Mixing Tips: How to Add Punch to Drums

Icon graduate James Geary aka Jetset demonstrates how to inject punch and presence into your drum sounds with these effective mixing techniques.

Having a solid drum foundation is essential. The drums connect the listener to the fundamental rhythms of your music. In this video, James takes you through various drum processing techniques that add power, presence, and excitement.

James shows you how to use several flavors of parallel compression to get tight and punchy drum sounds. He also shows you how to dynamically sculpt drum sounds with various types of transient shaping to get punchy drums that cut through the mix. Similarly, James explains how to use pitch envelopes to shape drum sounds using Ableton Live ‘s Sampler device. Furthermore, James introduces you to mid-side processing and shows you how to create a mid-side processing Audio Effect Rack that works great at enhancing sounds. Lastly, James offers some additional tips on effects routing, CPU optimization, and sample selection.

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