A question on mixing drum duels

[Troisnyx]

I ask this with regards to virtual drum duels, where two people join together, set a beat, then have sections of call-and-response, and then parts where both of them play together.

There are three tracks -- a 'metronome' track of sorts, where someone just softly keeps the time, and then the duellists' playing. Since it's going to be all percussion, how do I balance them out without them sounding muddled up? Help is greatly appreciated.

If anyone doesn't understand, feel free to ask questions. Expressing things in words is not my best suit.

[frootza]

I'm attempting to bump this thread, because, for reasons not yet unveiled, I too am quite interested in this topic and may be able to shed some light on the topic (hypothetically speaking)...

Does anyone have any tips on mixing drums in a duel-like fashion?

For example, in this duel, there seems to be three separate drum tracks. One a bit of a "pulse", the two others, the main drum tracks. Also it seems we are referring to ONE drum only, not a complete drum set.

Any tips as far as EQ'ing, reverb recommendations, and things of that nature would be ideal I presume.

[Deemo-R]

Haven't really given thought to drum duels before, but I assume placing them a bit apart in the stereo image would probably be a good idea. Panning one slightly to the left and the other to the right seems like a pretty basic setup. As far as EQ and such goes, I have no clue. I did, however, recently discover a nice (and cheap) directional EQ plug-in that might be of some use, thanks to Pensado's Place: http://www.ddmf.eu/product.php?id=12

I don't have any suggestions otherwise. I don't mix well :P

[Eagleon]

At 11/18/14 08:48 AM, Troisnyx wrote: I ask this with regards to virtual drum duels, where two people join together, set a beat, then have sections of call-and-response, and then parts where both of them play together.

There are three tracks -- a 'metronome' track of sorts, where someone just softly keeps the time, and then the duellists' playing. Since it's going to be all percussion, how do I balance them out without them sounding muddled up? Help is greatly appreciated.

If anyone doesn't understand, feel free to ask questions. Expressing things in words is not my best suit.

Stereo placement? I know people like to say to mix so that everything sounds great in mono, but you have two (three? One for your drone maybe) instruments, it makes sense for them to be in different locations in your performance. That would keep things seperated. A very light low-pass filter on the drone track could make it seem a little bit more distant from the rest. You can use the same on the main instruments to sort of push them further away during different parts, using even lighter filtering.

Also the volumes of each probably don't quite match ideally with what the other is playing. An envelope on all three tracks' volume multiplier can let you raise and lower them smoothly to bring one out to the front, bring together parts you think complement each other, etc. I've never done a dueling piece, but that's how I'd do it if I wasn't recording them all together.

Edit: And if you're using the same instruments (self-recorded) don't forget to pitch-shift one or the other slightly to make it sound a little different. It might sound muddled because your drums are reaching the same timbres, have the same overtones, etc. Just little distortions to things that don't make it sound artificial could make a big difference

[Troisnyx]

At 11/18/14 07:15 PM, Eagleon wrote:

At 11/18/14 08:48 AM, Troisnyx wrote: I ask this with regards to virtual drum duels, where two people join together, set a beat, then have sections of call-and-response, and then parts where both of them play together.

There are three tracks -- a 'metronome' track of sorts, where someone just softly keeps the time, and then the duellists' playing. Since it's going to be all percussion, how do I balance them out without them sounding muddled up? Help is greatly appreciated.

If anyone doesn't understand, feel free to ask questions. Expressing things in words is not my best suit.

Stereo placement? I know people like to say to mix so that everything sounds great in mono, but you have two (three? One for your drone maybe) instruments, it makes sense for them to be in different locations in your performance. That would keep things seperated. A very light low-pass filter on the drone track could make it seem a little bit more distant from the rest. You can use the same on the main instruments to sort of push them further away during different parts, using even lighter filtering.

Three, technically two. Let me clarify -- one drum does both the duel and the pulse in separate tracks, and another does the second duel part. The one that does two parts is tuned to E3 (if middle C is C4), and mine is tuned to about G2. So I'm kinda not sure how to go about it.

Edit: And if you're using the same instruments (self-recorded) don't forget to pitch-shift one or the other slightly to make it sound a little different. It might sound muddled because your drums are reaching the same timbres, have the same overtones, etc. Just little distortions to things that don't make it sound artificial could make a big difference

Gotcha. Thanks! ^_^ When I get to recording and mixing, I'll post progress.