Percussion instrument mixing techniques is one of the most complicated aspects of music creation. For your attention I would like to suggest some tips how to improve this part of your drums mixing to bring out in it more character.
Reverberation
Although you can use reverberation on the common drum bus (as an insert), why not to use it in separate channels? Short and “gloomy” reverberation on a bass drum, long and bright on a snare drum will fill out overall space in a more interesting way. But be careful not to overdo. It is possible that each instrument will start sounding in a different space of your song mixied unless you are trying to achieve exactly that.
Parallel compression
Parallel or “New York” compression (this technique fairly often usen by audio engineers) is just mixing of a compressed signal with another which isn’t processed by a compressor. It is used to add density to the sound without smashing it to a complete loss of dynamics. It’s quite easy to do it. Make a copy of a track and elaborate the compression to the full so that you can get the most of sustain without worrying about the used-up dynamics. Then adjust a volume fader at the minimum level, switch on a “clear”, uncompressed track and gradually raise the volume of the previous track until you get the desired density. You can achieve the same effect much more simply if you use the compressiors with dry/wet function which nowadays implemented very good in a wide array of software compressor plug ins.
Top-end sidechain
You can achieve a vast number of effects through this online hip hop mixing and mastering technique. Make routing to a kick or snare drum.
Top-end stereo processing
When mixing electronic music, you can get a perfect result by using stereo effects for high frequencies. As far as drums often play a dominating role in electronic styles, this effect gives a better filling of a mix stereo field.
Add some noise
If your snare drum lacks presence effect, white noise can be used as a synthesized extra layer. Download any synthesizer with a white noise generator and adjust sidechained gate triggered by snare. Play with attack and release settings to achieve natural sounding for drums – sharp burst at the beginning and smooth fading afterwards. The main thing is that you shouldn’t mix too loud noise to the snare drum; its work includes only adding upper harmonics and raising legibility of snare in the overall mix.
Group channels
To process each instrument separately is by all means more simply, but to edit a group can be more convenient and acoustically favorable. For instance, grouping toms and their common tuning by an equalizer, a compressor and reverberation turn their sound into more consolidated. It will also save processor’s energy as well as your time.
Magic of sampling
If your snare drum falls short of high frequencies, but on the whole it sounds good, just duplicate it and process with a high-pass filter. It is subject to other instruments. Play with parameters, listen to variations “before” and “after,” read reference materials and trust your ears.
