Topic: Bringing out drums in 2 channel full mix

[yates7592]

I am currently transferring and trying to remaster a bunch of old tapes. These are live recordings, audience and sbd, but just a stereo 2-channel full mix. My biggest obstacle is trying to get the kick and snare drums more up front in the mix. Does anybody have some good advice based on their past experience?
I suspect the best way is some form of multiband (bass) compression. There is quite a lot of info on the net based on drum tracks only, not a full mix. I have been playing around with Ozone 5's mulitband plug in, but without a great deal of success. Any help would be gratefully received.

[page]

what style of music? Rock? (I'm trying to imagine what else will be in the mix)

[yates7592]

Thank you Page, I was hoping you would bite on this one.

Musically it's a bit variable, covering new wave, avant-garde, experimental, so typically vocs, guitar, bass and drums, but with percussion, strings, keyboards,  a bit of everything I suppose. I realise with a full mix and not always the best quality recording it will be difficult, even with multiband compression, to isolate and zoom in on the frequency of, say, a snare drum without affecting some element of the guitars and vocals.

One route I am looking at as a starter is lowering the overall level of the full mix by something like 6dB to give some headroom, and then using upward expansion to try to accentuate the dynamics of the drum hits which might otherwise be buried in the mix. This might help me pick up those snare hits and do something with them. Do you think there is there any mileage in this? 

[page]

I'd be more likely to play with the EQ to get the snap/attack of a hit. Especially if you just want a little more. Your kick is typically around 100hz or so, depending on the bass tuning it could fall around there, lower, or higher. (depends on style of music or player). The snare/tom/etc will be tougher.

You can do a compressor, but you're compressing everything else, and after about 1 or 2db, it gets noticeable. Try going for a "glue" effect. Less than that if your compressor is colored or isn't very good. I'd start with super fast speeds, but something over 1 or 2ms which will retain some of that initial crack of a sound. Maybe around 10ms, maybe lower, gotta play with it. It's tough to do something like this (altering dynamics) on a 2ch mix.