Equalizing & Compressing Hats, and rides,

BLoodstaiN`

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Joined
Feb 28, 2010
Location
Bruges, Belgium
I never succeeded in adding a ride into one of my tracks, because i can't make them sound good/decent.
And with hats i don't know if i'm doing that good.

So anyone tips on equalizing & Compressing hats/rides
 
For EQin I suggest gettin rid of all the bottom end, absolutely no need for it, and make it cleaner by removing all the gash frequencies - This is done by boosting them like the image below, starting at 20000hz and slowly moving down the range, then invertin that to take them out ;) If that makes sence?

6a00d83455f72e69e20120a5cb6c35970b-200wi


To make it brighter an Exciter is usually a good call, and see the Panning thread for more ideas. Not sure how you would compress them tbh so cant help there.
 
I recently started compressing my rides heavily with the kick track feeding the sidechain or even just a kick track with no output feeding it so you can place the kicks where ever you want without hearing them. Fast attack, long release and a high ratio 10:1 or something. Works well for making the track breathe a bit i think...adding some distortion/drive usually sounds cool as well.. and yeah, as russla said...filter sweep the eq's and filter out anything there's no need for (=LOW END!)

peace
 
The simple ride method:

Get a pure, uncompressed ride sound (with that proper long shimmer to it).

Set it off every 8th note, drop the velocity just a bit when kick/snare are on the same note.

Adjust level until barely audible. You don't need to hear that it's there, just enough notice that something changes when you drop it.

You can also adjust the ADSR to soften the initial hit and drop the decay if it sounds too much.
 
The simple ride method:

Get a pure, uncompressed ride sound (with that proper long shimmer to it).

Set it off every 8th note, drop the velocity just a bit when kick/snare are on the same note.

Adjust level until barely audible. You don't need to hear that it's there, just enough notice that something changes when you drop it.

You can also adjust the ADSR to soften the initial hit and drop the decay if it sounds too much.

I decrease the initial hit on your channel option in FL with In & Out. in fact the In to decrease the hit. Should i put some reverb/distortion on it? 'cause some people told me it might sound cool if that's the case
 
Yeah you can try. Lot of people use reverb on their drums to make them sound a bit more realistic. Use sparingly though. But distorting cymbals doesnt sound very cool, it can really be an ear-bleeder on higher volumes. But again, if you can make it sound good with a distortion, why not.
 
Yeah you can try. Lot of people use reverb on their drums to make them sound a bit more realistic. Use sparingly though. But distorting cymbals doesnt sound very cool, it can really be an ear-bleeder on higher volumes. But again, if you can make it sound good with a distortion, why not.

how do i equalize & compress that, because i can mix it it so it doesn't disturb anything else, but it doesn't sound like it's part of the track, it's sound like it's not been recorded well.
 
I have found using a crash and EQing everything below 10k hz and mixing it very low more useful than using rides. I put 4 in every bar so they overlap and it gives the swishy splash sound im after.
Also, what odd harmonics was saying but I used the camel phat and created a ramp on every first beat of the bar giving it a pumping sound. Its very similar to sidechaining. Sub focus showed something similar in a tutorial a while back...I think that is how he did the pumping ride sound in Airplane.

---------- Post added at 14:35 ---------- Previous post was at 14:34 ----------

as far as compressing it goes...I dont normally use it on the splash but If I have it would be with a quick attatck time and medium to long release time to help it gel with the rest of the drums
 
The simple ride method:

Get a pure, uncompressed ride sound (with that proper long shimmer to it).

Set it off every 8th note, drop the velocity just a bit when kick/snare are on the same note.

Adjust level until barely audible. You don't need to hear that it's there, just enough notice that something changes when you drop it.

You can also adjust the ADSR to soften the initial hit and drop the decay if it sounds too much.

more or less absolutely what id do!
 
I have found using a crash and EQing everything below 10k hz and mixing it very low more useful than using rides. I put 4 in every bar so they overlap and it gives the swishy splash sound im after.
Also, what odd harmonics was saying but I used the camel phat and created a ramp on every first beat of the bar giving it a pumping sound. Its very similar to sidechaining. Sub focus showed something similar in a tutorial a while back...I think that is how he did the pumping ride sound in Airplane.

---------- Post added at 14:35 ---------- Previous post was at 14:34 ----------

as far as compressing it goes...I dont normally use it on the splash but If I have it would be with a quick attatck time and medium to long release time to help it gel with the rest of the drums

http://soundcloud.com/subtitude/rocker-3
I'm definitley doing something wrong here, but what? i'm breaking my head over this
 
how do i equalize & compress that, because i can mix it it so it doesn't disturb anything else, but it doesn't sound like it's part of the track, it's sound like it's not been recorded well.

I think you're going at this the wrong way. Processing something to fit the sound of something else is not a good policy. You'll end up trying to change sounds in a way they cant be changed. Try changing your cymbals altogether if the sound doesnt fit in well with other drum sounds. You seem to be going like this: "I have a cymbal here. It doesnt sound good. I will try to adjust it to make it good." It's sort of backwards, because you should start with a sound that already fits what you have or is very close to what you are trying to achieve.

Unless its a very specific style of processing you're after, in which case you should post an example on here and we'll see what you could do.
 
For EQin I suggest gettin rid of all the bottom end, absolutely no need for it, and make it cleaner by removing all the gash frequencies - This is done by boosting them like the image below, starting at 20000hz and slowly moving down the range, then invertin that to take them out ;) If that makes sence?

6a00d83455f72e69e20120a5cb6c35970b-200wi


To make it brighter an Exciter is usually a good call, and see the Panning thread for more ideas. Not sure how you would compress them tbh so cant help there.

Is that how you do it? I just look for peaks on the spectral analyser. I know it's not the most creative and musical way but it's the most precise to remove unneccessary peaks imo
 
I remember hearing something you posted about this and it just didn't have enough layers.

Plus Kama's spot on, in some cases you'll just be making something sound 'less wrong' by heavy processing.
 
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