It’s always great to work with a multi-tracked drum kit. It allows us to EQ, compress and tweak every single element of the drums to shape their sound and get a perfect sounding kit. But sometimes, by doing this, we might forget to look at the bigger picture and listen to how all these elements are working in the context of the song. That’s why many mixing engineers take a top-down mixing approach. They start by working with the sound of the whole drum kit first, and then go into each track if necessary to fix any potential issue they might be hearing.

Today we want to show you how to get a great sound out of your drum tracks using nothing but Satson CS and Tuco in your drum bus.

First Things First

Before adding any plugin we need to find a good level balance between the drum tracks. Unless we only have one mono or stereo track that captured the whole performance, it’s important to set our fader levels so we end up with a good sounding representation of our drums. Think about what the function of the drums are in the song and listen to them in context with the rest of the instruments playing. A good gain staging can help you get this sweet spot for your drum mix quicker.

Once the drums are making us bounce our heads to the rhythm of the song, let’s set an Aux track and route all the drum tracks to that Aux — this is our drum bus. Now, all the drums are controlled by one single fader and can be processed all at once.

Satson CS

The first plugin we are going to add is Satson CS. This modular channel strip has everything we need to make our drums sound clearer, bigger and punchier. The default state is a great place to start.

Using the Satson channel as our first module, we can make sure we have a good level coming into the plugin whilst adding some of that classic solid state console coloration. Filtering anything below 30 Hz with the high pass filter, we can clean our drums from any built up rumble whilst preserving the low end energy.

The second module in our chain is the compressor module. With this module we will try to even out the dynamics of our drums and keep the low end in check. With a 4:1 ratio, start dialling the amount until we get between 5 and 6 dBs of gain reduction. Then, set the release time so we get a natural decay sound. This value will vary depending on the tempo of the song. Finally, increase the attack time until the drums aren’t pumping too much and compensate for the gain reduction with the make up gain.

Now that we have shaped the envelope of our drums it’s time to shape its tone. Although there is no “One EQ curve to rule them all”, there are a couple of frequencies you might want to have a listen to get your drum sound record-ready. That’s where the 4 fully parametric bands from the EQ module come in handy. Generally speaking, you would probably want to push the low end around 60 or 90 Hz, cut any boxiness around 350 Hz and enhance the presence and air in your kit around 3 kHz and 10 kHz upwards.

For the last module in Satson CS we can add another Satson channel module to add extra saturation. Engage the Gain Compensation switch and push the fader to drive the channel to your liking. This will add extra harmonics that would help to make the drums more present in the mix.

Tuco

Finally, after Satson CS, we’ll add the drum glue par excellence: Tuco. This vari-mu compressor can apply a final touch to the sound of any drums. You can follow two different approaches: regular compression or parallel compression.

For a regular compression you can use a slow attack compression or limiter option and dial the amount to taste. The key in this method is the slow attack; this way the transient is not grabbed completely by the compressor, creating a punchier sound.

If you opt for the parallel compression method, you can go more extreme with the settings. Set the limiter to fast attack mode and go hard with the amount. Then, start increasing the dry signal by turning the mix knob anti-clockwise. Try between 60 and 70% mix — you’ll get a nice balance between a natural and aggressive drum sound.

Have a listen to these example with the processing On and Off:

• Drum Bus Processing On

• Drum Bus Processing Off

What do you think about this setup? This top-down mixing approach can save you time and processing power in your mixing session. Plugins like Satson CS and Tuco can make this approach even easier and faster since you have all the tools you need to get a powerful drum sound as a whole with just two insert slots.

Do you use a top-down mixing approach for drums? How do you use Satson CS and Tuco in your drum tracks? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get notified about all our products and tutorials.