Drum/song compression/low levels in mixdown in CWHS

[governmentcheez]

Hey gang,

First I'd like to say that because of this site and KVR-VST, I have been able to surmount so many obstacles and I am very grateful to you all.

The next mole hill is twofold. I'm trying to figure out how to compress drums for hip hop to make them hit hard. I have the cakewalk effects and compressor as well as the sonnitus effects and compressor. My problem is that I want my drums stronger, but they are redlining before and after I compress them. If I use a really high ratio, it seems to help a little, but the drums are too low (but out of the red) and when I turn the compressor gain to compensate, they redline again. I'm using CWHSXL and I need some advice on how and when to apply compression to get the punchiest drums. By the way, my samples are to notch. I'm not looking to sound like Dre or Timbo, but I would like my music to sound better (louder) when the process is complete. I know there is no secret to this, I'm just looking for fundamental rules i.e hip hop drums are usually compressed at 3:1 ratio with the gain at yada yada yada. Remember I'm a blond chic trying to do hip hop beats so my so called peers have been very little help. All i know is self taught from scratch so I apologize in advance for my noobie questions.

The second part of my question: After mixing down a track and burning to cd, the cd is much quieter than when the song is played on the computer b4 mixdown. I'm using Yorkville YSP1 monitors in a treated room and some really good (but cheap) studio headphones and everything sounds nice, loud and crisp through both sources while tracking. But even the un mixed tracks are louder than the mixed down song. The levels seems to lessen even more once on CD. Is compression and upping the gain the answer for this too? I don't know.

Thanks to all of the kind advice I've gotten, I have been able to craft two tracks that I'm really proud of and it sucks that I can't share them because of the low levels. I'll stand by, finger on the mouse, anxiously awaiting your pearls.

aIm

By the way, the headphones are made by Labtec (elite 820) and they are
$8 on the net. If your reaction is anything like mine when they were recommended to me, then your probably doubled over with laughter right now. However, I've compared them to $300 sony's and sennheiser's and the transparancy has been equal or better. The guy that recommended them to me is a professional engineer with all kinds of stuff at his disposal and he chooses these phones. They are not the sturdiest, but for $8 you can do what I did and order 4 pairs and still save a bundle. Besides, my yorkvilles ate the rest on the cash.