Take Control of Your Drum Bus

A mix bus is a channel within a DAW used for independently processing multiple tracks through a single channel; for instance, a single signal chain can be used to process an entire group of instruments, and level and pan adjustments can also be made through that single channel. The following tutorial will show you how to take control of your drum bus and make your drums sound better.

As usual, we'll begin by listening to the short sequence created in our SoundBridge: DAW, which contains most of the whole mix's elements, including the drums.

~Full Mix - Drums (Unprocessed)

Create Group Channels for High and Mid Drum Elements

The audio example above shows multiple drum elements lacking power and clarity. You could process them individually, but grouping and processing them in a bus is better. Let's separate and group the drum elements in the mid and high ranges. The shakers and hi-hats are in the high range, while the claps and percussions are mid-range.

~Drums Mid Group - Unprocessed

~Drums Hi Group - Unprocessed

Add Appropriate Processing

Let's begin by applying EQ to each group channel of our drum elements. We will use EQ to boost and attenuate specific frequencies, which will be the first step in improving the overall drum sound.

~Drums Mid & Hi Groups - Unprocessed

~Drums Mid & Hi Groups - Processed With an EQ

After we've subtly processed the drums with an EQ, the following step is to blend it a little better with the other elements of the entire mix by using reverb, which will be fed to the drum group channels via a new return track we'll create within SoundBridge: DAW.

~Drums Mid & Hi Groups - Processed With Reverb

Take Control of Your Drum Bus

At this point, it's a good idea to continue processing the drums mid and high groups by selecting their channels and grouping them as one group channel. We'll then call this bus "DRUMS ALL GROUP." Finally, We'll process our drums with a few extra effects on the newly created group channel. The first effect in line is a stereo spread effect, which will make our drums sound wider. The second effect would be a compressor to improve the overall dynamics of the drum sounds. Finally, let us hear the Drum bus in the context of the full mix.

~Drums All Group - Processed With Stereo Wider & Compressor

~Full Mix - Drums (Processed)

If you liked this article about mixing audio, you can also check out these articles on the same subject:

• Add a Telephone Effect to Your Vocals
• Make an Outstanding Shaker Loop
• Put The Kick Drum in Front of Your Mix
• How to Pan Instruments in Your Mix