How to Mix // Basics - The Kick Drum // Lesson 1 of 6

[bppoupore]

smh at everyone who thinks mike chav hasn't heard of multiband compression. like, really? this is his job guys.

[Flipstaxx08]

just use a multi band eq ? less strain on the cpu and does the same shit. level out the bottom,mids and highs to your liking and your good to go. this is a good technique ..sure it works but is actually unorthadox..and that kick should be shortened a bit it kind of sounds shitty

[TheJQuake]

this is something like parallel  compression right ?

[TheComposer1979]

You know dude u can just remove 3 db in 80 hz u ll have better sound but good technik somtime better to use differant kik if u wanna use this technik god luck bro

[MrGoNzObeAtZ]

How would you mix multiple kick drums ? Some of my tracks got 2 or3 drums layered. Thanks.

[mitdafocas]

..or you can use the roland mc-505 kickdrum lol it sounds exactly like this one.

[MrStitNo]

Big up dude!! Even tough this isn't new for me it woke me up again.. Keep up the grate work man !! Please listen to my music and bring some feedback, trying to get better every day.. Greetss

[moneymoney220666]

do i first mix my drums and then add guitars,bass and vocals or do i mix the after adding em?

[piano25]

"auxing" creates phasing issues within ProTools. All good mixing guys will duplicate instead. I think its solved in PT 9 (with latency compensation) 

[Vortex4001]

Alot of tutorials I usually see on youtube are geared towards percussion...and equalization...i wanna challenge someone to place a video up mainly about adding Depth to instruments and vocals....what we as engineers fail to realize...is that alot of songs heard by the consumer are enjoyed because of the way the instruments and vocals sound like theyre in an Acoustic environment, thus making the topic of depth....a significant one indeed.

[acedaface954]

mike whats up? how can i tell by ear if my low frequencies are fighting each other? i'm not too good with spectral analyzing yet so whats up??

[sendfx]

make your kicks mono its harder work but it makes your mix very balanced if your bass, kick and vocals are mono

[dannycurtean]

Youre the first dude that actually knows audio engineering and teaching other people. Good job man!

.

Edit: Thats on YouTube I mean.

[dannycurtean]

Youre the first dude that actually knows audio engineering and teaching other people. Good job man!

[headcut2007]

gay face

[SimplisticSalvation]

Where should you set the volume of your drum kicks ? When I add Drums and upload to youtube my quality dies but when I take out the drums and bass out the quality jumps . Help ?

[stalone333]

Im learning 2 things more thx 

[datboiwrek]

to be honest their really is not difference..the choice is up to you... just have to experiment...i mean breaking the different eq apart may give you more control but like you said a multi-band also lets you control the various levels....so the answer is they are the same

[kharlos84]

hey mike a then how you deal with the whole mix having 3 kick eq diferrently? thank for the video

[promptstrong]

sounds good what about phase problems ?



[jlatee9]

Thanks for the info . . I needed this to finalize that kick

[Panda95]

Interresting! I'm more into layering diferent kick drum ( one for the bottom and an other for the snap) + the usual process (Eq, compression)

Im gonna try this!!

[fuckutube21]

This video is Very helpfull, thanks a lot for posting!

[OrthodoxProductions]

Nice tutorial mah nigga! i have seen hundreds and i didn't learn half of what i just learned from you. thanks a lot..

[LikidySplitz]

thank you for not talking like a stupid wig

You sound like a very knowledgeable producer/musician

[logixish]

It seems so simple the way you explained it. Thanks for the clarity. Great tutorial.

[Europdy]

use your mixing board it should have multi-band EQ if you have a mixer....

[MpColl]

I just love the way you explain this science, Mister! I have paid my school 15,000.00$ to teach me less in 25 weeks!!!

[macrhuger]

thats like multiband comp and eq ozone and alloy can do that but that way give u more power

[swiftstatus]

nice work

[surfrecordslondon]

Because he can run sections thru different eqs and compressors - eg a quality outboard compressor alongside software ones - he even says why you dumbasses

[glict]

So my question is is why wouldn't you just use a multiband eq and compressor?

[GaryNewmann0709]

so is it true all the best plugins are available only for protools?

[matrix0134]

Not at all. In fact, almost all quality plug-ins come in Vst, AU and Rtas. Really Find a DAW you're comfortable with and choose plug-ins from there.

[GaryNewmann0709]

Thankyou

[bubnjarovski]

so this is the same kick eq 3 times???

i would like to hear this in a mix

[notuern]

The low end is between 20-160 hz, the mids are from 160hz-5khz, the highs are from 5-20khz.

Kicks usually have the low end thump between 70 and 120hz, the mids/pedalsound between 300-1khz, and the click is between 3khz and 10khz.

It seems that Mr. Mixer might not know enough to do educational mixing videos.

[bettycrocker678]

@notuern hard to argue with those badu albums.

[notuern]

@bettycrocker678 TBH, they dont sound that good.. very muddy when there is kick and a bass-line is coming on at once.

And in the song "Don't Be Long" there is ALLOT of stuff that needs to be checked over with the vocals(Breaths, you hear the lips smacking between the vocal lines, sounds like vibrations going through the micstand etc.).

[gleventhal]

@notuern I agree mids are not at 80, those are lows, but no need to be snooty. As a side note, for snares, dropping 560 with a fairly tight Q sounds nice for a Hi-Fi snare sound.

[Scratcher36]

@notuern Well, i guess mr. Mixer did mix Erykah Badu's albums. So don't hate brother

[notuern]

@Scratcher36

So?

Ive fixed a few guitars and pianos for some pretty famous musicians, but that doesnt make me right about everything on guitars and pianos.

Talent and fame are 2 very different things.

[Scratcher36]

@notuern No, you're right about that, but you're reaction sounded a bit 'hated' to me. but i was wrong about you're accent on with this reaction. but i think for most of the people its enough information to go further on with their mixing problems.

Peace

[notuern]

@Scratcher36

It wasnt meant to "hate", but thats just how it comes across over the internet most of the time.

And yeah, while it might be true that it still "helps" people getting in to it, its also very counterproductive to teach someone something that isnt right.. because that will come up later on and it will need to be corrected.

[Scratcher36]

@notuern After all, i totally agree. If just didn't response to you. This whole discussion wouldn't be necessary;)

Hows my english? im from the netherlands though

[terryweb]

@notuern He doesn't know how to vote either.

[marcuelcajon]

@notuern Is that all you got from the video? Cant wait to see your tuts.

[swollenpickle09]

Thanks Mike good stuff!!!

[XTREEMMAK]

You could just use a multiband compressor though. Couldn't you also bus out the initial kick to 3 different aux tracks pre fader and then do your spectral edits there? Pretty sure you can.

[RiddikalisBeats]

Are there good drums to downlaod that are already mixed? I use Propellerhead Reason. Is there a way to get these type of drums in Reason? And what drum did you start off with? was it a free downloadable sample?

[MusicLoveLifeSoul]

you could always get refills ( you can download them free on the net ) Or you could make your own drumkit .. Taking the same drum , and layering it with different frequencies and settings , and then export it as one sample

[ildur]

I use this technique on guitars and other stuff too

[skateagainstthelaw]

I like this technique except I would get a little OCD with all those tracks everywhere, on top of the added strain to the CPU with 3 EQs/Compressors as opposed to 1 multiband.

I've done something similar but only with the the lows below 100. Rather than duplicating the track, I setup a send and Low-Pass, compress, and even Bass Boost that send for felxibility with the low end. You can really control whats going to the subwoofers like this.

Good video.

[mikechav]

In protools you encounter phasing and latency issues when using a send for this. The processor is only taxed if you are using a native system.

[armitagecake]

never heard of multiband compressing?

[mikechav]

this is a completley different sound than multiband compression.

[King31395]

Sick!

Hadn't heard of that technique on a kick before.

Thanks for posting these!!

[soundeng1]

Hey Mike

Thanks for taking the time to explaining the process, Very Cool!

When is the Parallel compression one coming out?

[urizen1]

thanks mike

[mazzb305]

I'd also be interested in finding out your theory about EQing/mixing 808's. Thanks for taking time out to answers questions.

[forgetta]

I'm just following you on twitter!

Very nice video! :)

[skinnylegzzz]

Great vid! Im learning stuff..

Have a question though; whats the biggest difference between having just 1 kick on 1 channel with a really good multibandcompressor (split in 3 frequency areas) and doing it the way you do? The difference BESIDES having the obvious option that u can EQ each channel in a unique way (keeping in mind that u mentioned breifly that u barely had done any EQing on them).

Great work! =)

[mikechav]

its quite a different sound. If you would like to try you can use this method and then try to do the same thing with a multiband. Sometimes you may use a multiband say if you are just trying to tame the sub. I dont use this everytime i work on a kick. It is just one technique of many hundreds that it takes to manipulate sound to match what is in your head

[mikechav]

same kick copied 3 times.

[mazzb305]

So is that the same kick drum copied 3 times & filtered, etc. or is that 3 dif. kicks 1 that best suits each frequency Range???