Analysis of S6E09: DC Breaks – Dancefloor Drums & Transients

Second production tutorial this season from DC Breaks, this time featuring Dan from the duo.

—
Part 1 (33:39)
– Looking at how to keep drums sounding really big in the mix, keeping the transients punching all the way through to the limiting/clipping/mastering stage, making sure the kick & snare have a clean path to the limiter and are not fighting for space with other elements in the mix.
– To demonstrate, using stems from “Swag (2017 Version)”.
– Finds that having fewer elements used in a track helps with the mix process.

02:40 – found that stemming tracks to be cathartic in the song writing process.

03:40 – stresses the importance of drum selection.
– This track uses a single kick, not a layered kick.
– The snare consists of three layers: punchy vs. character vs. transient.

06:00 – tuning the transient snare layer.
– Uses Battery4 to modify, pitching down the sample and using an EQ cut.
– A/B’s snares with two different versions of the transient layer.
– Wants all three layers pushing the same fundamental frequency.

08:50 – plays the rest of the drums.

09:20 – states he is happy with the top end drums, sometimes uses a sidechain triggered by the kick, and sometimes triggered by the snares.

09:50 – demonstration of swapping in new drums for the kick and snare.
– Uses samples they provided to this season of Sample Genie.
– Layering kicks in Battery, says once he is done picking layers, he then stems (bounces) each, and then processes.

13:30 – moves on to new snares.

16:15 – stemming out layers.

17:05 – snare bus created.
– EQ dip at main snare frequency, on the high layer snare.

19:00 – touches on how low cut EQ can create phase issues.

19:30 – brings up phase reversing, can sometimes sync up layers well.

20:20 – favorite transient shaper -> iZotope Neutron2

20:30 – defines a transient as the beginning of a sound, the initial burst of energy.

22:30 – goes in to the process of transient shaping.
— Recommends searching for YouTube videos by Michael White, the Mixing With Mike series (https://www.youtube.com/user/mpginsidervideo), says he has a great video on Neutron.

26:00 – looking at the kick, first bounces a stem, then sends to a new bus.

29:00 – parallel compression as another technique to shape transients.
– Recommends a piece of software called Plugin Doctor (https://ddmf.eu/plugindoctor/), allows users to analyze how plugins affect audio signals, e.g. extra noise added to the signal.
– States that he prefers transient designers over parallel compression.

—
Part 2 (34:06)
– Transient retention, going over how to clear out space in other stems, in order to clean up the mix.
– Sidechaining is the most obvious technique, but in the mix stage Dan shows how to chop the sub bass audio stem, aligning cuts with each kick hit.

02:45 – fades on sub bass audio clips, also shows truncating the clips a tiny amount, so the sub comes in slightly after the kicks hit.
– Subtle, but when A/B’d you can hear some distortion when the kick and sub bass are layered 100% vs. the slight changes.
– Also describes using this technique during the mix stag, not during the sketch/development phase.

04:45 – mid/side editing, going into the relationship between snares and mid-range bass.
– First demonstrates the same chopping method, this time cutting the mid-range bass audio stem where the snares hit, then applies fades.
– Dan actually likes the grit on the snare from when these sounds play together, so he wants to find another method to make space in the mix.

06:10 – other methods of chipping.
– Split mid-range bass audio in to two audio clips, a mid clip and a side clip, then bounced to stems.
– Recommends the GHz Midside Matrix 3 (https://goodhertz.co/midside-matrix), a free plugin.
– Drums occupy more of the mid frequencies, so focus is put on the mid-range bass’s mid stem. States that he uses this method on lots of other audio sources, e.g. horns, pads, etc.

09:00 – a quick look & overview of Trackspacer plugin.

10:50 – the stereo image.

12:00 – another way to make sure the snare is mono up to a particular frequency (200~300 Hz range) is to low-cut out the side channel in an EQ.
– Demonstrates using a gentle slop in FabFilter Pro-Q3.
– Also does this on mid-range bass.

15:15 – Grouping drums to one bus.
– Sub-mix drum busses end up routed to the last drum bus.
– Likes having iZotope Neutron2 on the final drum bus, to tighten the drums up.
– Next does some parallel compression, just an insert with a mix of wet & dry signal.
– Also demos some tape emulation to thicken the drums.

19:30 – the master bus -> “the final stage of the process”
– Gain plugin to take gain down a little.
– Compressor that enhances high end, takes out some low end.
– EQ with a sub boost.

21:50 – limiter vs. transients.
– Touches on a few different limiter options.
– Focus on limiters that have some sort of transient features.

—–
THOUGHTS & QUESTIONS

– I found the technique of making sure all three snare layers are pushing the same fundamental frequency to be interesting. I think it makes sense in regards to phase relationship, have to test out myself.
– Also want to try the mid/side processing techniques, as well as the kick/sub and snare/mid-range stem technique.