Keeping drums in phase

Recorded drums can be one of the most challenging aspects of a mix. Getting the punch and power out of a drum kit while making sure it sits well in the mix can be difficult, and the first order of business is to check the phase of tracks. When audio signals are mixed, if the peaks and valleys of the waveforms are lined up, it will reinforce the sound. If the signals are not aligned, you instead will get a cancelation of signals, which can remove sounds entirely or make things sound strange, almost as if you are listening to them through a pipe.

Even when a drum kit is set up with mics situated super close to the instruments and gating or other noise reduction is used, there is still some bleed that occurs between the tracks, and this can cause phase cancelation issues. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to check phase and we’re going to do that in this recipe.

Getting ready

For this recipe, you will need a Pro Tools session with a drum kit recording...