Advice on mixing drum loops

[GFunkEra408]

Does anyone have experience with mixing Drum loop tracks and can possibly give some advice?

I have a drum loop in my mix that consist of a kick, snare, and some high hats .. and I want to know how I would go about to mixing this with everything else as it’s just not one instrument on a single channel. Usually I try to just add everything separately but sometimes there’s a drum loop that I really like and want to use it.

 

[The Funk Junkie]

Theoretically, the loop should sound pretty good on it's own, right? I'd try not to make massive changes beyond some slight eq tweaks to fit into your track and possible some compression or saturation to beef it up (only if needed!). If it just doesn't mix right at all you could double up some parts to make just the kick or snare thicker or you could chop it into pieces (kick, snare, hats) and try to mix them separately if you have to.

 

[hazedreamsrain]

Always tougher when it's all on one track, hopefully the balance between the drums themselves is solid. Depends on what you're ultimately going for but EQ, multiband compression, and analog emulation like VTM all come to mind if I wanted to juice up a drum loop

 

[GFunkEra408]

Theoretically, the loop should sound pretty good on it's own, right? I'd try not to make massive changes beyond some slight eq tweaks to fit into your track and possible some compression or saturation to beef it up (only if needed!). If it just doesn't mix right at all you could double up some parts to make just the kick or snare thicker or you could chop it into pieces (kick, snare, hats) and try to mix them separately if you have to.

I’ve started to double up on the parts I want more emphasis on like the kick and snar and it seems to really help!

Always tougher when it's all on one track, hopefully the balance between the drums themselves is solid. Depends on what you're ultimately going for but EQ, multiband compression, and analog emulation like VTM all come to mind if I wanted to juice up a drum loop

Your guys are right it should sound pretty good on it’s own and in theroy shouldn’t need any additional eq’ing. I’ve struggled with this for almost a year compressing and eqing sounds that already sound good. Smh ??* oh well lesson learned.

 

[thasilent4real]

Two track drums are always a pain in the ass. And I would always try to find a way to have them all tracked out. But you already know that.


When I'm confronted with just the drum loop, first, I try to remake it with my own sounds, when I have the time & possibilities.

But when I am left with only the loop, I always treat it like if it was the drum buss channel. So I usually put a compressor & an EQ on it.

 

[Nytshade]

Great advice has already been shared. But I would chop it and break it apart to have all the sounds separate. That way you'll have much more flexibility.

I wouldn't recommend anything else either than that.

 

[GFunkEra408]

Two track drums are always a pain in the ass. And I would always try to find a way to have them all tracked out. But you already know that.


When I'm confronted with just the drum loop, first, I try to remake it with my own sounds, when I have the time & possibilities.

But when I am left with only the loop, I always treat it like if it was the drum buss channel. So I usually put a compressor & an EQ on it.

Great advice has already been shared. But I would chop it and break it apart to have all the sounds separate. That way you'll have much more flexibility.

I wouldn't recommend anything else either than that.

Thanks y’all. No doubt, I’ve either been splitting up the drums to their own tracks, or just straight up putting my own drum sounds on top and replicating it.

 

[chris carter]

I get loops once in a while. When it happens I usually splice it up into individual hits and move them to separate tracks. A pain, but it typically gives me enough control to make it work with the mix better.

 

[alienaircraftmusic]

yea, don't use drum loops

 

[jiveassassin]

Depending on the sound you want you can eq the loop in various ways.
Using a 8 band graphic equalizer I often ( and again this depends on the loop your using ) pull up on the low end and then either usually pull up on the the mids ( depending on how I want the snare tweaked) or leave them flat and raise the high end.
Sometimes I scoop the mids as well.
Other times I have tripled the loop, with the first pumped on the bass end, and pull the mids and high end all the way down. The second track is all mids with scooped low and high ends, and the last all high ends, this allows you to mix the individual sounds a little more some times , however it does not always work, at times resulting in some phase issues.
I addition to this you can create a hybrid, like I will sometimes add a kick and snare or just kick to a loop, in those cases I often raise up the highs to accentuate the hats. and scoop the mids or low end.

 

[djtaynoel44]

Great advice has already been shared. But I would chop it and break it apart to have all the sounds separate. That way you'll have much more flexibility.

I wouldn't recommend anything else either than that.

That's the best way. Especially so you can mix the drums individually to get a more professional sound

 

[GFunkEra408]

I get loops once in a while. When it happens I usually splice it up into individual hits and move them to separate tracks. A pain, but it typically gives me enough control to make it work with the mix better.

Thanks Chris- it is a pain in the ass.l, but it’s a reality that I may get drum loops and be expected to mix it.

yea, don't use drum loops

I try not to in my own production, but sometimes it happens and I’m stuck spending time splitting them up or trying to replicate the loop.

Depending on the sound you want you can eq the loop in various ways.
Using a 8 band graphic equalizer I often ( and again this depends on the loop your using ) pull up on the low end and then either usually pull up on the the mids ( depending on how I want the snare tweaked) or leave them flat and raise the high end.
Sometimes I scoop the mids as well.
Other times I have tripled the loop, with the first pumped on the bass end, and pull the mids and high end all the way down. The second track is all mids with scooped low and high ends, and the last all high ends, this allows you to mix the individual sounds a little more some times , however it does not always work, at times resulting in some phase issues.
I addition to this you can create a hybrid, like I will sometimes add a kick and snare or just kick to a loop, in those cases I often raise up the highs to accentuate the hats. and scoop the mids or low end.

Great advise. This does make sense to me as a way to work around it. I do appreciate you also saying it doesn’t always work which also makes sense to me cool brotha thank you.