Gating
First, we need to apply a noise gate to the kick and snare. Because the kick and snare will be higher volume in the mix than the rest of the drums, you need to keep extra information from getting through, causing a cluttered-sounding mix.Solo both channels. Apply the noise gate plug-in to both -- you'll need to adjust the threshold a little bit to make sure that it's triggering at the right time, and then adjust the "attack" and "decay" so you're getting enough of the drum, and shutting out the bad stuff at the right time. For kick, I prefer a fast attack with a fast decay; with snare, I give it a little longer decay, since sometimes a fast decay can shut out gentle transients that you'd rather hear with the snare. After you're done gating, it's time to move on to compressing. Unsolo the kick and snare.
Compression
As we talked about in other articles, compressing brings out the best in items with strong dynamics. Apply a simple compressor to both the kick and the snare, and use the presets "Tight Kick" and "Basic Snare Comp". While I normally don't use presets, in this case, it works just fine! You'll notice that when you compress the tracks, you lose quite a bit of volume. That's easily remedied, and to be expected; in the "gain" area on the compressors, add some gain to make up for the compression. I had to add almost 10 db of gain to get the kick and snare back to where they were; play with the settings, and you'll see what I mean. I also like to apply a nice, tight compressor on the toms -- the preset "Tight Kick" works well on toms, too!I also like to apply a compressor to the overheads, with a ratio of 4:1, with a short attack, and a long release. This gives the overheads a little bit of "body".
Now, let's take a look at using EQ on the drums.
