Compressing the Drum Bus

[Hi-Lo]

i'm wondering who here compresses their main drum bus after they've mixed and compressed all the individual auxes or busses of drum sounds...i've heard this can really help to 'glue' the different pieces of a drumkit together and help its overall clarity and punch.

specifically i'm wondering about attack/release...should i set these based on the slowest attack that i used on any individual drum part? or should i use a faster attack? same with release. i've been trying to do this but it seems to make my drums sound worse rather than better cause i can't really tell how to set att/rel. anyone able to help?

 

[NobleWordz]

Sounds like your trying to do Parallel Compression check this thread out (vid) https://www.illmuzik.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17860

Sounds like you are over compressing. Don't compress the individual sounds.

NW

 

[MarkN]

yea the problem is if your compressing your individual sounds then you compress your drum mix then im assuming you probably compress your main outs the sounds have been compressed three times already ! which is too much
personally i compress my individual sounds i dnt do anything to the drum buss thats not too say thats the best way thats just how i do it !

 

[open mind]

avoid compressiong several times it fucks your sound up! that beein said use a multiband compressor on your master bus process the diffrent bands and call it a day.