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So you have received your raw drum tracks as WAV files from an online session drummer, an advantageous way of doing things. But how should you proceed when it’s time to mix? In this brief tutorial, I will outline several drum processing concepts. Bear in mind that if you ask 100 Engineers how to mix a track, you’ll definitely receive 100 differing opinions on what’s right and what’s wrong. The bottom line is that if it sounds good, it is good. Whatever you have to do to convey the emotion of a performance is the right thing to do. I will also assume most of you will be using a DAW (Pro Tools, Logic, DP, Reaper, etc…) of some sort. With that said, its time to hip you to some basic approaches to get you started. I will begin with the topic of gating.

Gating is essentially silencing sections of audio that have no pertinent information (aka bleed) so as to present a more cleanly defined track. For example, you may want to gate the tom tracks so that they are heard only when they are hit, as opposed to howling sympathetically whenever the snare is hit. If this annoys you, simply gate the toms. By silencing audio on the track when the toms aren’t being struck, you’ll produce a cleaner and tighter drum track overall. You can do this by using a noise gate as an insert (hardware or software plug-in) or by drawing down the volume via automation in a DAW or even muting whole sections in between actual hits. Each technique produces a different effect on the overall sound, so experiment and see what works for you. Some guys will gate everything but the overheads, hi-hats and room mics. This can be great for R&B, Funk and Progressive Rock. Experimentation is key.

Conversely, some engineers feel that drums should ring freely and by gating you run the risk of killing the “vibe” of a drum kit being played by a real drummer in a real room. I won’t argue this point as it’s a valid one and the decision to gate or not depends entirely on the type of material being performed and what you’re going for aesthetically. With that said, I generally wouldn’t gate anything for a traditional Jazz number or anything requiring a Bonham-esque vibe. Here, the ringing and overtones produced by having all the microphones wide open contribute to the overall presence of the kit and the air that surrounds each element can make for a huge sounding drum track. Although no approach is ideal for all circumstances, this is the certainly the most “natural” sounding approach. Think of gating as tight and dry while not gating as big and airy. Again… experiment and have fun.

Look for more of my drum track processing tutorials on this site. These tutorials will help you with such topics as compression, parallel compression, ambiance, and equalization.

Thai Long Ly is a professional recording engineer, mixer, and bass player based in Los Angeles. Ly and session drummer Shay Godwin provide master quality, custom drum tracks online at eDrumSessions.com.

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