Do Drums Need To Be Mixed?

Have you applied any compression / E.Q / effects processing on the way in?

If you haven't then I imagine that there might be somethings that need to be looked at. If your really happy with the sound of the kit because you managed to capture it really well then just keep it as it is!

However I always use a bit of compression on individual components of the kit such as kick and snare mics and sometimes on the overall kit to tighten the sound and avoid clipping/distortion.

But if it ain't broken, don't fix it.
 
Maybe not individually processed, if you like the sound of it.. but they need to mesh well with the rest of the song.

If you don't want the sound of your drum to change, you need to mix the rest of your song around it. If you don't want the rest of your song to change, you need to mix the drum into it. You'll usually be somewhere in the middle of those two extremes lol. You might give up a little of your drums to your bassline or melody, or vice versa.
 
Short answer. Yes. You should not only be concerned about your drums but the sound of the overall mix.
 
Wondering If Drums Even Need To Be Mixed If There Full And Banging?

Impossible to answer. A great arrangement makes mixing much easier and I've definitely mixed tracks where I've rarely needed to touch the drums with any eq or compression. All depends on the arrangement.
 
If the drums are banging along with all the other instruments, then they are good! but if they are brought down by the other sounds, then yes they should be mixed. Almost all the time, when you add instruments, they soften the drums, so you need to mix it to bring the drums back out
 
What you may be suggesting is that they barely need to be processed. In my best work this is always nearly the case (as what I have done in the first place is good enough for the end result). Just get the levels right in the overall mix and leave it at that. No point adding extra stuff if you are already happy with the sound.
 
I agree with everyone here, if they are samples and you want the drums to be the prominent instrument in the mix, don't over process them...but you do want to cut frequencies accordingly so that they don't mask other instruments (especially the vocals), saturate the low end, and sit in the mix properly.

What I do with my drum tracks (minus the cymbals) is send them all to a bus, and then aux that bus to another track and smash the shit out of it (google NYC compression). This makes them breathe more in the mix IMO.

Lastly, if I'm mixing a hip hop track with samples, and want more of that "live" drum sound, I'll create a virtual room, sending all of my drum tracks (not the NYC track) to another aux track and put a room verb on it, calculating decays accordingly to the BPM of the track.

Breakdown Teknique Productions | Official site of Kansas City
 
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I;m sorry but that guy seams like he dont know what he is talking about. It's not the processor that gives them MPC its sound its the DAC stage it has. Also he seams to me like a bit of a sales man. As for the Drums of course they need to be mixed. unless they are already that sound your looking for.
 
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