Getting Drum sounds....

    I am going to probably say it over and over, but first you have to listen to the sound of the kick drum. Was it recorded with a lot of compression already? Is it bare, woofy, thin...? Don’t just get in the habit of slapping the usual stuff on it. See what it needs OR what it doesn’t need.

   A good chunk of the time I put a gate downward expander to reduce bleed. Not always, but often. I don’t totally gate it but set it so it is reducing unwanted bleed, but still is a little open...

This screenshot is just an example of what I might do. See that I set the key to only trigger on low to mid frequencies. Also, the range, which is the amount it reduces the gated material is only 18db here. I adjust this not to close all the way but just enough to clean up the unwanted bleed. This way it still sounds natural, not gated completely.

    Then I like to address is level. Does it peak often? Is there a great difference between the soft tap and a hard tap of the kick? How consistently was it played? I like to bring it to a nice average level so I am not riding the kick. At this point, I am still doing subtle adjustments not trying to use compression to change the sound yet.

    Analog channel is killer for this, you can use whatever is comparable to you. Quick attack/quick release at a soft curve. These parameters were adjusted off of one of the console presets. I am usually  just knocking a few db off, not alot..

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