There is a cool snare/kick balance trick I borrowed from Nolly (Periphery):
- Put a compressor on the drum bus (Nolly uses FG-Grey from slate which is perfect for the task)
- use the following settings: Attack = 0.3, Release = fastest, Ratio 4:1
- lower the threshold until a single kick hit is compressed by 1 dB, and a snare hit is compressed by 3 dB.
- If the snare hits for more than 3 dB when the kick sits at -1 dB you have either way too much low end in the snare (which makes the snare hit the compressor harder) or the volume of the snare is simply too loud. Just lower it until it sits at -3db
- If the snare hits for less than 3db raise the volume of the snare until it gets compressed by 3db.
Next step is to balance the bass with the kick. use VUMT or any other VU meter and check how hard a single kick hits the VU meter (put it in solo). Now unmute the bass and let them both play together - the volume should be 3db higher now. That's the sweet spot
Now you have kick, snare and bass in good balance and the rest of the mix is kinda easy.
- Put a compressor on the drum bus (Nolly uses FG-Grey from slate which is perfect for the task)
- use the following settings: Attack = 0.3, Release = fastest, Ratio 4:1
- lower the threshold until a single kick hit is compressed by 1 dB, and a snare hit is compressed by 3 dB.
- If the snare hits for more than 3 dB when the kick sits at -1 dB you have either way too much low end in the snare (which makes the snare hit the compressor harder) or the volume of the snare is simply too loud. Just lower it until it sits at -3db
- If the snare hits for less than 3db raise the volume of the snare until it gets compressed by 3db.
Next step is to balance the bass with the kick. use VUMT or any other VU meter and check how hard a single kick hits the VU meter (put it in solo). Now unmute the bass and let them both play together - the volume should be 3db higher now. That's the sweet spot
Now you have kick, snare and bass in good balance and the rest of the mix is kinda easy.