Compressors and their proper use are integral to good production. This much we know. EDM production is incredibly dependent on great drum sounds. We also know this. But sometimes taking those two things and putting them together can be difficult. So we’ve got an incredibly simple compression tip that will help your drums sound huge!
Drum hits are usually characterized by two moments: an attack (or transient) and a tail. Your best bet is to preserve the attack of the transient while fattening the tail. As a compressor’s job is to…compress, we have to be careful in how the compressor is set.
The key is to set your compressor so that the attack transient is untouched, but the tail of the hit is fattened. Turn up the Ratio on your compressor and then begin to lengthen the Attack time until the impact of the drum hit makes it through untouched. Usually that spot lives between 60-100ms.
Once you’ve found that spot, begin to decrease the threshold until you’re getting 6-8 dB of gain reduction. Then begin to increase the output gain, which will effectively increase the volume of the drum tail without doing much to increase the attack. Optionally, you can use auto gain to achieve this.
Use this trick to fatten snare or tom sounds, or get extra boom out of your kick drum! Happy producing!
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