Buss compression to rescue
dull and lifeless drums

Drums are often said to be the most difficult instrument to record. Mostly it’s because they are a combination of multiple instruments and the amount of microphones used to record them can often prove to be problematic. Not enough microphones, bad room sound, phasing problem etc. 

But if you have a fairly well recorded drum kit, there are certain things you can do in the mix-down stage to make them sound even better.

Buss compression is a great technique for giving more power to your drums. Buss compression is what some people refer to as the New York compression trick.

The classic trick of New York compression is sending the drum tracks via an aux send to a stereo buss, inserting a compressor that crunches the dynamics right out and then positioning the buss fader right under the normal drums.

Tighter drums - more dynamics

With buss compression you get tighter drums, without losing the dynamics.

Say you have recorded a decent drumkit. A drum-kit that sounds pretty good on it’s own but seems to lack a little bit of punch. You want that punch you hear on the records. Maybe using the New York buss compression trick will add more oomph to your drum-mix.

Here is an example using buss compression.

The first four bars is a normal drumloop without any processing.

The second four is an example of a compression ratio of 8:1, threshold at -20 dB, fairly fast attack and a medium release.

Notice how the compressor makes the drums more punchier without necessarily taking out the dynamics of the drums. You would usually mix the compression under the normal drums, but for the sake of show and tell I decided to crank it up a bit.

Also be aware that this a drum loop, not individually recorded tracks so it was easier for me to demonstrate.

A Few tips

• If you are not working with loops you can vary the amount of each drum that goes to the compressor. By sending different amounts of each element you can get a totally different sound.

• You can switch it on and off during various parts of the song for an even more dynamic feel. Think verse/chorus.

• Crushing the room-mics down can give an interesting feel.

• You can have multiple sends of different parts of the drum-kit, only toms for a certain compression feel and send the overheads to a different compressor all together.

• You can send your compressed drums to a reverb for interesting results.

Experiment with your compressor

There are a lot of ways to use this compression technique, and this trick is only meant to spark the idea to experiment.

So next time you’re in a mixing rut, with lifeless drums, try using this tip and see if it helps.

If these tips helped you, they will probably help others around, so be sure to share your discoveries using the toolbar below.

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