I’m working on recording and mixing my own solo album and your videos have been really helpful. Your stuff is a lot more straightforward than other tutorials but still explains everything in depth. Thank you!
You told me a while ago to treat my e-drum midi thru superior 3 like real drums. I have never mixed real drums, but tried what you said. I watched production club and then mix together (2 and 3) to learn to mix real drums. Routed superior drum channels to S1, then routed to various busses. Started with drum bus, then kick and snare, eq the nasty rings, etc (which is also recorded very well in Superior) and then so on. Now I am in "drummer can record pretty good drums live at night" heaven. Almost comical comparison now to the stock yamaha drum sounds in a 1998 DTXtreme IIs brain. Your advice and these videos have made a huge difference in my musical life. Thank you again, Mr. Gilder
I do a lot of mixing with Addictive drums 2 and I have found that using classic New York style parallel compression can often make them sound very "real". By classic New York style I mean a buss with an EQ with about +3 boost at 100 and 10000 and then a low cut at about 50 then sent to a compressor with fast attack and about 300ms release. Also add a send from the bass guitar to this buss and blend to taste with your actual drum buss.Also hope the tornado missed you Joe, and If you get over to Megan Barkers songwriter show Jammin in Jammies at the George jones say Hi.Her dad was a friend for many years and a hit writing songwriter in his own right before he passed.
So, What is the benefit of sending the bass guitar track to a drum buss? Or is their like one bus with the eq/compression stuff and then another drum buss. Sorry I’m a little confused but it sounds like an interesting idea
@@blaker4807 Basically in New York compression you are adding the pop or snap to the drums, by adding the Bass to the New York compression buss you make the bass sit a lot closer to the kick. I have often found in a mix that the bass is not sitting well with the kick this can give it that little extra. Remember that parallel compression is a subtle thing you might have to adjust the amount of basses added to the buss to get the effect. And yes the New York buss is an additional buss that feeds back to your drum buss, hence parallel compression. Also those of us that are old school remember the "back" buss or sometimes called rear buss on the old big consoles. You can do basically the same thing as in the new york buss with your other instruments but you will have to play with the eq. Just route sends to the back buss from guitars, keys, strings, wahtever needs a little more energy and compress hell out of it and then send it to your master buss. Blend to taste.
Hi Joe, first of all thank you for this video! I've noticed that you don't highpass anything on individual drums: why? Is your personal choice/style, or virtual drums don't really need any highpass? Thank you! Ciao from Italy!
How do I single drum parts out to add effects to them i.e. the bass pedal, the symbals etc if Ive used a drum loop? 10:15 is the start of the 'How to...' Cheers Joe
Very useful information for me. also language is simple for me as I've been so wedded to actual drums and have no clue how to use virtual drums. thank you
Hi! What if I have only samples, not whole drum kits within the plug in? Is it OK to simulate all those spatial microphones by creating sends with 100% wet reverbs? Thank you very much. Martin
Can you please make a video about how you come up with harmonies and background vocals? You recently did a video about mixing background vocals and it had a long, held out, epic, diminished chord! How do you come up with parts like that? I would love to see the process. Thanks and keep up the good work!
True info! If this was mixing real drums, vid would have been A LOT longer! Part of real drums, probably much more than a guitar, vocal or other singular instrument, is capturing them well to begin with, which is a whole other topic from mixing. Recording and mixing are fun! Playing is more fun!
One quick comment on bleed. I tend tread lightly with compression on the raw live tracks .(Very lightly on OH's if at all) . If I "need" a more compressed sound, I'll use Slate Trigger and add compression to that track. Same goes for big reverb, etc. Then blend to taste. Best of both worlds- keep the dynamics and the feel, then punch it up with the samples if you must,. A lifesaver if you have a drummer who loves to bash the hats,
Hi Joe, thanks for all the tips! Have a question, I am new to Studio One. I have the free version of Studio One 3 Prime. Recorded a song with my band and want to replace the bass drum with a sample. Can you do a video or give direction on how to do this? Thank You
Hey Joe, great video as always, big fan of your channel and your way to explain things I am a musician (keyboardist) and an aspiring producer, i usually make backing tracks for clients (singers, mostly, and pop/rock mostly) and i use VSTs 90% of the time (SSD5 for drums, MODO Bass, Pianoteq..) and i am struggling with the recording process/mixing process, because i dont even finish the track, yet i am mixing while doing so. Any suggestion in dealing with this? I love that you touched this topic (mixing virtual drums) thats why i am asking this. Should you recommend finish my track, with no EQ, Compressors, Reverbs. Nothing mixed at all and AFTER i finish, start mixing? Should i bounce all to audio first? What would you do for a better recording/mixing process? Obviously almost all is MIDI Greetings from Mexico
I'm a fan of mixing as you go, UNLESS it becomes a sticking point for you and prevents you from finishing the song. In that case, I would finish the song THEN mix.
Hey Joe, thanks for this video :D Just have a question, what's that chain at the Snare's fat channel plug in? You should do a video teaching that technique :)
Great video! Do you have another one that goes a little more in depth on dynamics when it comes to drums? I havent been able to wrap my head around downward expansion and gates. I'm also curious as to how compressing in stages works. I.e. compressing individual pieces of the kit versus using a bus compressor.
@@HomeStudioCorner Thanks for the tip! Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate mic bleed in something like a Glyn Johns set up. I've heard some incredible things done with downward expansion too though. Maybe its used to compensate for less than ideal mic'ing scenarios?
Just now diving into VST drums….luckily I have riddim, but not experience. Using some of these on my new cd. Sounds ok, best case scenario, will get a real drummer using this as the concept!
been watching for a while .. only just sub'ed , love your tutorials....keep ip the good work. Any chance you'd do a vid on mixing hiphop or trap or urban style music with vst? keen to see your approach....even though it not the material you work with.
Also don’t forget if you won’t that bleed simply bus the drums you want bleed on and then on bus track engage console shaper and use only the crosstalk.
Hello Joe. Love the videos! I was just on the PreSonus website looking at all the videos on mastering and they are all from 2014. 6 years ago. I know that the basics are still the same but with over time there's updates and new functions added. I was wondering if you could do a few videos using Project version of Studio One 4.6 which is a huge advantage of S1. Like a 4 song E.P. or something that has more than 3 songs so everyone can see how the process goes from start to finish. Thank you for everything that you do.
I think mixing my vst drums is where I'm Messing up. I won't be passing 0 on my fader for my drums bus, but I'll be clipping the hell out of my master and can't ever seem to get the big sounds on my drums, always so weak
Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand? :P (original, huh!?) I would love to see you mix some virtual drums for Metal, and just do some metal mixing in general. Love your vids mate! 👍
decide to take a break away to rest my ears from mixing. Then this pops up on my feed. Guess what I was mixing, and guess who’s drums! You watching me Mr Gilder? 👀
Funny thing is my friend play drum want to mix snare and kick with superior drummer, as I a superior drummer user wanna blend my snare and my kick with real drum...but Joe is right, It's a matter of our perseption, and the context of the song
@@HomeStudioCorner The Song Itself Sounds a Whole Lot Like Daughtry As Well..I'm Liking It..Is There Music Available On Digital Music Distribution..CDBaby etc;? Thx Rob
You will love live drums the moment you get nice recorded drum tracks. You don't hate the fact that they have bleeding and all that...cuz that what makes them sound huge and realistic believe it or not. What you hate is the fact you are getting poorly recorded drum tracks. I can tell you this cuz all my life I've been dealing with virtual drums due to the same comment you made...but last year I got some very well recorded drum tracks from an engineer who really knew what he was doing when recording...and my way of thinking about virtual drums vs real drums changed completely. Thats why we love superior drummer, Steven slate drums...and plugins like that....cuz those are very well drum recordings. Hope this give you a different way of thinking about them.
@@AudioReplica2023 you are 100% right!!! I really like working with a live multitrack if it is recorded correctly ... Unfortunately this does not happen often!..
@@АндрейЕфанов-щ7с Its less pain in the butt when everything its well been recorded since the beginning. Ive neglegted the recording phase completely for years until somebody else opened my eyes about that and trust me ...its a huge difference when it comes to mixing time. Now that I put more attention to that I can tell you superior drummer have some discreet phase flaws that nobody has noticed yet. The Avatar library to start ...the snare and overheads are out of relative phase. If you move the overheads lets say -30 ms you will hear that entire kit gets fatter and punchier. On the Progressive foundry library....theres an snare called Pearl Mahogany . This snare have one of the samples that not always hit on time relative triggered time. (moment you press it). Its an issue I reported long time ago with Toontrack but still no update.
Sounds great but the triggering and the sensitivity needs work .. might be a sub par electric kit etc. You did great with what You had. If your gonna play through superior drummer you have to hit smack on otherwise you get that horrible honk around the 300k
Yeah, this is an odd video for me, he starts by saying he prefers real drums, then proceeds to edit in a shitty sounding drum loop in the mix... it sounds crap.
Not all tracks require a 'drummer' Joe. Open your mind to a rhythm track which is a collection of percussive instruments that don't have to comply with what a drummer can do.
@@jaumepp1975 I am, among other things. But you're wrong. You would be surprised how many songs that have been done with virtual drums and triggered samples.
@@nedim_guitar I am, among other things, one of them being a producer. Do you equate the fact that many cds are made using those tools with we not realizing they're fake? Seriously?
I like Joe’s approach to mixing. It’s simple way, not much of plugins. Very intuitive, mostly based on hearing not visual graphs etc. Thanks Joe ❤
I’m working on recording and mixing my own solo album and your videos have been really helpful. Your stuff is a lot more straightforward than other tutorials but still explains everything in depth. Thank you!
You told me a while ago to treat my e-drum midi thru superior 3 like real drums. I have never mixed real drums, but tried what you said. I watched production club and then mix together (2 and 3) to learn to mix real drums. Routed superior drum channels to S1, then routed to various busses. Started with drum bus, then kick and snare, eq the nasty rings, etc (which is also recorded very well in Superior) and then so on. Now I am in "drummer can record pretty good drums live at night" heaven. Almost comical comparison now to the stock yamaha drum sounds in a 1998 DTXtreme IIs brain.
Your advice and these videos have made a huge difference in my musical life. Thank you again, Mr. Gilder
LOVE that, dude.
Jesus that snare snaps. Good vid my man
I do a lot of mixing with Addictive drums 2 and I have found that using classic New York style parallel compression can often make them sound very "real". By classic New York style I mean a buss with an EQ with about +3 boost at 100 and 10000 and then a low cut at about 50 then sent to a compressor with fast attack and about 300ms release. Also add a send from the bass guitar to this buss and blend to taste with your actual drum buss.Also hope the tornado missed you Joe, and If you get over to Megan Barkers songwriter show Jammin in Jammies at the George jones say Hi.Her dad was a friend for many years and a hit writing songwriter in his own right before he passed.
So, What is the benefit of sending the bass guitar track to a drum buss? Or is their like one bus with the eq/compression stuff and then another drum buss. Sorry I’m a little confused but it sounds like an interesting idea
@@blaker4807 Basically in New York compression you are adding the pop or snap to the drums, by adding the Bass to the New York compression buss you make the bass sit a lot closer to the kick. I have often found in a mix that the bass is not sitting well with the kick this can give it that little extra. Remember that parallel compression is a subtle thing you might have to adjust the amount of basses added to the buss to get the effect. And yes the New York buss is an additional buss that feeds back to your drum buss, hence parallel compression. Also those of us that are old school remember the "back" buss or sometimes called rear buss on the old big consoles. You can do basically the same thing as in the new york buss with your other instruments but you will have to play with the eq. Just route sends to the back buss from guitars, keys, strings, wahtever needs a little more energy and compress hell out of it and then send it to your master buss. Blend to taste.
Hi Joe, first of all thank you for this video!
I've noticed that you don't highpass anything on individual drums: why?
Is your personal choice/style, or virtual drums don't really need any highpass?
Thank you! Ciao from Italy!
How do I single drum parts out to add effects to them i.e. the bass pedal, the symbals etc if Ive used a drum loop?
10:15 is the start of the 'How to...'
Cheers Joe
Hope your ok brother. Praying for you and your.
Very useful information for me. also language is simple for me as I've been so wedded to actual drums and have no clue how to use virtual drums. thank you
A lot of questions regarding post processing and mixing virtual drums that I had were addressed here. Thank you for this video, Joe!
👍
That's one amazing drum sound!
Glad you like it!
thanks for the info. If we start from MIDI data of the drum recording, do we need to print them into audio first, before applying any EQ or effects?
Thanks for share these great tricks, Joe! I'm subscribed to watch your every others videos!!!
Absolutely awesome.
Hi! What if I have only samples, not whole drum kits within the plug in? Is it OK to simulate all those spatial microphones by creating sends with 100% wet reverbs? Thank you very much. Martin
Sure?
Good music Joe, quality voice always quality output coming out of your studio mate
Can you please make a video about how you come up with harmonies and background vocals? You recently did a video about mixing background vocals and it had a long, held out, epic, diminished chord! How do you come up with parts like that? I would love to see the process. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Sounds like a miami vice song. Great video n song
Great tutorial! Been watching a bunch! Just wondering is there flamming on the snare at times here? Just asking.. :)
Now this is a video I need!
Cheers Joe been looking for something like this for ages
Great video joe, I do have one question tho..how did the drummer create overhead and room tracks from midi drums?
Superior Drummer put them into the VST
True info! If this was mixing real drums, vid would have been A LOT longer! Part of real drums, probably much more than a guitar, vocal or other singular instrument, is capturing them well to begin with, which is a whole other topic from mixing. Recording and mixing are fun! Playing is more fun!
Great video again, thx Joe, esp the brave move to increase low mids. That is so much of a nogo that nobody dares to do it. Including me.
people tend to overdo the low end early on in their mixing journey, then they get scared of it. You're totally right
One quick comment on bleed. I tend tread lightly with compression on the raw live tracks .(Very lightly on OH's if at all) . If I "need" a more compressed sound, I'll use Slate Trigger and add compression to that track. Same goes for big reverb, etc. Then blend to taste. Best of both worlds- keep the dynamics and the feel, then punch it up with the samples if you must,. A lifesaver if you have a drummer who loves to bash the hats,
Tend "TO" tread. ... doh.
Hi Joe, thanks for all the tips! Have a question, I am new to Studio One. I have the free version of Studio One 3 Prime. Recorded a song with my band and want to replace the bass drum with a sample. Can you do a video or give direction on how to do this? Thank You
just heard about the tornado there hope you and your family are ok!
this song is actually pretty cool.
Thank you for this! Thanks a tonne!
👊
Yooo, Hope all is well up there... God Speed!!!
Hey Joe, great video as always, big fan of your channel and your way to explain things
I am a musician (keyboardist) and an aspiring producer, i usually make backing tracks for clients (singers, mostly, and pop/rock mostly) and i use VSTs 90% of the time (SSD5 for drums, MODO Bass, Pianoteq..) and i am struggling with the recording process/mixing process, because i dont even finish the track, yet i am mixing while doing so. Any suggestion in dealing with this?
I love that you touched this topic (mixing virtual drums) thats why i am asking this. Should you recommend finish my track, with no EQ, Compressors, Reverbs. Nothing mixed at all and AFTER i finish, start mixing? Should i bounce all to audio first?
What would you do for a better recording/mixing process? Obviously almost all is MIDI
Greetings from Mexico
I'm a fan of mixing as you go, UNLESS it becomes a sticking point for you and prevents you from finishing the song. In that case, I would finish the song THEN mix.
Awesome!
Hey Joe, thanks for this video :D
Just have a question, what's that chain at the Snare's fat channel plug in? You should do a video teaching that technique :)
Great video! Do you have another one that goes a little more in depth on dynamics when it comes to drums? I havent been able to wrap my head around downward expansion and gates. I'm also curious as to how compressing in stages works. I.e. compressing individual pieces of the kit versus using a bus compressor.
My advice: forget the gates. Bleed is your friend.
@@HomeStudioCorner Thanks for the tip! Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate mic bleed in something like a Glyn Johns set up. I've heard some incredible things done with downward expansion too though. Maybe its used to compensate for less than ideal mic'ing scenarios?
Just now diving into VST drums….luckily I have riddim, but not experience. Using some of these on my new cd. Sounds ok, best case scenario, will get a real drummer using this as the concept!
Thanks joe...
been watching for a while .. only just sub'ed , love your tutorials....keep ip the good work. Any chance you'd do a vid on mixing hiphop or trap or urban style music with vst? keen to see your approach....even though it not the material you work with.
If I worked on more hiphop or trap, I would definitely feature it here on the channel. I just haven't worked on much at all.
@@HomeStudioCorner Thats the challenge :) .Thanks for replying and thanks for your videos
Also don’t forget if you won’t that bleed simply bus the drums you want bleed on and then on bus track engage console shaper and use only the crosstalk.
Hello Joe. Love the videos! I was just on the PreSonus website looking at all the videos on mastering and they are all from 2014. 6 years ago. I know that the basics are still the same but with over time there's updates and new functions added. I was wondering if you could do a few videos using Project version of Studio One 4.6 which is a huge advantage of S1. Like a 4 song E.P. or something that has more than 3 songs so everyone can see how the process goes from start to finish. Thank you for everything that you do.
So Joe, you’re not working with Superior Drummer, just .wav files from Ben?
I think mixing my vst drums is where I'm Messing up. I won't be passing 0 on my fader for my drums bus, but I'll be clipping the hell out of my master and can't ever seem to get the big sounds on my drums, always so weak
Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand? :P (original, huh!?)
I would love to see you mix some virtual drums for Metal, and just do some metal mixing in general.
Love your vids mate! 👍
decide to take a break away to rest my ears from mixing. Then this pops up on my feed. Guess what I was mixing, and guess who’s drums! You watching me Mr Gilder? 👀
Funny thing is my friend play drum want to mix snare and kick with superior drummer, as I a superior drummer user wanna blend my snare and my kick with real drum...but Joe is right, It's a matter of our perseption, and the context of the song
Maybe do a video on replacement of bleed heavy live drums from a one take multitrack church service 🤔
Just use Slate Trigger, and you'll be set.
How to make virtual drums sound real: Put a four-on-the-floor dance beat under them.
Ok, sounds awesome, I'm in.
Wow great..
The Guys Voice Sounds Like Chris Daughtry Of "Daughtry'
Yeah I get that sometimes
@@HomeStudioCorner The Song Itself Sounds a Whole Lot Like Daughtry As Well..I'm Liking It..Is There Music Available On Digital Music Distribution..CDBaby etc;? Thx Rob
@@mrrnrob Not trying to be rude. Genuinely curious. Why do you type the way you do? 🤔
great video! really useful. wrong thumbnail I think tho haha
Haha. Whoops. Fixed. :)
According to my calculations you’d need four arms and one leg to play that drum beat 😂
Two high hats on both sides.
Virtual drums always seem easier to mix. They kinda come pre mixed in a way.
All of this can also be done in Superior Drummer
I'm getting a 404 error when I fill out the form on the Mix Together web page Joe!
Ah! The email came through anyway! 😊
Fixed now. Sorry!
I prefer Virtual Drums to live multitrack - much less hemorrhoids in bleeding, phase, recording quality and timing!..
You will love live drums the moment you get nice recorded drum tracks. You don't hate the fact that they have bleeding and all that...cuz that what makes them sound huge and realistic believe it or not. What you hate is the fact you are getting poorly recorded drum tracks. I can tell you this cuz all my life I've been dealing with virtual drums due to the same comment you made...but last year I got some very well recorded drum tracks from an engineer who really knew what he was doing when recording...and my way of thinking about virtual drums vs real drums changed completely. Thats why we love superior drummer, Steven slate drums...and plugins like that....cuz those are very well drum recordings. Hope this give you a different way of thinking about them.
@@AudioReplica2023 you are 100% right!!! I really like working with a live multitrack if it is recorded correctly ... Unfortunately this does not happen often!..
@@АндрейЕфанов-щ7с Its less pain in the butt when everything its well been recorded since the beginning. Ive neglegted the recording phase completely for years until somebody else opened my eyes about that and trust me ...its a huge difference when it comes to mixing time. Now that I put more attention to that I can tell you superior drummer have some discreet phase flaws that nobody has noticed yet. The Avatar library to start ...the snare and overheads are out of relative phase. If you move the overheads lets say -30 ms you will hear that entire kit gets fatter and punchier. On the Progressive foundry library....theres an snare called Pearl Mahogany . This snare have one of the samples that not always hit on time relative triggered time. (moment you press it). Its an issue I reported long time ago with Toontrack but still no update.
superior drums are real recorded drums, they have patterns and fills already made you can use
I think a better question is not "How do you mix virtual drums?" but rather, "How do you edit/process virtual drums to sound real, before mixing?"
It's all in the performance
Sounds great but the triggering and the sensitivity needs work .. might be a sub par electric kit etc. You did great with what You had. If your gonna play through superior drummer you have to hit smack on otherwise you get that horrible honk around the 300k
To get rid of bleed on drums there' s nothing better than editing in melodyne...
Yeah but I love the bleed...for the most part.
@@HomeStudioCorner I do too. But in case yu wanna get rid of it, nothing better than melodyne
Is it just me listening on sub-optimal speakers (my phone), or does anybody else hear some nasty flamming between the “live” drums and the loop?
For sure! Was searching for that in the comments.
Yeah, this is an odd video for me, he starts by saying he prefers real drums, then proceeds to edit in a shitty sounding drum loop in the mix... it sounds crap.
I think the flamming/loop sound cool. That's the beauty of music. Some people will like it, some won't.
The title is to general which can be also considered misleading
Even fake drums are real…
Not all tracks require a 'drummer' Joe. Open your mind to a rhythm track which is a collection of percussive instruments that don't have to comply with what a drummer can do.
You’re totally right. I do that all the time
You can't say sometimes tou cannot spot the difference between software and real drums... It's ALWAYS obvious!
It's not as obvious as you think.
@@nedim_guitar Pretty sure you're not a drummer...
@@jaumepp1975 I am, among other things. But you're wrong. You would be surprised how many songs that have been done with virtual drums and triggered samples.
@@nedim_guitar I am, among other things, one of them being a producer. Do you equate the fact that many cds are made using those tools with we not realizing they're fake? Seriously?
@@jaumepp1975 Hey, if it's well done, it's well done.
Plugins off sounds more natural and live, plugins on sounds so overdone
That drummer sounds damn average to me :-)
He did pretty good for me man. ;-)
Love my presonus AI but studio one is a piece of crap. BUY SPHERE and we will show you how to use it Bwahaha.