How to Get Fat & Slamming Drum Sounds - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro 

2:18 KICK phase align 5:20 Reverb (Kick Out) 5:40 SNARE align with overheads 9:30 OVERHEADS low cut mono Overhead HIHAT align with overheads TOMS gate align with overheads low cut boost 80 14:34 SAMPLES Kick 15:25 align eq transient designer 17:25 SAMPLES Snare align sample is matched in pitch 19:48 ROOM MICS low cut 21:23 High Room Mics lo-fi (slightly) gain staging (plugin to plugin) 24:29 SNARE BUS EQ Reverb Dynamics KICK VERB

Seriously, you are like the only producer-tutorialist on RU-vid who actually gives good advice and methods, get to the point quickly and is thorough

It's been many years and I still come back to this video. 2015 -->2021. GREAT!

Oh my… I’ve got to get in the habit of checking my overheads to make sure they’re in phase with kick, snare AND TOMS in the tracks. At least I measure them off equally to the snare when putting them up. And yes, I drag tracks around to put them in phase. Never had issues with that so far. Thanks Warren for yet more very informative pearls of knowledge and wisdom. 🙏

I've watched so many of these videos now that I told my 60 year old father who's from Texas today that I hope he is doing marvelously well. He did not know how to take it. Cheers!

I didn't appreciate your teachings as much when I was a beginner, but as I go on I've realized what a wealth of knowledge you provide. All that to say, "Beginners: Don't sleep on Warren's teachings".

Wow, Warren. I've been following this step-by-step, haven't even gotten to the room mics, and I'm hearing a remarkable difference. Thank you for sharing this and for saving me some money too. I was about to buy a phase correction plug-in, but you've reminded me that it's simply a matter of time. I appreciate you, sir!

Two teachers loved from RU-vid... Mike Browne on photography ( an also great English guy) and Warren Huart on sound! Thanks a lot both of you... You have the ability to open my mind up! Thank you again. God bless you!

I'm salivating over these drums, truly a luxury for me to have this kind of thing to work with. Put the raw tracks up for download on your next mix competition! My workaround for extra wide drums (instead of those room mics) is sending to a separate left and right short verb, and a separate left and right long verb. 4 sends total

Yes, you look younger! Oh, wait, this was recorded nearly 4 years ago. In dog years that would be 28 years ago. Wow! Great video as usual!

I absolutely love when you summarize at the end, pointing out the most important points. Thank you for the knowledge you have put into this world.

Hey Warren, Juan Manuel from Argentina here. I just wanted to thank you a lot for all of these vids; have been watching for a while now (and subscribed), and I just love the tips and tricks you share. Living in places that are kind of behind in terms of posibilities, ppl can still learn how its done, and use what they've in hand to achieve pretty cool results never the less. I really hope some day we can meet to work and chat, while having a beer, lol...Cheers!

Warren nailed on this... Whatever he says can be taken as the gospel, because he has facts to back it up with EVERYTIME

Great Video Warren! I haven't been using time delay to dial in my phase on drums, just phase reversal buttons, this lesson really showed me what a powerful tool that can be. Thanks again so much for doing these and helping us all grow!

This video was a real eye opener Warren, you've definitely reminded me that with some really simple pre-production and attention to the little details I don't have to throw lots of plugins into my session. I'll be taking almost everything from this video into my next session. Thanks! Jake (London, UK)

Your producing/mixing videos are the best on youtube. Bottom line. Thank you for the drum samples!

I like your tutorials . Very clear and professional ..you look so young and smart too..

This is truly game-changing advice! I used to just align by moving the waveforms but Time Adjuster is so simple and flexible to use. Literally just used this on a mix to get the kicks, snare and overheads aligned and the differerence is spectacular. Thanks so much Warren!

I used this time adjusting method for the first time on a drum recording from this weekend. This really made the hits and stereo image much cleaner/detailed and drums just hit better. Kind of like taking a blanket off the tracks. Thanks for this great tip! Awesome as always Warren!

One of the most usefull videos about drums mixing, and clarifying things which are really messy out in the internet (such as phase and polarity and gain staging)! Thank you so much for this 30-minute inspirational lesson! Really loved it!

Hi Warren! Regarding digital gain structure: it is only possible to clip plugins if you are working in fixed point, most DAW's and plugins these days are using floating point mantissa, which means that they wont clip internally. It is possible to clip within a floating point DAW if you are using fixed point plugins or if you are using fixed point audio files. That means that as long as you remain in floating point across the board you won't have to worry about digital clipping until you go down to the destination format, at the final stage of mastering. Your recommendation in the video is still valid though, because even if you work in floating point you still have to maintain good gain staging when you're using gain sensitive plugins. e.g. Plugins that emulate hardware are usually calibrated like their hardware counterparts, viz. they have an optimal working sweet spot and are not designed to receive a hot signal. Thanks for the video, have a marvelous time making more! :-) -Sören

Warren, thank you for this video! It took me a few watches to get it through my skull but you basically saved a 10 year old session i thought lost. You are deeply appreciated for your efforts and contribution! Long time fan! 👍

Amazing !! Now I know where the body from my snare drum was hiding... it all makes so much sense now... Thank you so much for your generosity !!! Cheers ^^

both the phase relation on the snare and OHs, and the in-between plug-ins signal control are things I obsess over and control thoroughly. great video

Enjoyed watching this. Have been aligning more drum tracks before watching this but I was never sure how to choose and blend appropriate drum samples with the original sounds from the kit. This has given me some great ideas to try out. The use of the HP filter was also something I'll be using.

You could always go to the beginning of the waveform and trim the amount of samples delayed from the kick you are matching it to. Make sure you are in shuffle mode when you do it and you will get a better visual representation of the phase relationship between the two waveforms.

These tutorials are the best I've seen in you tube!

Keep up the great work Warren, you're doing marvelously well !

Mixing is hard work, a real craft and also a science in itself. I started playing music again after a break of about 20 years. I'm more into electronic music. But I think I can learn a lot from your videos, too. I saw on your website that actually all DAW software solutions do similar things. And all of them also have plugins that you might want to add. Let's see if the same is true for a software called Cakewalk by BandLab. At the moment I can't find my way through it. But there are tutorials for that as well. What would we amateur musicians be without you experts? Thanks for putting so much work into your videos and providing so much knowledge for free.

Really great tips here Warren. I have to say with the amount of DSP available to me in my current setup time adjuster would not be my go to just to save DSP I move the audio to adjust phase if I find an issue.

Wow. Phase - and minding those clippy plug-in's. Amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Quite possibly the Holy Grail of Produce Like a Pro files! " Blew me head off completely!" Thanks man.

These are some great drum tips Warren, thanks for sharing!

Great sharing on drum sound balancing.

Tremendous tips! Went through and time-aligned the drums to the OHs on a recent competition mix and it made a HUGE difference! I had been a 'flip the polarity' button guy, but paying attention to detail on the time alignment pays off so much MORE!

coming from a completely different field, it is still very enlighting to watch your tutorials. Great work!

OMG!! At 20:20 you drop in the room mics and its like Jon Bonham showed up!!! Wow, it totally fattened it up...

Great videos.Amazingly simple yet effective.I already used the vocal thickening trick in a live scenario.It worked like charm.Thanks to Warren,produce like a pro and everyone associated with this project.Love and best wishes from India.

by the way, this channel is fantastic. cant say enough good things about your approach

I don't have words. You're the best!! I'm so thankful for every piece of brilliance you share on your channel. Just GREAT!! Thank you, Warren. :-)

Thank you so much for your generosity. Love all your videos. Awesome topic, I've been working lately trying to improve my drums sounds, so this lesson fits perfectly!

Great video Warren. I've been to a school to learn recording, mixing and mastering. Have learned more from you the past two weeks then i have learned there in 4 years. You clearly have a lot of passion! Keep up the good work

I'm curious, why do you chose to move the snare top forward to match the overheads, as opposed to moving the overheads back to match the snare top? Isn't the snare top technically more "on the beat" than the overheads, being that it's a closer mic?

Again, another great tutorial. I'm currently recording drums, this video will be very useful to me in a very near future! Thank you very much!

One thing I like to do on aggressive rock songs is I'll take a plugin like the Audio Damage Rough Rider on the overheads only and I'll max out the ratio to 1000:1 and back off the attack just a little Very quick release and about a mid-high sensitivity (Threshold) really crashing the Overheads. To me it gives the drums a very different feel from your conventionally mixed drums. It makes them super aggressive. It Can get out of hand if used too much.. I pretty much have to pull my overheads way down in volume to work with the rest of the drum kit, but it gets such a cool sound.

There is some much great info in your videos. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Really appreciate the time you are putting into the vids.

I rarely put reverb on kicks, your method sounds like something I could try, thanks Warren!

Warren, thank you for sharing your experience. Your videos are very necessary and they help to achieve better results. Thank you!

That raw drum sound sounds fantastic mate!

Invaluable advice on avoiding distortion with plugins! The truth seems obvious once you hear it. :)

Very helpful tips from a cool down to earth guy thanks!!

The first line in the "Up next" section read "How to Get Fat & Slamming" and so I clicked... marvelous vid as always! Thanks for the insight!

You've obviously been in America a long time. But Your accent is not gone and your dry British humour is still fantastic. Hi from Dorset. Also the hairs just fine.

After learning that Jacquire King used ALOT plug-in reverbs on the Kings of Leon records even though they worked in Blackbird Studio D, I became alot more accepting of how much they add even if you are in the perfect room... That being said, now instead of of only recording room mics, I duplicate the OHs and run 100% Waves IR1 "Studio" impulse, into a neve pre, then 1073 EQ, all buttons in 1176, then to tape saturation... I have it as a template now and it NEVER fails me... Just one of my ideas I incorporated over time I thought I would share

Love your videos. I'm not even recording yet and I find them fascinating and useful. I have a general idea of what 'flamming' is but you might be entertained to know that the first result returned when I googled it was quite unexpected. Thanks!

Hi Warren, thanks a lot for the time you spend teaching us and passing on your experience. I'm a drummer myself and when you were talking about drum replacement with Melodyne, I wondered if you ever compared it with Drumagog. I can do a lot to my drum recordings with my Logic Pro 9 software but the nuances you bring into your own recordings are so refined they beat my results by far. I decided to take it a step further myself and wondered if Drumagog is known to you and/or your community before purchasing it.

Useful stuff especially on the phase alignment - just fixed that on my first proper mix and it does help. I'll leave samples for another lifetime - 8 mics is plenty to start with.

Awesome video Warren! I have always just nudged my tracks around, but if you're not careful you can get things out of whack... I really like the idea of using the time adjuster instead. Thanks for giving so much value on this channel man!

These videos are so helpful and reliable, thank you so much

Hey Warren. Thanks so much for the videos you make. I've particularly been having a problem with thin sounding drums and end up having to over-compensate with a ton of samples. Never really thought to correct phase. But I really appreciate how you bring those samples in. I learnt a lot in this video. Thanks so much! 👍🏽👍🏽

I love your videos! Great stuff that's foundational, fun, and moves beyond basics to help folks really dig in and build their knowledge and craft. If I can ever help in Las Vegas it'd be great to put my studios to some real work.

What's a fellow gotta do to get his hands on that 'bootstraps' kick sample!? That is the kick tone I have been hearing in my head for ages.

Keep the great work ! I am watching your videos daily when I have time and it's helping me so much . Thanks alot !

Fantastic video, thank you very much Warren. Greetings from Italy!

I'm not sure why your channel popped up in my feed, but it did. I'm pretty lo-fi (on purpose) and don't have much in terms of recording gear, but I used to and I've spent enough time with friends in various sized studios recording my music and friends' music through out the years to have seen (heard) quite a bit of practical production on many different levels of sophistication.. including light rail studios in San Francisco, which is home to the guys that originally demo' my band on a tascam 8 track r2r in the 1990s (don't remember the console) - let's just say they have up' their game in this millennium to include some pretty hefty names. but ya know ... I think I learned more from this video than anything else I've checked out in years. maybe because I'm tracking a lot of my own drumming and being the engineer and performer kinda makes things daunting at times. especially with limited gear and space (I can't afford my friend's studio anymore. lol). I have lots more to watch !!

Thanks a lot for that. always look forward to learning from you.

Wish I had hundreds of me. So I could watch all of the videos! Great video again.

The whole bit at the start, about your hair was hilarious! Great video

Dude, these videos are great!!! I've learned so much from you! Thank you very much!!!

This is just a phenomenal channel! Many thanks!

Your hair looks great in this one!

You offer so much great information in this video. Thank you!

Should I align snare, toms and kicks to the overheads. Treating the overheads as the center of the mix? Wondering because I once was told to align to the track that shows wave forms first. Since that is the track that replicate the feel of the drummer best? I don't know.

DUDE THE TRACKING SESSION SOUNDS INSANE!

Warren, you really should try Waves In-Phase Plugin. Lining up phase takes half the time as any other way I’ve seen. Including time adjuster. I’m sure if you tried it, you’d never look back. As a drummer, I mix live drums on every track I mix. It saves me 40% of the time any other approach took me. Demo it for 30 seconds, and you’ll probably never use Time Adjuster again. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t measure any room or overhead at all anymore.

remember, the person behind the kit.........that is the raw talent that you make sound great....respect the sticks baby, loops, samples etc are good, but a real drummer, is a god ! playing an acoustic kiit, given a good hard seeing to is better than any drug, ever, ever, ever oh yes,. and then some... a steam train coming down the tracks, woof woof. nigelxx

Good stuff thank you. Drum dynamics within a track are rarely spoken about or used. In my opinion sometimes a minor level reduction in the verse even in a rock song can make a subtle but important difference. Works live too

Awesome stuff I didn't know Warren thank you.

Great instruction! Thank you

PHENOMENAL! Thanks, Warren!

Thanx for this one. No bs, just useful tips ;-)

Hi Warren, thx so much for all information from you this is the best school , watching like you working . Thx thx thx so much. tom

There's no such thing as clipping your signal from one plugin to another unless the plugin is designed to clip the signal at its internal peak/unity. Here are two really good examples. If you push a signal into the red in the Vintage Warmer 2, it'll clip because that's what the plugin was designed to do. If you run your signal into the red in Pro-C, nothing happens. What ultimately matters is using gain staging appropriately in CERTAIN plugins. Most plugins you literally do not have to care about the peak indicator at all. What really matters is whether or not you clip your master bus. If you clip your master bus, you will get digital clipping 100%. But, for individual tracks, you can push them as hard as you want. You can literally push a signal through 10 flat EQs and 10 1:1 compressors, flooring the gain knobs fucking +30db into the red on your track, and it'll sound fine as long as your master bus doesn't clip. Whenever this guy attempts to comment about digital audio, I get the distinct feeling that he really just doesn't know how this stuff is designed. But, that's par for the course in audio. Thousands of people with no formal education in computer science or physics mucking around with highly sophisticated tools and talking about them as if they personally designed them.

I know it's been asked a few times but I have a two fold question. A) why use time adjuster when you can just nudge? Doesn't that add unnecessary cpu power? Also, B) Why would you delay the snare to the overheads instead of bringing the overheads to the snare? I know it's subtle but your way would bring the snare behind the beat and cause everything on the grid to have to be delayed... I could be confused though. Your videos are great btw. You're very good at what you do and you're a great teacher. I'm truly having a marvelous time here.

Great video, and fantastic channel. Thanks for sharing! all the best from Nashville- cheers! -Geoff

Amazing video. You're really doing a great job with content. Thanks for helping all of us try to find our way!

Thank you for all of this knowledge! So glad I ran across you channel!

marvelously good video Warren, really enjoyed this video. Wish I had known the Beat detective tricks years ago... Can't wait to go back and tweak some projects I have on right now. Thanks! Keep on Recording!

i like add a real sampler from the very same snare im recording, like after i finished recoring put some mics and get that sound i want from the snr and add it to the mix, now i dont have sound reaplacer, so using adictive , but i never understud ppl didnt like that plugins, used to work great for me to give more definition on those drums.

Warren, your videos are the best, always so informative and clear. Keep up the good work. Quick question: I noticed there's no parallel compression here; is it because you're getting the punch you need from your samples?

Definite thumbs up on the phase & "unity gain" advice. What about the low mid "bulb"? 600 > 800hz in your kit sound will be a problem moving forward.

This is great info . I am lazy so I just use Auto Align by Sound Radix. It works wonders.

Is their a video where you go over frequency levels and db's? And what are some tips and tricks you know how to use them to the fullest potential. btw very helpful videos I appreciate them so much.

Warren, once again great info and timely as we're mixing some live drums on a project right now. Thanks for the advice.

Yet another great, informative video. Thanks for all the information, Warren. :)

thanks warren

thansk for offering the knowledge!!

great video man! very useful!

Absolutely love your tutorials Warren, thank you for making them! Would you be alright with adding the little circle around the mouse pointer to make it a bit easier to follow it's position, as sometimes I lose where you're pointing with the mouse. Of course, don't worry if it distracts you (your concentration is a lot more important!), but if it's the same for you, it would make following your mouse movements and clicks slightly easier! Have a marvellous day from the UK!

hey man.. thanks so much for these valuable tutorials..!