5 Minutes To A Better Mix III: Compress Drums Quietly

Part 9 of 31 – Want a hack to get good compression settings on drums? Turn down your speakers. I mean way down. Then start dialing in the compression.

Anything Can Sound Good Loud

The truth is, it’s easy to fool yourself into thinking your drums sound awesome if you mix with them at loud volumes. The trick is to set your compression levels when the drums are super quiet. If you can get them to snap and have punch at low volumes, you’re dialing in the right amount of compression.