Record Drums - A Beginner's Guide

Now that you've laid the perfect tracks, let's look at what it takes to get them to sound good in the mix. The first step is gating.

Gating is the technique of using a piece of hardware or software called a noise gate; a noise gate is essentially like a quick mute button. It listens to the track and ducks it in or out to help minimize ambient noise. In this case, we'll be using it to help minimize the bleed from other drums.

That being said, sometimes bleed is a good thing; it can give a better overall sound to the kit. Trust your ears.

Listen to the raw snare track. You'll notice that you can hear the other drum elements around the snare - the cymbals, the kick drum, the tom rolls. Putting a noise gate on the track will help keep these elements out of the snare mic. Start by setting the attack - how fast the gate opens after the snare is hit - at around 39 milliseconds. Set the release - how fast the gate closes after the hit - at around 275 milliseconds. Now take a listen to the same track, with a gate applied. Notice how there's not any bleed from the other instruments? It may sound "choppy" by itself, but when in concert with all the other elements of a song, this snare would fit great into the mix.

Now, let's move on to the topic of compression.