I dumped the expander on the snare on this mix to bring the ring back in, actually. The real snare was blending too much with the 909, and I was going for a little more contrast. Throw the expander back on the snare and tweak the balance between the two snare mics and it sounds supertight and dry. I killed the compressor on the OH mics and brought the room mics up for a similar purpose- the compressed overheads made the live drums sound distant, while the room mics add the sort of depth I was looking for while keeping the closer mics more upfront. Again, .

The ring certainly can be a desirable thing. I've usually tried to avoid it but I am warming up to it...

Depends on the context. I'm kinda referencing Sisters Of Mercy's Floodland here a bit, and while the drums are programmed samples (IIRC a Yamaha RX5 drum machine and some Akai samplers) it's a reasonably ringy snare.

Also, Geoff, if you haven't played around with an expander on drums, you should. It's a much more natural sound than a gate. Here I'm actually combining mute automation on the toms with the expander; the expander makes the fade into the mute sound... not like the toms are being muted, just that they're decaying. It's a really useful tool, and IMO underutilized.

My snare sound is like 80% ring. I was thinking about that today too. Like, i should never, ever, consider putting reverb anywhere near my snare. It sounds like it already has some built in.

This is why I like ringier snares. It's a more pleasing sound than artificial reverb to my ears. Plus you still get the drier upfront snare sound without the 'verb moving it to the back. It's just easier to work with. From my perspective, as much as I like dense layered mixes, I really don't like fucking with things if I don't have to- I print effects "to tape", don't tune vocals, and for what I'm doing have comparatively few edits. It's less work if I can just start out with That Sound. Plus I think the ring and decay of a snare gives it more character. I generally don't like the dry, dead '70s snare thing.

At the moment I am playing with an expander on the Vesication mix, on the toms specifically. Hopefully I can get them louder while reducing the bleed...

The longer we wait to wrap it up, the more I tweak it...

Great success.

Awesomeness. Real drums heart expanders for cleaning things up. I'm pretty brutal when it comes to expansion, generally, but no matter how nuts I go it's better than a gate. (For which purpose I'd rather just cut the space between hits or mute.)

Glad you like it.

Knives is done, save for backing vocals, as of about 2 AM. At which point I was way too goddamn tired to post it and keeled over.

I fixed the bass dropouts, did some automation on the drums, bringing up the toms in the post-chorus, room on the fills, expander on during the verses on the snare and off during the choruses, added the clean lead bit back in after the first chorus, glitched the intro loop to fuck, replaced the remaining stock samples in the drum machine tracks with my own samples... and still can't get my bassist down to do his backing vox! I think I'mma fly in the backing vocals from one of the demo versions. Same chain, still at 24/88.2, like the tone of them actually for what they are- I sang them differently, thinner, more nasaly Billy Corgan-ish.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/02%20Knives-%20current%20mix.mp3

...and probably fixed other random mix balance shit. Oh, and I added some tracks of feedback I recorded- AC30 up all the way, Tele on the stand or wandering about the room with it. Lots of 'verb and delay. I hard-autotuned the feedback to an F minor scale.

I enjoy hearing this progress.

I aim to please. Save for the renting of a space in the building where this stuff's been recorded- which IMO doesn't count, it's a practice space?- the budget, less a couple sets of strings and sticks and a snare head, has been zero dollars. Unless coffee counts.