How do I make sure my drums 'pack a punch'?

[1981fiesta]

How about a heavy dose of compression

[egoless]

try NYC "parallel" compression... if that's not mentioned before in this thread...

[Sharmaji]

if your drums are snappy but a bit weak, yes--aggressive parallel compression can really get a sense of fullness AND snap. Again, the relatively-free stillwell audio Rocket is great for this as it has a wet/dry mix. So does the vintagewamer.

couple of other things--- if you're heavily compressing (or parallel-compressing) your drums for volume and intensity, chances are you're eventually going to lose punch; the kick will eat up everything else, and it'll be loud and exciting-- but not as punchy.

try setting up a send that either goes right to the master bus, or to a bus that's then routed to the master-- your 'naked' bus. send your kick and snare there-- now you'll get some more transient info coming thru, w/o compression.

Also, unless you own a distressor and are fond of bouncing multiple stems, the free camel crusher plugin is an amazing tool for getting drums to pop. the compressor on normal mode, w/ no distortion, is stunningly good for this. kinda crap on everything else, but on snares, midrange percussion, and sometimes kicks--- it's fantastic.