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MixingDrumsDynamics

Drum bus compression settings, and what changes on the mix bus

Drum bus compression settings that work: ratio, attack, release and how much gain reduction. Then the mix bus, which wants less of all of it.

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By Nolvra

Four settings decide a drum bus

Drum bus compression comes down to four decisions: how hard the compressor holds (ratio), how much of each hit it lets through before it acts (attack), how quickly it lets go (release), and how much it takes off in total (gain reduction). Get those right on the drums and the kit moves as one. The mix bus asks the same four questions and wants a smaller answer to every one of them. Below, each setting is shown with a real starting point from the CLINCH presets, and with the gain reduction we measured when each preset ran on a drum recording and on a full mix.

Setting up the drum bus

Start gentle: 4:1, slow attack, auto release

KIT GLUE in CLINCH is the plain version: 4:1, a 30 ms attack and Auto release. On our drum recording it takes about 2 dB on average and around 4 dB on the loudest hits. That is the amount where the kit starts to move together and nothing sounds squashed yet. Turn THRESHOLD down until GR on the screen reads in that range.

Use attack to choose what punches

Attack is the setting that changes the drums most. At 30 ms the front of every kick and snare gets through before the gain comes down, so the hits stay sharp and the body behind them tightens. PUNCH THROUGH does exactly that, with a short 0.1 second release. At 1 ms, as in SNAP CONTROL, the compressor catches a spiky snare before it jumps out of the kit. Slow attack for punch, fast attack for control.

Keep the kick from running the bus

On a drum bus the kick is the loudest thing by far, so it decides when the compressor works and everything else ducks with it. S/C HPF filters the low end out of what the detector hears, not out of your audio. KICK SAFE sets it to 150 Hz with a 10 ms attack, so the snare, hats and room drive the compression and the kick passes through at full weight. Press LISTEN to hear what the detector is reacting to while you move it.

Check it at the same loudness

Switch on AUTO GAIN and toggle COMP. AUTO GAIN matches the output to the input loudness, so you hear what the compression is doing instead of hearing a level change. If the compressed kit does not sound better at equal loudness, back the threshold off.

What changes on the mix bus

The mix bus wants the same shape with less of everything. MASTER GLUE keeps 4:1, the 30 ms attack and Auto release, adds a 60 Hz sidechain high-pass, and on our full mix takes about 2 dB on average and under 3 dB on the loudest parts. GENTLE TWO TO ONE drops the ratio to 2:1 for a mix that only needs to settle, at about 1.5 dB. FINAL POLISH is 1.5:1 and about 1 dB, the last touch before a limiter.

The one setting that moves the other way is the sidechain filter. A mix bus hears the full low end of the kick and the bass, and if it reacts to them, the whole record pumps on every beat. LOW END FREE raises S/C HPF to 150 Hz so the bass stays full while the rest of the mix glues. If the mix pumps with any preset, look at LOW, MID and HIGH on the screen: when LOW is doing most of the triggering, raise S/C HPF.

Parallel when you want more

Sometimes a drum bus needs more than glue, and pushing a normal compressor harder only flattens it. Parallel compression keeps the dry kit and blends a heavily compressed copy underneath. The MIX control does that inside one insert. HALF AND HALF runs the hardest ratio, MAX, with a 1 ms attack and a 0.1 second release, and blends it 50/50 with the dry signal. SMASH BLEND crushes harder at 20:1 and tucks it under the dry kit at 35 %. The transients come from the dry signal, the weight comes from the crushed one, which is the same idea as grit under a clean signal. Turn on MIX LOCK if you want to browse other presets without losing your blend.

Settings

Starting points from the presets

Every value below is read from the CLINCH 1.0.0 factory bank. The last column is the gain reduction we measured with each preset on a drum recording (drum rows) or a full mix (mix rows), as an average and at the 95th percentile.

PresetBusRatioAttackReleaseS/C HPFMixMeasured GR, average / loudest
KIT GLUEDrums4:130 msAutooff100 %2.0 / 4.4 dB
PUNCH THROUGHDrums4:130 ms0.1 s60 Hz100 %2.4 / 7.9 dB
SNAP CONTROLDrums4:11 ms0.3 soff100 %2.5 / 7.5 dB
KICK SAFEDrums4:110 msAuto150 Hz100 %2.5 / 6.3 dB
MASTER GLUEMix4:130 msAuto60 Hz100 %1.9 / 2.7 dB
LOW END FREEMix4:130 msAuto150 Hz100 %1.9 / 2.6 dB
FINAL POLISHMix1.5:130 msAutooff100 %1.0 / 1.2 dB
HALF AND HALFDrums, parallelMAX1 ms0.1 soff50 %7.9 / 16.7 dB

Your material will land somewhere else, so treat the numbers as the shape of each setting rather than a target: move THRESHOLD until GR reads in the same range on your bus.

Quick fixes by symptom

  • The kit sounds flat after compression: slow the attack toward 30 ms so the front of each hit gets through.
  • The snare still jumps out: a faster attack, 1 to 3 ms, as in SNAP CONTROL.
  • Everything ducks on the kick: raise S/C HPF, 150 Hz in KICK SAFE and LOW END FREE.
  • The level swells back in between hits: try Auto release before you pick a fixed time.
  • You want weight without losing punch: blend in parallel with MIX instead of lowering the threshold further.
  • The mix bus sounds smaller, not tighter: you are past 3 dB; back off to 1 to 2 dB. The VCA bus compressor guide explains why that small amount is the job.

Start from the bus you are on

CLINCH ships 48 presets in six groups, eight for the drum bus and eight for the mix bus, each tuned on a real recording to a set amount of gain reduction.

See CLINCH

FAQ

What is a good ratio for drum bus compression?

4:1 is the common starting point for glue. 2:1 is gentler, and 10:1 and above is firm control. For heavy compression, blending a hard ratio in parallel keeps the punch better than raising the ratio on the whole bus.

What attack time should I use on a drum bus?

Slow, around 30 ms, if you want the kick and snare to punch through and the body to tighten. Fast, around 1 ms, if you want to catch spiky hits. Attack changes the sound of a drum bus more than any other setting.

How much should a drum bus compressor reduce?

About 2 to 4 dB on the loud hits is a common start. CLINCH's KIT GLUE takes about 2 dB on average and around 4 dB on the loudest hits of our drum recording.

How are mix bus compression settings different?

Less of everything: a ratio of 1.5:1 to 4:1, a slow attack, Auto release and 1 to 2 dB of reduction. A sidechain high-pass matters more on the mix bus, because the kick and bass would otherwise make the whole mix pump.

Why does my drum bus pump?

The kick is the loudest part, so it drives the compressor and pulls everything else down with it. A sidechain high-pass filter takes the low end out of what the detector hears, and Auto release follows the material instead of letting go on a fixed time.

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