do you always use a DRUMBUS?

[Caine123]

i just used a drumbus the FIRST TIME! wow, after 7 years ;D. well it sounds really nice, somehow more glued for me. i used only supercharger gt on the drum bus with compression for 2-3dB.
what do you use on drumbus and do you always use it?

also would u use a drumbus if you already prepared each percussion with e.g. saturation, eq, compression?

[Googly Smythe]

I not only use a drum bus but also a cymbals bus and a percussion (tambourine, cowbell, shakers, etc) bus and put them through another bus. Balance them together, then balance them against the rest of the instruments.
This is mostly because I can't hear any cymbals except through my phone's speaker - I'm constantly asking for 2nd opinions as to their level.
I use the Waves REDD 37/51 and API 2500 on the subs and PuigChild on the group.

[camsr]

would u use a drumbus if you already prepared each percussion with e.g. saturation, eq, compression?

Usually no. I bus tracks by foreground/background most of the time, a great tip from Kim Lajoie!
If there is a reason for a drum bus, it's usually compression. This makes the kit more cohesive but also diminishes the character and dynamic of the individual kit pieces.

[Andy Gone]

I always use drum buss, and also guitars buss and vocals buss for that matter Easier to control, can put buss compression or effect if needed.

[stardustmedia]

I also use a drum buss. There is a compressor, but it hardly does 1 dB of GR. I don't think that electronic music really needs dynamic reduction, but the comp can still help glueing things together, give them a touch of "color" (depending on the comp used).

[RichieWitch]

Yes, I always use a drum bus, even if I have individually tweaked the different kit sounds. At a minimum, I will put a filter on each drum sound to give all the sounds their own space. My favorite drum buss compressor is u-He's Presswerk. It's fantastic at glue-ing the sound together and let's me add a touch of tube-like saturation as well.

By making a bus, I can can also adjust the sound levels of the individual drum sounds, then use the bus fader to adjust the drums to sit in the mix. I can also route my drum bus to a single send for a cohesive reverb effect. Usually, all the drums should sound like they're in the same room together.

Like others have said, these same techniques work well for other buses: vocals, layered synths, multi-mic'd guitars, etc. It really helps keep things organized when you're mixing and creates an easy logic to follow when setting individual track levels for balance.

[d-s-m]

I have a drum bus, and inside that I have sub-busses for kicks, snares, hats and cymbals....etc.

[Keith99]

Yeh I tend to put kick and bass on a bus so they 'move' together and have another drum buss for everything else

[Caine123]

a compressor is the only thing which is normall on a drumbus isnt it?
what settings do you have around mostly (vague, i know there i not ONE setting) .

this is mine for a project im trying busses out.



it is reacting at about -2 till -3 dB, i think more shouldnt be? as i already applied comps on the single elements + saturation etc.

[cryophonik]

a compressor is the only thing which is normall on a drumbus isnt it?

Not necessarily. Sometimes, it makes sense to add hi-pass/low-pass filters to eliminate unwanted frequencies prior to compression and maybe another EQ after the compression to restore any lost frequencies. In some musical styles, hi-pass or low-pass filter sweeps are common effects for the drums, so it makes sense in most cases (not always, though) to apply one filter to the entire drum bus, rather than filtering each individual drum track. Basically, any time that you want to process or apply creative effects to several drum instruments simultaneously, it's usually more convenient and easier on the CPU to bus those parts and process them as one. Same goes for other instruments. Personally, I pretty much always have, at a minimum, buses routed for drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, lead vocals, and BG vocals on every project.

[Caine123]

a compressor is the only thing which is normall on a drumbus isnt it?

Not necessarily. Sometimes, it makes sense to add hi-pass/low-pass filters to eliminate unwanted frequencies prior to compression and maybe another EQ after the compression to restore any lost frequencies. In some musical styles, hi-pass or low-pass filter sweeps are common effects for the drums, so it makes sense in most cases (not always, though) to apply one filter to the entire drum bus, rather than filtering each individual drum track. Basically, any time that you want to process or apply creative effects to several drum instruments simultaneously, it's usually more convenient and easier on the CPU to bus those parts and process them as one. Same goes for other instruments. Personally, I pretty much always have, at a minimum, buses routed for drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, lead vocals, and BG vocals on every project.

thanks a lot mate! well i process my kick, snare and hihats mostly each as i have then more control about the impact, distortion etc.
or if i layer 2 kicks i couldnt effects them together in one bus cause they need to get prepared seperately not to interfere each other.

[camsr]

a compressor is the only thing which is normall on a drumbus isnt it?
what settings do

If you want to sound old school, put a echo-ey reverb before the compressor.

[highkoo]

I never really plan to have a drum buss, but I end up with one or two in nearly every track...
They are useful.

[Caine123]

a compressor is the only thing which is normall on a drumbus isnt it?
what settings do

If you want to sound old school, put a echo-ey reverb before the compressor.

can u give me an example?

[camsr]

My tastes in reverb have changed wildly over the years. But a few times I have used Kjaerhus Classic Reverb for it's modality, Ambience for it's texture, and Glaceverb for tone. These are all very old and free plugins x64 need not apply also. I tend to use convolution these days.