How to Mix Live Drums: EQ, Compression & Gating

Drum EQ Cheat Sheet

X32 Mastery

Readable Version of Video

How to Make Drums Quieter

5 Tips for an Amazing Drum Mix

Drums (and bass guitar) are the foundation of a great mix. If the drums aren’t right, the mix lacks energy and loses its impact.

With all the signal processing available to us (EQ, compression and gating), it is easy to get overwhelmed.

The most important thing to keep in mind is to never use signal processing just because it is available, only use it to solve a problem.

With that in mind, let’s go through the foundational EQ, Compression and Gating techniques for mixing live drums.

[angledcoathanger]

Came here to mix drums, ended up letting Jesus into my heart

[Mrmikeytheaccountant]

My secret to gating snare is the bottom snare mic controls the gate for the top snare mic and the snare reverb return. I do the same thing for kick where the inside mic controls the outside mic’s gate.
I’ll then route all the drums to a stereo group where I’ll lightly compress and EQ the kit as a whole before it goes on to the main stereo output (and I’ll mess with the group compressor’s sidechain so it’s a little less sensitive to the LF coming from the kick). May be the fact I do both live sound and studio work but it seems to work well in both situations!

[teguhdewaprasetyo.]

I'm from Indonesia, thank you teacher for the knowledge you have taught me, I really like it.
I got additional lessons from the teacher, this was very useful for me.

[WholeHeartedPro]

Thanks Kade! A few more things. Not all drum mics are created equal. I recently was working with some drums that sounded pretty decent by themselves, but had horrible ringing when mic'd. I am pretty sure that if the mics were replaced with some higher quality drum mics, I would not have had to shape the response of the drums with a gate/expander. I didn't look at your cheat sheet, but snce every drumset is tuned differently, fixed frequencies are questionable in my mind. One thing I like to do for the kick and toms (as long as it does not create ringing) is to give a slight bump to the fundamental frequency of the head and seriously cut the harmonic frequency. Usually sounds great. But back to drum mics. I think you can tune any drum mic to sound like a drum set, but some mics just make your drums sound amazing out of the box. Currently a huge fan of the Sennheiser 600 series.

[kyrdalanglyngdoh]

Hello there,
Please help me out regarding which instruments can be used for compressor and gate during live sound.

[praneethdhanushka]

Dear friend, please I need to get clear on how to fix a stage monitor to a amplifier. In my view one AuX send has one 1/4 inch jack. So how we can fix it to amplifier???

[praneethdhanushka]

Dear Sir, your all demonstrations are pretty great and sounds congratulations!!!

I am a beginner on electric guitar. When I fixed my guitar to amplifier there is a big hum ( ground loop).But if I touch strings then hum will fade away. The problem is that the power cable is a fixed one to the amplifier and it doesn't have a ground pin to connect to the 3 phase power socket. Only 2 pins plug. So have can I kill the hum???? thanks

[epicdude]

1:36 i disagree. i get better snare tones compressing it compared to EQ'ing it
setting a mid-high attack and long release lets tons of the snare goodness through

[JoshBlandon]

Hey Kade what do you think about parallel compression where you “link” two channels? I’ve been seeing a lot about it... would you recommend?

[moyimowi]

when i live streaming, i can't hear the kick.. it's like dissapear :O my kick sound mud like 'bup.. bup.. bup..' (very smol) I put foam in it, then on the head kick where the beater hit I put cloth too, does that affect? i've gain up the volume, but nothing change, should i boost the low freq kick on mixer? or anything to get my kicks heard?

btw i use analog mixer and vmix for livestream, does that affect??

[MickDarkstar]

"Never use signal processing cause it's available, only use it to solve a problem". This is like, worth so much compared to most mixing tutorials/guides on youtube (even studio stuff). Polish a turd and it's still a turd. If it's not, why polish it. Bring forth what's good!

[Cruzathon]

Kade, I have an Allen & Heath QU24. can I use your course to learn It better?

[cjramseyer]

While I respect what you saying, the settings that are applied for dynamics are very dependent on the room, the band, and the instruments. Just blindly adopting specific settings is really a recipe for disaster. techniques are one thing, and you are certainly correct that dynamics should not just be applied simply because you can. Use where needed, and each sound person will develop their own style.
For example, I might use bottom snare top and bottom mics, but whether or not I use much if any compression, depends on my own style and the effect I am looking for as well as the specific settings.

[richardwooten]

I like your advice for the settings, but I'm using a 4 band EQ. It looks like the cheat sheet is a 3 band. What band do I not touch is using your settings LM or HM?

[wildecorrea]

Great tips!!! We identify when people of God begins to talk!!! God bless you!!!

[eskuadron-]

Hey guys is range the same as depth Db or threshold?

[ItzTooSik]

Hello,
I need your help with something.
Lately, the drummer at my church has been telling me his drum mix sounds really bad. To be specific, the drums EQ sounds really bad in the drummers in ear monitor. We had a guy (who we paid) go to our church recently to fix the EQ in drums in the House speakers & the guy did an amazing job with that, however, the EQ for the drummer’s IEM was left “untouched” therefore it sounds really bad (or at least it doesn’t sound as good as in the outside speakers).
I want to help the drummer fix that problem (without messing up the House mix). Is there any way I can do that?

I’ve been YouTubing about PreFader, PreEQ & PostEQ since I have a feeling something relating to that can help. As well as messing around with the DRUM MONITOR EQ?

[positivegerald]

So basically this video is just a video to tell you about other videos 🙄

[XOCailleachXO]

All I wanted was a nice video with tips on drum EQ, instead I got preaching. Wtf.