llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Feb 09, 2026 8:50 pm Got way too much ride in a stereo track.

Ideas? It doesn't sound bad in isolation but with everything else in the mix it’s like holy shit.

It’s only for certain sections so I am even thinking of a gross ass notch + percussion overdub

Some more violent ideas:

1. create a duplicate overhead track that only comes in on the ride sections with more intense eq cuts to reduce your problem and/or lower volume than the other sections.

2. Fully mute the ride side overhead (or mono OH if that's all you did) on those sections but work up a mix for those spots that's totally satisfying without that overhead. Can the bleed cover it? Automate the floor tom volume so that side is turned down quite a bit when there's no tom hits. Then work out the transition between sections so it feels like an exciting production shift, not a band-aid.

Word of caution:
Don't lose sight of the big picture. I've gone to weird lengths with a bashy hi-hat where it was like I wanted to erase just the hi hat. All the de-essers and compression tricks couldn't do that of course but once my brain laser focused on that sound it wouldn't let go. I remember later on listening to some cool record in the car and thinking, "Oh yeah.... you're allowed to hear open hi hat in a loud song. It can sound cool. That's why drummers do it." I should have just tempered it slightly but I wasted hours trying to kill it.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Feb 09, 2026 8:50 pm Got way too much ride in a stereo track.

Ideas? It doesn't sound bad in isolation but with everything else in the mix it’s like holy shit.

It’s only for certain sections so I am even thinking of a gross ass notch + percussion overdub

you could try an expander with a lo pass on the key input? in parallel maybe?

Steinberg Spectralayers has a fully functioning 30 day demo, get that and run the 'unmix drums' thingie, it'll give you separate tracks for kick, snare, toms, cymbals. Probably your best/cleanest option IMO.

adavidmackinnon wrote: Fri Feb 06, 2026 8:16 pm
Chris Garges said yes to phantom Miss that guy.

https://tapeop.com/reviews/gear/65/at86 ... c-combiner

Oh man, I don't think I realized he had passed. Lots of memories from the TOMB.

SIDE CHAIN COMPRESSON.

Mickey242 wrote: Sat Feb 28, 2026 11:40 pm SIDE CHAIN COMPRESSON.

Or take it one further, side chain gating. My bog standard, $200 used Drawmer gate has been responsible for some of my most curious sounds. Aside from the usual problem solving people do with a gate, it creatively starts with one of two questions.

What if every time this thing made a noise, it killed this other thing?
What if every time this one thing made a noise another sound popped up?

The most excited anyone got about this application is when an afro beat band that is pretty organic and jazzy had a hip hop breakdown. This was no "ska band raps" situation. They had an undeniable groove and a for real MC on the song. They wanted a scene change moment so I held down a low synth note and triggered the gate with the kick drum. Instant sub rattling drum beat. That and distorting the snare made a cool 90s east coast hip hop moment.

I've also liked having the kick drum beat down a wall of noise on each hit in duck mode. That's harder cause you kind of have to commit to the mix of whatever the wall of noise is. Using the gate destructively as opposed to additively in the other example.

One day I’ll use those drawmers for tracking, I only ever do that now for the basic filter.

My mixing trick is blasting bass or something with a Pultec and then pulling a fader down. Also works with the top brass on a kit if paired with the attenuate for murky vintage Jamaican sort of things. Could never figure out how to get that 90s unobstrusive but definitely there bass sound. That’s how you do it when you want it.

I’ve also got really nice slapback sounds by duplicating a track and nudging it back however many ms, then applying a tape sim or pultec filter plugin, but you don’t have to have it.

Now that I think about it, the Pultec HLF plugin on tons of stuff, though I don’t highpass everything by default, usually just the stuff intended to sit back.

Analog tape sim on everything when recording, bouncing down multiple tracks to stereo, and sometimes again on the master buss, but only at the most conservative, barely there settings. It should be subtle and not have a noticeable effect on the low or high end for it to work, though boosting high end into a tape sim is a different whole thing.