The Show A side / Mix #6 - Blending Drums

Knowledge knows the tomato is a fruit. Wisdom does not use one in a fruit salad.

Blending drums into a mix is much the same. Knowledge knows a kick drum is a major component of a modern music mix; Wisdom does not build the entire mix around it.

If you’ve ever attended a NHRA show you’ve felt the visceral effect of a top fuel race car leaving the starting line. It is an earth-shaking event. It’s the low frequency energy of 10K horsepower exploding nitro methane eight times a revolution /turning 10K revolutions per minute /moving from 0 to 300 MPH in 3 seconds that gets you. It's a big show.

The higher frequency elements of your kick drum establish a rhythmic lock to the air that moves you, much like a top fuel race car. At loud or soft playback levels the low frequency energy of a kick drum should move the air of your mix. Simple in idea really, but it is not easy to pull off. Like driving in a straight line for 1000 feet ...in 3 seconds. It might look easy. It's not.

Control rooms where big kick drum sounds come easy scare me. Big kick drum sounds do not come easy. They are one component of all the drums in a mix. All drum tracks make up the kick drum sound.

If the kick drum was recorded as part of a kit or placed into a blend of other individually recorded drums the point remains true; the drums should be mixed as a whole element.

 

You really should try to avoid mixing drums, or any instrument, in the solo mode. You can however tonally tune an instrument in the solo mode from the information you gather within the mix as a whole.

Blending drums is the beginning of your mix. There are no hard and fast rules, outside of what I've heard Glenn Phoenix of West Lake Audio ask:

…are you smarter than physics?

Next up …Drums, you or me?