How to Mix Drums: A Step-by-Step Guide

Mixing drums is one of the biggest challenges in music production. It involves blending numerous elements into a cohesive whole that also needs to fit well with the rest of the mix. Although there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to mixing drums, there are helpful techniques you can use to get professional-sounding drums. Here’s a comprehensive drum mixing workflow you can use in Pro Tools:

1. Name and color code your tracks

Start by naming each drum track clearly and consistently. This helps you quickly identify each track and understand its role in the mix. Common drum tracks and their naming conventions include:

• Kick In: The inside mic of the kick drum.
• Kick Out: The outside mic of the kick drum.
• Snare Top: The top mic of the snare drum.
• Snare Bottom: The bottom mic of the snare drum.
• Hi-Hats: The hi-hat mic.
• Tom 1: The first tom.
• Tom 2: The second tom.
• Overhead L: The left overhead mic.
• Overhead R: The right overhead mic.
• Room L: The left room mic.
• Room R: The right room mic.

To avoid visual clutter, use a single color for all drum tracks and a darker or lighter shade of the same color for group busses and folder tracks.

 

2. Route all drum parts to a drum bus

One effective technique when preparing your drums for mixing is to group all your individual drum tracks into a single channel known as a drum bus. This setup in Pro Tools involves creating a Routing Folder Track where all individual drum tracks are sent. By doing this, you can manage multiple audio sources together, simplifying organization and control over the drum tracks.

Using a drum bus offers significant advantages. Firstly, it allows for easier control over the mix, as you can adjust the overall volume of the drum kit with a single fader. This is especially helpful during various stages of your mix when you need to balance the drums against other instruments or apply automation. Secondly, applying processing like EQ or compression to the drum bus affects the entire drum kit. This approach helps in achieving cohesion among your drum sounds, making the entire kit sound like one cohesive instrument, rather than elements that were mic'd separately.

By streamlining your workflow and ensuring that your drum mix is cohesive, using a drum bus prepares your drums for detailed mixing, setting the stage for a dynamic and polished final sound.

3. Create an initial balance

With your drum tracks organized and ready for mixing, shift your focus to balancing the level relationships between the individual elements of the drum kit. It's a good practice to start with a clean slate by zeroing out your drum mix. Set all drum track faders to their lowest positions to begin.

Start by setting the levels of your kick and snare, as they form the foundation of your drum mix. The kick should provide a solid rhythmic base, while the snare should cut through with clarity and definition. Next, gradually bring up the supporting elements until they balance well with the kick and snare.

Ensure that tom fills punch through effectively without overwhelming, hi-hats add rhythmic detail without sounding harsh, and cymbals deliver brightness. Finally, blend in the overhead and room mics to add spatial depth and realism to your mix.

How loud should the drums be in the mix?

The overall drum kit should peak around -10 dBFS, with an RMS level ranging from -20 dBFS to -14 dBFS. This setup ensures the drums are clearly heard while preserving sufficient headroom for other elements in the mix. Aim to keep your final mix's peak levels between -6 dBFS and -3 dBFS before mastering, to maintain the necessary headroom for professional mastering adjustments. Remember, these levels are guidelines rather than strict rules; adjust them as needed based on the mix's density and the required dynamics.

Should the initial balance be done in solo?

Initially balancing the drum elements in solo can help you focus on the relationship between the different parts of the drum kit. This allows you to hear the nuances of each element without interference from other instruments. However, any final level adjustments should be done in the context of the full mix, as elements can interact differently when combined with other tracks.

 

4. Pan your drum tracks

After establishing the level relationships of your drum parts, the next step is panning. Panning your drum elements can help create a sense of space and dimension in your mix, allowing each drum track to occupy its own distinct place in the stereo field. Generally, the kick and snare are panned center to anchor the mix, as they are the foundation of most drum parts. Toms are typically panned progressively from left to right, mirroring a natural drum setup from the drummer's perspective, enhancing the realism of your mix. Hi-hats often lean slightly to the right or left, depending on the kit configuration, while overheads and room mics are usually panned wide to capture the full ambiance of the drum kit. Cymbals, when individually mic'd, are panned according to their physical positions relative to the kit. This panning arrangement helps in achieving a balanced, dynamic drum mix that feels both expansive and cohesive.

 

5. Apply corrective EQ

After setting levels, the next step in mixing drums typically involves applying EQ (equalization) before moving on to compression. This order is generally preferred because EQ allows you to shape and enhance the tone of the drums, cutting any unnecessary frequencies which could affect how the compression reacts to the sound. By EQing first, you allow the next processor in the chain to work on the cleaned-up version of your audio, giving you more control and a cleaner mix.

Start by EQ’ing individual elements to fix specific problems on those tracks, such as removing resonance from a snare or reducing muddiness in a kick drum. Then, you can move on to applying EQ on the drum bus when mixing within the context of the entire mix to create a cohesive sound that blends well with other instruments—more on this later.

6. Apply compression 

Following EQ, you can add a compressor to control the dynamics of your drum tracks, helping to maintain a consistent level across the drum kit and add punch and tightness to the mix. Start with a light ratio and increase as needed to achieve the desired effect without squashing the dynamics. Fast attack times can be used to tame sharp transients on the snare and toms, while a slower attack allows the initial punch of the kick to cut through. Use the release settings to control how quickly the compressor stops affecting the sound, which can help in maintaining the natural feel of the drums. Applying compression to a drum bus after individual track processing can glue the kit together, making it sound cohesive and polished.

 

7. Adding effects

After compression, you can add effects to create a sense of space and depth. It's often best to use an aux bus for effects, sending individual drum tracks to a shared aux bus rather than applying effects directly on each track. Not only does this help save CPU power, but it can create a cohesive and unified sound. Combining too many different types of reverbs on the same drum kit, for example, can be disorienting to the listener. Make sure to choose a reverb that works with your mix. Room, plate, and hall reverbs are commonly used for drums; room reverb adds natural ambiance, plate reverb adds brightness and presence, while hall creates a big, expansive sound. Other effects like delay, saturation, drive, and modulation can be added subtly to enhance the sound of individual parts of your drum kit. Try using delay on snares and hi hats to enhance rhythm, saturation or overdrive on kicks, snares, and toms for warmth and fullness, and modulation (chorus or flanger) on cymbals or hi-hats for depth. This approach allows for precise control and creative flexibility, ensuring each drum element contributes effectively to the overall mix.

 

8. Drum bus processing

Drum bus processing involves applying effects to the drum bus channel. As we covered earlier, the drum bus is the channel where all the individual drum parts are routed to, so any effects applied here will affect the entire kit. This helps glue the drum elements together, making them feel like one unified instrument rather than separate channels. Drum bus processing is typically more subtle compared to effects on individual instruments, aiming to enhance the overall drum sound, and making sure it blends in well with the rest of the mix without drawing attention to any specific element. Here are some tips for drum bus processing:

• EQ: Start with subtractive EQ to remove unwanted frequencies. Use a high-pass filter to cut low-end rumble below 30-40 Hz and notch out any problematic frequencies in the midrange. Additive EQ can be used to boost frequencies that enhance the overall drum sound. For example, a slight boost around 60-80 Hz can add punch to the kick, while a boost around 2-5 kHz can add clarity and presence to the snare and cymbals.

• Compression: Aside from compressing individual drum channels, you can also apply gentle compression on the drum bus to unify the individual drum elements, creating a cohesive sound. Use a slower attack time (30-50 ms) and a medium release time (100-200 ms) with a low ratio (2:1 to 4:1). Aim for 1-3 dB of gain reduction to smooth out the overall drum sound and make the kit act as a single instrument within the mix.

• Saturation: Add subtle saturation to introduce harmonics and warmth, giving the drums a fuller, more analog feel. Use a tape or tube saturation plugin sparingly to avoid distortion.

• Parallel Compression: Send the drum bus to a parallel compression bus for added punch. Apply heavy compression on the parallel bus and blend it back with the dry signal to taste. This technique retains the natural dynamics of the drums while adding density and impact.

• Reverb: Adding a little bit of reverb on the drum kit can help glue things together even more, creating the perception that the drum kit is existing in the same room.

By following these steps, you can achieve a professional and cohesive drum mix. From organizing your tracks and creating an initial balance to applying EQ, compression, reverb, and bus processing, each stage plays a crucial role in shaping your drum sound. Remember to listen in context with the entire mix, making adjustments to ensure the drums complement and enhance the other elements of your track. With practice and attention to detail, you'll be able to create drum mixes that are both impactful and polished, elevating the overall quality of your music. For more on mixing, check out our guide on How to Mix Music.