Getting your drums to hit hard can be one of the most crucial aspects of music production, no matter what genre you are producing. You want to feel that satisfying thump in your chest when the kick drum hits and hear that crispy snap from the snare. It’s that punch and presence that brings your whole mix together and can often determine how much energy your tracks have. I’ve heard a lot of drums in my day, and some just seem to explode out of the speakers, and others sit meekly in the background, lacking impact and power.

Knowing how to make your drums hit hard can seem like a mystery, but there are several processing techniques you can use that will take your mixes to the next level. We’re going to explore what these techniques are, including those that you’re likely already using! So get your DAW open and your speakers ready because we’re about to completely change the way your drums sound.

Table of Contents:

Volume Balance for Hard Hitting Drums

Getting your volume balance right before you apply processing can make a huge difference. It can be extremely frustrating getting everything perfect on your drum bus and then going back to adjust individual drums, forcing you to rework the bus processing altogether. Sometimes when the drums just don’t seem to hit as hard as I want, I discover that the volume is the culprit.

Kick and Snare Should Be the Loudest

Your snare and kick drum form the backbone of your drum kit. In almost all cases, you want to make sure these two drum elements are the loudest elements in your mix. Then, bring in your hi-hats, toms, and other percussion elements, panning them around your center elements so that each has its own space in your stereo image.

If you have room microphones, I often suggest waiting to introduce those until you get your core kit pieces playing well together. These microphones give you a broader image of your kit in your mix. By bringing these in at the end of the balancing process, you’ll have an easier time adjusting how loud they should be in the mix. You want enough to give the impression of ambience, but not so much that they bury your core drum sounds.  It’s also worth making sure that your drums were recorded in an environment with decent room treatment for a pro sound.

Add Punch with Parallel Compression

One of the most useful techniques to get a more impactful drum mix is parallel compression, and many popular producers even apply it to the master bus.  Essentially what you are doing is heavily compressing a signal (for instance your bus) on an auxiliary channel with an aggressive ratio and a fast attack. 

Once processed on the auxiliary channel, slowly bring up the auxiliary channel volume, allowing those compressed sounds to subtly “pop through”. This method is highly sought-after in heavier genres, though it can be incredibly useful for adding punch to EDM, hip-hop, and even indie pop.

“Everything is locked into place,” said Scot Halpin, a fan that once sat behind Keith Moon’s expansive kit, “…anyplace you could hit there would be something there.”

Parallel compression works incredibly well for busier drum parts where the drummer might be a little “wild” because, as you’ll learn in this section, the transients become exaggerated when aggressively compressed.

To get the most out of this technique, make sure to create an auxiliary channel that you will send all your drum channels to. You may already be using this method on the master bus. If you haven’t built a submaster for all the drum channels already, I highly recommend starting with that first.

How to Use Parallel Compression

Try inserting an SSL G-Master Buss Compressor, although any bus compressor plugin you’re happy with works too. You’ll be compressing pretty hard so go for a ratio of at least 4:1, although you may even prefer 8:1 or higher. Play around with this but I would stick with a soft knee on the compressor because that will tend to have a smoother sound. Now you can go back and adjust the threshold of the compressor to where you’re consistently getting 6 dB of gain reduction, although don’t be afraid to go even higher.

It might sound crazy but you really do want it boomy on the auxiliary channel.

Now you can slowly bring the auxiliary channel level fader up until your drum mix begins to “pop”. This might sound muddy and crushed on its own but believe me – when done well it blends beautifully back into the drum mix. I really do like this sound. Experiment with it. Now, all your drums should be more punchy.

EQ Can Give Your Drums More Attack

Using a graphic or parametric EQ is an excellent way to control frequencies so you can carve out room for each element and get rid of frequencies that aren’t serving the music. You can even get a little more presence with boosts to certain frequencies in your kick drum that might not naturally have that thump.

Enhancing the Kick Drum With EQ

When mixing my kick drum, one of the first places I focus my attention is the ultra low-end and the subs. Generally speaking, any frequency below 50 Hz is rarely going to add something beneficial to your kick drum, but don’t just throw in a hard high pass yet because some speakers do deliver some seriously low-end sound.

A good practice is to listen for unwanted rumble on a large pair of subwoofers before you remove anything below 50 Hz. Depending on your situation, and if those sweet sweet subs will be used to enjoy your tunes, high pass as low as 30 Hz.

Get Rid of Boxiness with EQ

After getting your subs sorted, I would listen closely for mud in the 200 to 300 Hz range because, for some unknown reason, there seems to almost always be some unpleasant tones there (across every instrument in your mixes), no matter what drums I’m working with.

For drums lacking punch in a busier mix, cutting a little in the 125 – 250Hz range with an EQ will create space for bass instruments in those low mid ranges. You might even notice that they are sounding boxy. So don’t neglect that 500 Hz because boxiness often resides there as well. You might even want to remove a little (like 1 to 2 dB) with an EQ.

Bring Your Snare Drum To Life With EQ

I think about mixing a snare similarly to how I think about mixing a kick, so much of the same thinking will apply. You want to clean up those same unnecessary sub frequencies by introducing a high pass and look for the presence in those 1 kHz to 5 kHz frequencies to bring out the snare wires. 

The top microphone gives you the opportunity to fine tune that bright snare sound, although don’t go too heavy with this boost.

Be careful with the snares as these low frequencies will often get some bleed from other drum channels. To really understand what your snare is all about – and to isolate any unwanted frequencies, I like to start with only the snare top mic, although two snare microphones can work nicely. Also, if you want them both, be sure to carefully align the polarity by either flipping the phase or aligning it using an oscilloscope because the snare can often sound thin otherwise.

I’ve heard a lot of snare drums that had no “ping” until this was corrected. This applies to every type of drum, so much of it really does come down to the initial setup when capturing those sounds.

Bring Clarity To Toms and Other Instruments with Subtractive EQ

Think about EQ on drums as carving a unique sonic space for them to shine. I suggest using an EQ on the bus, with a high pass around 100 Hz. Then, focus on low-end frequency areas below 100 Hz on your other instruments. If they don’t need a beefy low end then high-passing everything will create a cleaner sounding mix. 

In other words – you should be cutting those unnecessary frequencies by high-passing non-drum channels at 100 Hz to open up a cleaner frequency space for your kick. You can use this same approach with a high shelf EQ if your high hats aren’t cutting through, except use the high shelf to roll off the highs in those non-drum instruments. It can be a good idea to remove some high frequencies from the top mics and spot mics too because of cymbal bleed in heavier hitting music.  

Transient Shaping Can Improve Dynamics and Presence

What a transient shaper plugin does is alter how a signal comes through in your mix by either increasing its “attack” to provide more presence and punch, or “sustaining” the tail end of a hit to improve fullness. They can really add excitement to otherwise “boring” sounds and will give you a unique “clicky” type sound when pushed.

When I was interning at my first studio, one of the engineers I looked up to showed me this magical technique and my entire process for mixing drums changed ever since. 

Start With Transient Shaper Plugins on the Individual Channels

Install your favorite transient shaper plugin on the kick channel first, but just focus on bringing up the attack slightly so that your transients begin to poke through. After that, I go back to my snares and see if the snare also needs some extra attack because you won’t need this on all your drum channels. The same can be said for toms, depending on how they were recorded.

Saturation Will Thicken and “Glue” Drums Together

What saturation does is introduce more subtle harmonics across your entire signal – It “excites” frequencies and adds pleasing coloration. Saturation, to put it simply, can create that pleasing and powerful “analog sound”, although this sound might not always be your objective because this sonic thickness doesn’t lend itself well to everything. Some might even consider the additional harmonics “distortion”.

Regardless, it can “glue” instruments together and enhance the punch. Saturation plugins, such as CamelCrusher, add high frequency harmonics which create a perception of more fullness even if you aren’t boosting them directly with an EQ.

“I’ve always liked drums to be bright and powerful”, John Bonham once said. While he achieved a “big” sound with massive Ludwig drum kits in rooms with natural ambience and reverb, you can quickly get amazing results in the box by adding subtle saturation, and the result will be similar.

Start With Saturation on the Individual Channels

Much like with a transient shaper, install your saturation plugin of choice on the kick and snare first because it will add warmth and fullness. You can apply saturation to individual channels to taste – but it doesn’t work for everything. Think of it like a garnish you apply when appropriate because saturation adds too much harmonic information if used everywhere.

Adding Saturation to a Drum Bus Can “Glue” the Elements

Inserting a saturation plugin, like CamelCrusher, to your bus (which has all your drum tracks) can enhance the overall power by glueing the tracks together because it introduces very subtle dynamic compression. I highly recommend giving it a shot. Use your ears though because too much on the bus will tend to dull your mix as it “fights” against compressors and other plugins.

How Sidechaining Your Kick Can Make Everything “Snap”

One incredibly effective processing technique is sidechaining. Sidechaining is basically a ducking effect that creates space by automatically adjusting a signal level based on the input level of a designated channel. Many use sidechaining to control low-end frequencies because it’s the easiest way to remove build-ups that muddy a mix.

Getting Your Drums To Hit Harder By Sidechaining

A sidechain compressor on a channel with a dedicated trigger can solve issues where elements fight against one another in a busy mix. What this technique will do is clear a frequency range every time the kick plays, causing the competing track levels to lower. Then, when the kick ends, the other track will rise in volume because they will stop triggering the sidechain compression. T

his creates that pleasing rhythmic pulse in dance music and is very popular in most electronic genres. It works extremely well if your drums are lacking the punch. Although most dance music employs sidechain compression liberally across many instruments in a mix, be mindful that the effect can sound weak if overused.

“If I hit them any harder, I’m going to break the skins.”, Ringo once said when being urged to play harder. While drum samples are not going to break by being over-compressed, they will begin to distort with a poorly applied sidechain because the frequencies essentially “clip”.

That doesn’t mean to avoid this powerful technique, it means to just be cautious as the audio is a “dynamic process” of constant adjustment based on many variables, like track volumes.
Start by creating a track that your sidechain compressor plugin will “listen” to. This will almost always be the kick because we’re exploring how to make drums hit harder, but the “trigger” can be anything, like a snare, vocal or an 808. Then add a sidechain compressor on any channels that you need more presence on – however don’t overuse this. It will muddy a mix if applied liberally because all your dynamic range will vanish and the music will lack impact.

To avoid unwanted distortion in your drums, adjust the attack of your sidechain to your liking because each element will sound “right” with slightly different settings, depending on other processing.

Sidechain Your Bass

Sidechain a bass line to the kick because the kick tends to get swallowed up otherwise since it occupies much of the same low-end sonic space as your bass guitar. To keep them out of each other’s way – add your compressor of choice to your bass line and then, using the plugin interface, make the kick track the trigger for the sidechain. 

This technique also “tightens” bass guitar up, giving it a pleasant rhythm based on how your compressor settings react. It is very similar to adding saturation as you are “gluing” the tracks together to function in harmony rather than being adversaries fighting for limited frequency bandwidth.

Sidechain 808s, Synth Pads and Melody

808s in hip-hop might not need the sidechain, but you can do it if you think it works. In general, it’s usually done with other melodic content to give it a pulsing rhythm that keeps a track moving. Try setting the “trigger” to your kick track. Be sure to adjust attack, release, and threshold based on your preferences as these need careful customization depending on how heavy the saturation or if you have any other processing – and the style of music.

Conclusion

So there you have it. Hopefully you have an overall understanding of what it takes to get drum sound knocking, From making sure the levels are appropriate before any processing, using powerful techniques such as EQ, parallel compression, sidechaining and adding saturation where needed you can get that professional polished sound. Always try to listen closely with your ears as music is about “what you like” and your objective. 

Whether you’re layering samples, mixing live drums, using compression, or fine-tuning EQ, each step brings you closer to achieving professional-sounding drums. 

Now that you have some knock-ready drum tips in your arsenal, why not elevate your entire production process? Start your free trial at Mix Elite Academy today and gain access to premium courses with over 320+ in-depth lessons, top-tier sample & preset packs, student discounts up to 50% off on thousands of plugins, and join an exclusive community of fellow music producers.

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