# New drum mix (Karnivool Sound Awake attempt)



## jaco815 (Aug 3, 2011)

Here is a drum mix I'm working on for my band's upcoming album/EP. I did this with XLN Audio Addictive Drums using a combination of various expansion packs or"AdPaks" as XLN calls them. This was all done with internal processing within AD (no external routing). 

Potential Final Drum Mix by On Impact on SoundCloud

The beats are a medley of grooves from Karnivool. I tried to imitate their drum sound from Sound Awake and got pretty close. I decided on a compromise between different sounds that represent the whole album (which has slight variances on the drum tone from song to song) so my snare is maybe not as pingy or my bass drum not as boomy as the bass on certain songs by them. 

The songs are: 

1. Simple Boy 
2. Set Fire to the Hive 
3. Umbra 
4. Goliath 
5. New Day 

Look em up on Youtube to compare

I made a few subtle changes to the tone to work towards my band's own sound (math/tech/prog metal mixed with some Tool-esque melodic riffs and some weirdness) so the bass punches and clicks a smidge harder and the snare has maybe a touch more smack to it. I've tried out this mix on my computer speakers (2x satellite plus woofer), two sets of headphones, studio monitors, and in my car, and it sounds good to me everywhere. For the final mix I will likely remove _some_ low end out of the floor toms, but other than that I think it's nearly done. 

Soon this drum sound will be layered with 2-4 tracks of djent-toned 8 string, some clean guitar occasionally, plenty of punchy mildly distorted slap bass, and lots of keys (so far... synths, arps, B3 and church organs, grand piano and electric piano) all over the place, and 2x vocalists, so maybe try to imagine the drum mix in that context. I have yet to see whether or not my drums will get swallowed up by the rest of the mix (I'm thinking more than likely). Our computers aren't powerful enough to process the full mix with everything live, so we are waiting until composition and guitar tracking are finalized before we move into the final drum mix. 

Any comments or suggestions for the drum mix are appreciated... I'll update the thread in the coming weeks if I get some clips available of the drums in context with a full mix.


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## bigswifty (Aug 12, 2011)

Awesome work man. 
Im no pro at this, but I feel like the room mic (or its equivalent here) is too 'loud'. The kick is a tiinyy bit open and whomp-sounding.
And bring out those crashes a tad.

If any of that made sense, then right on.
Otherwise, keep it up! Good choice of music too


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## TheSilentWater (Aug 15, 2011)

These tones are excellent, very close to the Sound Awake ones.


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## Van Heezey (Aug 22, 2011)

Wow that was all programmed? Jeeze. Forget EZdrummer, that sounded so natural.


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## JamieOxford (Oct 31, 2011)

> Im no pro at this, but I feel like the room mic (or its equivalent here) is too 'loud'. The kick is a tiinyy bit open and whomp-sounding.
> And bring out those crashes a tad.



The drums are very 'roomy'. You could have a go at sidechaining the room mics with the close mics to get some more attack and presence on the snare and toms.

For the kick you could try a cut somewhere between 150-350 which should take the openess and 'whomp' sound out.

Also have a go at mixing in context. Often the drums will sound too dry or too roomy on their own but will work great with the music. The cover of Goliath probably sounds most natural.

Great playing and choice of album!


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