EQing Drums on one track

[Magnetic Ether]

When doing drum parts in the past I've always loaded my own samples into separate tracks and EQed them from there, however I'm kind of confused as to how people work with drum libraries/vsts where all the sounds are on one track.

Do you have to create a different instance of the same instrument for each drum sound in order to be able to EQ them properly, or is there a way around this?

I'm using Kontakt for the most part, but I can't find a way to EQ individual notes instead of the whole instrument. Is there a simple way to do this?

Thanks,

-Kuolema

[Flexstyle]

Look into using a multi-out patch. I'm sure Kontakt can do this, but since I don't own it I couldn't walk you through doing it. Basically, you can select each part of the drum set as going through a separate channel--hopefully someone else more familiar with this scenario than I am can chime in.

[Argle]

You can do it in kontakt with groups, but it's a total pain in the ass. Commercial drum libraries like Steven Slate have done the hard work for you.

Drum sampler software usually makes it a lot easier than Kontakt.

[Magnetic Ether]

Thanks guys.

Argle, I'm taking a look at the group editor but I can't figure out how to route the groups I've created to alternate outputs. Could someone explain it to me?

Sorry I kind of suck, Kontakt just has so much stuff under the skin .

[Chimpazilla]

Maybe one of these two videos, made by a good friend of mine, may help:

drum output routing

drum midi mapping

edit: the first video may be the help you're looking for, the second one is just cool to know

[Rozovian]

If you got Kontakt via Komplete, I would recommend using Battery for your drums instead. It's a lot easier, altho it doesn't have all the morphing options and scripting and stuff that Kontakt libraries can have. Acoustic kits, use Kontakt, route stuff to different outs. Non-acoustic kits, or kits that doesn't need the realism and finer details of the fancy libraries, go with Battery. The out-routing is so much easier there, as is sample layering and other stuff useful in designing the drum sound.

Because I loop drums a little too much, I like having snare and kick on one midi track routed to one drum instrument, and hats and other things on another, going to another drum instrument. Even then, I separate drum and kick, crashes and hats. If there are other elements, like toms, more cymbals, reverse crash; I usually give those a separate tracks as well, depending on their needs.

I actually use Superior Drummer, Addictive Drums (albeit just the demo for now), Battery, Kontakt, and Logic's own Ultrabeat as my drum samplers, depending on the kits I wanna use. There's also DrumSpillage and a fun little CamelAudio freebie drum machine I got from Computer Music or something that I also use occasionally, obviously depending on style. I usually don't have all my drums on the same track anyway, but when I do, I usually route them to different channels.

The best way to deal with this stuff is probably to just get used to setting up a multi-out on your drums so it's not a matter of figuring it out half way through the mix every time. Build presets with this routing already there.

When I do work with a single drum track, I usually just put some soft compression on the track and do subtle eq things to the kit, like finding the fundamental of the kick and snare and boosting those, and if there are big balance issues I can't get around with EQ alone, a multiband compressor can provide some additional control.

If I'm concerned about having a clean drum sound, I might set up a low pass filtered bus signal for side chain compression of other tracks to get the drums out more without messing with their sound. If not, I can go with overdrive on the main channel to grit up the drums. Then there's reverb, which I might wanna process separately as well. I might end up with three different buses from this single drum track. You can probably figure out ways to work with these options and find more options as well.

There's some thoughts on the topic.

[Argle]

I'm taking a look at the group editor but I can't figure out how to route the groups I've created to alternate outputs. Could someone explain it to me?

A picture is worth a thousand words, so...

Assuming you have multiple outputs configured.

[Magnetic Ether]

Thanks a lot everyone, I've got it now .

It is a bit of a pain in Kontakt, but at least now I know it can be done!

[Garrett Williamson]

When doing drum parts in the past I've always loaded my own samples into separate tracks and EQed them from there, however I'm kind of confused as to how people work with drum libraries/vsts where all the sounds are on one track.

Do you have to create a different instance of the same instrument for each drum sound in order to be able to EQ them properly, or is there a way around this?

I'm using Kontakt for the most part, but I can't find a way to EQ individual notes instead of the whole instrument. Is there a simple way to do this?

Thanks,

-Kuolema

No clue what anyone else has said, but here's how I do it.

I use Logic, and I know Kontakt works with that, but I don't use Kontakt, and I don't know what software you use, but hopefully this won't be too different.

If you are a Logic user at all, Ultrabeat is a very useful plugin that actually comes with the software. It's very nice and you can seperately EQ specific drums while all on the same track.

If you don't use Logic, what I've always done is just duplicate the kit and have a snare track, kick track, hat track, tom track, and cymbal track. Obviously, because it isn't an actual recording, there's no Overhead mic track or anything.

I'm not sure if that was even your question. If your question was literally "how do others do it all on one track", I seriously don't really have an answer other than the Ultrabeat solution I gave. There are probably tons of other plugins that have the same role as Ultrabeat, so that may be the explanation (like Kontakt, I bet).

With my record I released on iTunes almost a year ago, though, I only had one song with a real drum track. Any other song with real-sounding drums were really just fake, but I recorded all on one track. I mixed it all on one track, and I'm not sure why I did. It doesn't sound awful, but it doesn't sound amazing either. I had been recording that whole record in 2010-2011, but by now I record any drum stuff I do in separate drum tracks for specific drums, like most people. Of course, this last record was more of just a simple, indie, half-acoustic record, so it was more about the songwriting than the way it sounded. I'm working on a new record and it's based more around programming and sound than the songwriting.

I guess really, it all depends on what you're doing. But hardly do I ever hear about OTHERS using one track to do a full kit on.

This was probably a waste of your time to read, so I apologize. My A.D.D. and my going off-subject and saying things that really aren't needed.

[timaeus222]

A picture is worth a thousand words, so...

Assuming you have multiple outputs configured.

Oh hell no. You did it! xD I've been trying to figure that out since I first got Kontakt, lol. I managed to get separate MIDI Outs before, but not Sends. Thanks from me too.

[Darangen]

You should be able to save the settings so you only have to do this once, then just load the settings each time you start on a new song. It may be a pain setting up at first, but after you save and start reloading the settings it'll all be worth it.

[timaeus222]

You should be able to save the settings so you only have to do this once, then just load the settings each time you start on a new song. It may be a pain setting up at first, but after you save and start reloading the settings it'll all be worth it.

Yeah. And you don't have to do an entire project. You might be able to just save a state file for Kontakt, rather than an entire project file, like in FL, making it faster to call it up.

[Legion303]

I use BFD, where it's easy to solo each kit piece and render it on its own, but regardless of how you do it, make sure you also render the whole kit out and mix that in a little with your individually EQ'd parts. It makes drums a whole lot more "live" and vibrant (unless you're going for industrial sterility, that is).