Insider’s Secrets
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14
Drums
In the world of recording, there’s probably no greater challenge than getting powerful and precise
drum sounds. The 1176LN has long been the compressor of choice for engineers for kick drum, snare
drum, and overhead or ambient mics.
“I’ll always place one big mic, like a U47 (Neumann) or a ribbon mic such as a Coles or Royer, five or
six feet in front of the drums,” confides Grammy-winning engineer Jay Newland (Norah Jones). “I try to
get the whole drum set to sound good through that one mic and then put it through an 1176. That’s
the secret weapon track. The 1176 compresses and makes it sound bigger and more present and a lot
more exciting without having to crush it. I just it give a healthy 3 - 5 dB of compression and turn up
the gain a little bit—it sounds great! If I have that mono track, where the whole drum kit sounds
balanced, then I can build a decent drum sound with whatever else I have.”
“The 1176 is standard equipment for my sessions,” adds
studio owner / engineer and well-known industry “golden
ear” Allen Sides (Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day). “I mult the left
and right [drum] overheads and bring them back on the
console, then insert a pair of 1176s [in All-button mode] into
a pair of the mults. [That] puts the unit into overdrive,
creating a very impressive sound.”
Engineer Andy Johns employs a similar technique. “What you do is, you run your room mics through a
couple of 1176s, just so that they are nudging a bit. This brings up the decay time of the room when
your guy hits the bass drum or the snare. If it’s a very quick tempo it won’t work, but at medium or
half-time tempo it brings up the room. It’s wonderful and there is not another compressor that will do
it the same way as an 1176.”
“When I am mixing,” he adds, “I mult the bass drum and the snare. The bass drum will not be even, so
the first bass drum track—the one that doesn’t have the 1176 on it—gets to breathe. Then I put
another bass drum next to it with an 1176 at a 4:1 [ratio setting]. That evens it out a bit. I sneak that
in and the bass drum is more constant. Of course, you have to change your EQs appropriately... for the
snare, I use one normal track that I EQ to death. Then I will use another one that has gone through a
gate. I put an 1176 on it to make it pop [and] I sneak that in... and all of a sudden the snare just
comes up.”
Indeed, the perception of distortion is increased with lower frequencies in “All-Button” mode. That’s
why, given the frequencies and transients created by the kick drum, the 1176LN can almost literally
make an overhead or room mic explode. As reviewer Trevor Curwen points out, “[All-buttons mode] can
give a quite awesome compressed sound. This is particularly useful in creating a larger than life drum
sound, where compressing the room mics on a drum kit, combined with careful setting of the release
control, can really squeeze out the room ambience.”
“
The 1176 is standard
equipment for my sessions
”
— engineer Allen Sides
