Drum Tracks Too Muddy? Try This Unlikely Logic Plugin To Dig Your Drums Out of the Mud

 

For the last few weeks, I’ve been mixing an awesome record for a WLPR reader. The songs are great. Performances spot on. And what’s even more awesome is that the band recorded everything themselves 🙂

As I’ve been working through the record, there were only a couple of tracks I found challenging to mix. And sometimes those tracks ended up being the drums.

Again, the performances were great. No problems there. But the tone and sound of the kick and snare just sounded flat. Like someone was hitting a cardboard box instead of a drum.

That’s not a knock against anyone! I remember distinctly recording in bedrooms and basements years ago. I would struggle to nail great sounding drums.

And while we could use drum samples to improve the sound (and in some songs I did), samples always leave me feeling a little gross. Like I’m robbing the drummer of their years and years of honing their drum skills.

But what do you do when no matter which way you bend and stretch EQ, the sound is still just, “meh?”

Well, I decided to try a very unlikely Logic plugin out on the kick and snare. And I have to say, it turned the situation around in a good way!

Today I’d like to show you how I dug some drum tracks out of the mud and gave them the articulation they so desperately needed.