important fact I learned today....
When mixing drums, apparently compression should come before the EQ. I was having all kinds of problems getting my bass drums to punch through the mix, even though the meter was saying the bass was peaking quite a bit. I pulled the bass drum EQ, put the compressor before the EQ, and BAM!!! The bass drums were loud, boomy, and shook the room. So, I guess it's good to compress the raw sound, then EQ to taste from there.
Also, I don't agree entirely with the matrix in your last post there, Chris. If you were to hit the compressor at 1-5 ms on a kick, snare, or tom, you'll just about completely destroy the attack. I could post some clips A/B-ing if you'd like. The compressor is kind of like a wah, IMO; you have to find the sweet spot. For drum recording, I've found the sweet spot on the compressor to be around 20-30 ms for the attack, and about 100-250 ms for the release. On the drums I'm recording right now, I was using a 12:1 compression on the bass drum with an attack of 25 ms and a release of 100 ms, threshold at about -15 dB. Same for the snare and toms, only the compression ratio drops to 4:1 for those drums because I want a balance between drum sound and attack. The higher the ratio, the more attack & the less the natural drum sound. It's great for added 'click' on bass drums and added snap on snare and toms, but you have to find a happy medium for your own taste.
