Boosting Drum Transients
Everybody has heard of compression and knows that it can make a big impact on your mixes if used correctly. A thing I hear almost nothing about though, is instead of compressing drum transients is boosting them!
Since I started using this technique my drums have never been the same. I use it on my kick and snare in every mix I do.
So how do you boost your drum transients? For this I use the digital plug-in version of the SPL Transient Designer. I’m sure there are other plug-ins out there that do the same but as far as I’m aware of SPL is the first one that created this possibility. Plus, there’s no reason for me to look for any other solutions, since the SPL is Awesome.
I simply turn the attack knob to give my kick and snare a little extra punch (by increasing the transient, the large spike on sound impact) and make sure to use the gain knob to avoid any possible digital clipping. Often, I’ll compress and use the transient designer at the same time. Sometimes I’ll put the compression first, transient designer second and sometimes the reverse. I really like what that combination does to my sound.
It’s quick, it’s easy and it delivers. Try it out and let me know what you think about the results. All the drums in my packages (free and premium) have not been processed yet using this technique so you won’t have to be afraid to over-process.
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