows alone. Multi-bands can also add a lot of color to a sound .After I compress it, I usually use an EQ to fine-tune the sound.
 
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