Artistic effects on drums

While there’s a heavy focus on EQ and dynamics processing when mixing, finding unusual ways of incorporating effects is brilliant for developing your artistic style. For example, stereo effects like flanging or phasing can transform percussion in several ways: setting a rapid LFO time with a mostly dry mix will add subtle ‘dancing’ width, whereas slowing the effect down and adding more wet signal will give more of a drifting, obviously processed sound.

Reverb is commonly used when mixing beats, to give the impression that the drums are in a certain space; however, it can also be used to complement the arrangement. If there’s a section of your track that doesn’t have any bass in it, for example, using a subtle, short mono reverb send from your kick will add in some extra low frequency rumble that can be muted when the track’s bassline finally drops in.

Another top trick: if you’ve got an 1176-style compressor plugin, use it on your drum bus or overheads with all of the ratio buttons pushed in at once. This assertive ‘all buttons in’ mode will give you a hypercompressed yet musically pumping sound that’s instantly recognisable from hundreds of hit records. Creative compression such as this is great for giving beats a sense of forceful movement and interaction that will bring everything together and help you customise the liveliness of your drums as a whole. You’ll find a few more compression tips on the opposite page.