How do you mix DLX (deluxe)?

Just curious what approaches people use.

I’ve always loved this pack for its expression and crispness, but as soon as I add the usual guitars, bass etc it always seems to lack weight and ‘heft’ and I usually end up adding large EQ boosts (low end) and cuts (low mids) until I’ve ruined the original tone :frowning:

I’ve tried top down and bottom up mixing as well as a ‘mostly directs’ or ‘mostly OH/ ambients’ mix… but I always seem to come unstuck when bringing in other elements of a mix.

It’s got a very distinctive tone/ balance compared to your average drum library - which is partly why I like it so much - but I always felt I was somehow missing a trick when mixing it. I know Albini favours a minimal approach to mixing, but it doesn’t even sound like a ‘typical’ Albini session (if there is such a thing).

Of all my libraries it feels the most elusive. Maybe that’s why I keep going back to it.

Any tips or comments appreciated :slight_smile:

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I don’t have Deluxe, but in general, adding reinforcement kick and snare samples is the way to go to add heft to the overall sound. You can try using Waves RBass to blend in some extra low-end harmonics to the shells. Other than that, some good ole parallel compression with mostly just the shells will give you the punch. You can also try blending in some parallel distortion as well. Here is Andrew Scheps talking about his process.

This video goes a little more in-depth with the settings that he uses.

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Thanks, I’ve downloaded the Scheps vids to watch in the studio. I did notice some of the presets for DLX make use of distortion. Last night I tried taking the kick out of the room/ ambient channels which allowed me to keep things lively without the kick getting flabby. It’s cheating but hey…

Thanks :slight_smile:

That’s not cheating, it’s mixing. There are no rules in mixing: whatever gets the job done and sounds good is fair game.

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Depending on the expansion, I usually have to lower the ambient send levels of at least the kick, snare and toms to the OH and rooms because the overall mix in some of those those channels is off sometimes. You can control the low end that way, or use a HP filter, or both.

I think it’s important to solo each ambient channel and make sure the balances are ok. A lot of times there’s one cymbal, or whatever poking out too much. If you listen in the context of the whole mix, you might think to turn down that cymbal’s fader, or trim when really, it was just too prominent in one amb mic ch.

Try fiddling with different velocities on all the drums. I usually run my kicks around 50%. Also, I use Drumtools from Nomad Factory. Same thing with Scarbee Basses and Keyboards. You can get a lot of variations from playing with velocities. BFD can work on every details of each piece. There’s nothing else like it.