Tips for Mixing the Low End of Drum Loops

submitted by David Glenn Recording on 04/12/15 1

The Mix Academy: bit.ly/mixacademy Learn to mix hip-hop: mixinghiphop.com Learn compression: learncompression.com Improve your ears: quiztones.com Mixing articles: theproaudiofiles.com How to rework and enhance the low end of multiple drums loops to sound better in the mix. Tutorial by David Glenn: davidglennrecording Software/Plugins: - Avid Pro Tools - Blue Cat's PatchWork - Sonic Academy's Nicky Romero Kick - iZotope Alloy 2 (transient shaper) — Transcript: Hey what's up guys, David Glenn of davidglennrecording.com & theproaudiofiles.com. In today's tutorial I'm gonna talk to you about how to enhance your low end. In specifically this video, we're gonna talk about enhancing your low end when you're working with loops. You've got maybe sometimes a loop that comes in or several loops — in this case we have 3 where there's bottom, there's kick, there's 808 or sub frequencies in those loops, and they're not quite jiving together — not working well together, or they're not working well with your kicks, or bass. So we've got 3 loops in this song. They're all doing different things so they work really nicely together — I'm gonna solo them for you. But first we're gonna bypass my processing. [unprocessed loops] So in these loops we've got some low end stuff going on. We've got one, I hear kind of a soft fluffy 808 wannabe kind of thing going on. The other thing I hear is a tighter, kind of punchy kick that — I say punchy — but it wants to be punchy. And those two aren't working really well together for me and it doesn't fit with the song the way that they're going. So I took the liberty like I often do, I'll take risks whenever clients send me work. But I wanted to redesign the low end, so what I did is approached these kicks. I'm gonna play one more time actually without my processing, I'll add my processing in, and then we'll go over the kicks. [loops with and without processing] So I pulled open and used applied Alloy 2's multi-band transient designer. You can control the bands, you've got the 3 to play with. I increased attack, removed sustain. I wanted it to be tighter, feel a bit of movement within it. And I did that for all 3 to tempo. I sucked all the low end out of everything, so I've got a couple of EQ's on here, I'm pulling all the low end out. I don't want any of that because I'm going to redesign it. The first thing I heard was the punch kick, so I pulled open my new favorite plugin for kicks. For Pro Tools users, you have to have something like Bluecat's Patchwork to pull in VST's. They don't make an AAX yet — to my knowledge I think they still don't. So Nicky Romero's KICK from Sonic Academy. Incredible plugin. You can take your kicks — I'll probably do a whole tutorial just on this plugin — but you can design your own kicks. So you can take the attack, the sustain, the release — you can control of that — you can set it the way you want it. You can increase or decrease your length, you can automate this thing. There's all kinds of great craze stuff you can do. You can pick your click sounds, you can drive it, etc. I wanted a kick that would fit this track better than what was in the loops. [processed loops with punchy kick] To top it off, we had that kind of sub pulsing 808. So I recreated that too. Let's pull open another instance of KICK. This thing is incredible. I just boosted the sustain all the way up, the length of it is at 3000 it's at max. [processed loops + punchy kick + sub 808] This is a nice big beautiful low end that I think I may have tweaked a little bit with some EQ. I gave it a little 100 Hz, and pulled out some mud, and then a boost at 30 just because it felt good. So what do I want you to learn from this? You gotta be careful because if you're working with new clients, producers — sometimes you're stepping on their toes when you're gonna redesign their kicks or change out their loops. So make sure you get permission, or if you're gonna take that risk, be prepared that they may not like it and you may have to go in and fix what you've done. But the main thing I want you to get from this is don't be afraid to take risks. Go in, suck the low end out, listen to the pattern of the kick, and see if you can do better for the track. If the track is calling for something a little bit more bold, a little bigger, tighter, punchier. And that's the moral of the story. So anyways hope you guys are learning something from that. Keep the questions coming: david[at]davidglennrecording.com.

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