how to enhance drum loops with plugins / UAD?

[joshcamp]

I use drum loops exclusively in my recordins because they are convenient. However, I also feel they are lacking something -perhaps punch or intensity.
How are you using drum loops? Are you happy with how they sound in your mixes? what are you doing to them to make them sound good?

I 've tried using UAD comps to try to get more punch but they end up sucking the life out of the loops... perhaps i'm not using them correctly. I've used the LA2A and 1176SE plugs on the loops and neither work very good on loops. i've tried the pultec eq and it seems to add a nice effect on the loops but still they lack punch.

help??!

*ps - i should note that I am using Sonar 5 and various loops (mostly acidized loops from Sony)

 

[Eurocide]

Try the upward compression of the Precision Multibandcompressor. Or gating some frequency bands. This really rocks!

With the 1176 you should also get a lot of punch when you use it parallel to the original loop.

 

[joshcamp]

i dont have the precision multi comp -- although i have a waves multi comp -i'll try that.

i dont know what you mean by using the 1176 in parallel - please excuse my ignorance.
my guess is that you mean to duplicate the loop and use the 1176 on the dupe???

 

[Guest]

i dont have the precision multi comp -- although i have a waves multi comp -i'll try that.

i dont know what you mean by using the 1176 in parallel - please excuse my ignorance.
my guess is that you mean to duplicate the loop and use the 1176 on the dupe???

That means...
I think you can assign 1176 on the bus
and mix original sound and 1176 sound.

 

[Eric Dahlberg]

Yup, parallel compression will do it.

 

[TnMike]

I'm from the old school of recording on an analog board and parallel compression was a no no. It was ok on reverbs and mod. effects but engineers always said to run a compressor directly into the inserts or patch bay in serial connection.
So is this now different in the digital domain?? Is it \"a good thing\" to run compressors parallel??
thanks,
TnMike

 

[brian]

I'm from the old school of recording on an analog board and parallel compression was a no no. It was ok on reverbs and mod. effects but engineers always said to run a compressor directly into the inserts or patch bay in serial connection.
So is this now different in the digital domain?? Is it "a good thing" to run compressors parallel??
thanks,
TnMike

Parallel compression was never a no no as far as I know. You don't have to accomplish it using sends if that is what you're thinking, although there is nothing wrong with that (so long as you have sends to spare). It's neither a good nor bad thing really, it just gives you a certain type of sound.

When mixed in the right proportion to the uncompressed track, you retain the original transients and high-frequency response (usually gets dampened by compressors, especially if they have fast attack) while getting the increased density/body of the compressed version. The key to this is getting the relationship right and how you EQ the compressed track.

If you want to add more life to your loops, experiment with layering others on top and maybe compressing them side-chained to another kick sample you throw in to get them moving in time with the music.

Also try multing your signal to 3 channels:
1- compressing a little,
2 - compressing a good bit w/ some top and bottom end added
3 - slamming, maybe mixed with some distortion

Now ride the 3 faders during the mix to fade in the heavier sounding versions as the song builds up or during moments of intensity.

Or like Eurocide has suggested, play around with gates and don't be afraid to get aggressive with them.

BTW what genre of music are you making? For example in dance music you can get pretty freaky with filtering and pumping to add excitement to loops but it would sound very out of context in traditional acoustic music.

 

[TnMike]

I'm basically doing acoustic type drums samples: blues/country/popish stuff.

I always heard not to put a compressor into an aux because the entire compressor signal needed to be used in the processing of the compressor...therefore parallel (aux) would not sound very good.

Glad to know that is not the case. I am going to set up aux sends for my drums and insert the 1176se ...that will help on sparing DAW resources!
Thanks for the info.
TnMike

p.s. Is the 1176LN version \"That\" much better for drums than the SE version?

 

[Fundy]

Supposely there is and if I recall correctly from the demo, you can drive it bit harder without sacrificing as much sound quaiity. However I am happy with the SE version and the 24/7 plug-in that comes with my TC Electronics
Powercore.

 

[Akis]

p.s. Is the 1176LN version "That" much better for drums than the SE version?

Yes, it is. For everything, actually.

 

[macaroni]

I've had great luck using the new Neve 33609 on drum loops, but not with drastic compression, just moderate compression with limiting to catch the peaks, and crank the gain a bit. That plus the Neve EQ. They're a great combination.