Im working on getting my drums done inside the RYTM and just separating the kick out for mixing with everything else on the main outs. This way I can use the distortion and compression on the RYTM and also get used to panning…etc. I just much prefer getting it all done and mixed inside the drum machine as I feel thats a better workflow for me than doing each sound in the DAW and I can sequence the whole track on the RYTM, which I also think will be awesome.
Id love to know anything you have learned while recording in this manner. For example - how hard do you pan your hats? Do you mix the hats and and snare a little louder or softer in the RYTM before you bounce? I am not 100% sure I am getting the levels and pans just right yet. Same with reverb and delay levls - still learning those. I am sure some of you all have already gone through this stuff and had to reprint some mixes a few times before you got it right so I thought I’d ask.
What I do so far -
HPF my sounds and resample so I have a filter free.
Light compression - I treat it more as a buss comp and mix it in parallel
I seem to like the distortion around 10 o clock for all 3 knobs and I use it to add grit but also some gain. Been messing with Delay in pre and verb in post.
Id love to get the drums as tight as I can out of the box. Sometimes I sample my TR8s into the RYTM so I can pitch and HPF the drums in that and then sample in the RYTM. Here is a track with killer drums and all the sounds came from the TR8s I think - I found them all. An example of what I mean by tight (drums come in around 1:05).
Also how you all process the stereo RYTM file in the mix is also interesting to me. I have some ideas to try - Saturn and Satin come to mind. But I’d love to hear what you all do.
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Something that I find really helpful for tight drums, especially when mixing them as just a stereo track + kick is to only let sounds “breathe” when they are necessary. I loveeee using the LFO in one shot exponential mode either on the amp or distortion of pretty much all my drums in order to get a transient shaper type effect; blasting out the punch of a clap and then quickly leaving the frequency space for a snare or whatever to take its place for example. If you need the LFO to do another task on the sound, resampling the pad is a great option (assuming you have a mk ii). You can get a similar effect with just a buss compressor or sidechaining, but from my experience they cannot carve space as well as hyper-careful VCA planning.
Its doable to just buss EQ everything post-Rytm outs, but if you want the mix cutting sound of the hihats and clap in the reference track you posted you will have to resample a few times with the notch filter/HP to pre-equalize the track. You have the right idea with bringing the kick out on its own, since a muddy low end will remove any perceivable tightness your other drums will have.
In terms of leveling, a buss compressor is a must here. Thankfully the Rytm’s compressor does this job pretty well and, if you want to stay out of the DAW for as long as possible, the external in is fed through it so if your soundcard/mixer allows you can route the kick post-outboard mixed back into the machine you can keep your drums as “one” instrument instead of two. Personally I go back and forth about panning in club centric music, as when I’m at a party I’m always right in front dancing all around a less-than-ideal stereo listening environment, so when a producer decides to place their open hat a little to the right and their closed accent hats a little to the left the vibe gets lost on me fast. At the same time though mono mixes can be a little boring in a well-set-up home listening environments, or where 90% of the crowd usually is in clubs, so it just depends on your philosophy on who is the ideal audience for your music. ![:slight_smile: :slight_smile:](https://www.elektronauts.com/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=9)
Finally, I found the best way to figure out how to level my own drums was to take a stripped down track/part of a track I love and throw it into my DAW, studying the waveform and trying to mimic the balance of the drum parts. You don’t have to recreate the beat or try and make a mastered sound out of a pre-mixed drum pattern, but just pay attention to where the transients of the waves are hitting, what is where in the mix, and how relatively similar drum sounds “play” off each other’s volume, especially things like snares vs rims vs claps, toms vs kick, and hi hats vs cymbals. Usually issues where a sound isn’t cutting through like you want it to is an EQ problem and not a general volume problem, so make sure to study up on the cognitive principles of mixing and how we interpret and attribute non-sonic qualities to sounds! ![:cowboy_hat_face: :cowboy_hat_face:](https://www.elektronauts.com/images/emoji/twitter/cowboy_hat_face.png?v=9)
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Thank you! Love the LFO tip a lot, thats freaking genius. Im all over that one. And yes I can resample, which really takes the RYTM to the next level, imo.
Additionally on the panning, this is something I was thinking as well. It just seems to sound better with no panning and the space made more by the reverb and delay FX. I need to mess with this more.
I think one reason the track I referenced sounds tight is because I suspect everything is down the middle on the drums. I could be wrong but it sure seems that way to my ears. He did some pretty aggressive autopan on some of the guitar samples and that throws me off a little when analyzing.
I also found some breaks where I could hear the clap on its own, the snare in the beginning and there is definitely some nice transient design there, so this LFO technique you are mentioning is so dope.
Im really enjoying this process because once I dial in the sound I want, I can save this as a template and then get back to song mode and track creation.
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