the key to successful drums

... back when i first started making music, I was making the classic beginners mistake of programming patterns and dumping it into the sequencer. I'd add a compressor or limiter to the package and call it done. drums were there, but they were lifeless and couldn't punch through the mix...

what I've learned since follows and I hope it can help folks starting out. The general theory applies across the board no matter what you're using software wise but the tips feature Reason terminology in places as thats my primary development tool

• keep all your drum channels routed to different mixer channels
• apply seperate compression to both kick and snare drums
• bus all the other percusiv elements into a sub-mix, then route that submix into your main mixer module. drop a compressor onto the sub-mixer output.
  
• apply groove to your sequences - you can do this the old fashioned way, or use the Regroove device. variances in velocity, placement - all of these things will add life to your drums.
  
• layer your snares - your main snare, something to add punch, and whatever else you want to give it a unique sound. Feed each piece slightly off kilter so all the sounds dont hit exactly at once - some folks do this in an audio editor and export one layered snare, but I prefer having seperate control on all the snare elements. Note that you do not need to compress all of the snare pieces, just the one that you need to smack a listener in the head with, if you will ;) you can of course, apply it to all elements, but I usually focus on the one that matters, the others are icing on the cake.
  
• use sidechain compression so your kick punches through bass elements, especially if you're using deep long drum n bass washes for examples, but the same applies for one note bass hits. You can do this manually as well drawing in leveling automation on your bass notes.
  
• most importantly, keep things moving - if you have a 8 bar loop, move and shuffle things around to give the drum track energy - we're not talking about just dropping in a fill every 4th or 8th bar either, a slight change in hi hat placement, other drum elements.. a double kick or a snare. keep things interesting.
• adjust EQ to cut unwanted frequencies that can muddle your drum mix. This especially applies if you layer up bass drums - for example, you could layer a deep 808 kick and a snappy tr-606 together - you would apply EQ to both to help them "fit" together, so you get the nice snap from the 606, but the subwoofer gets a work out from the 808 kick.
  
• assign some general delays and various verbs to your aux/send inputs. Then apply a little bit to your various elements to breathe a little life into them - to get fancy you could automate these, so every 3rd snare for example gets a double does of delay, while the others get pulled back to just a touch... the possibilities really are endless, but dont over do it - less effects are more - you can get carried away and wind up with a super busy mix that detracts from the overall groove.
  

next time, I'll focus on adding spice to your main drum mix using loops and other techniques.