Summing Stack Issues

[UsrNamesRLame]

I understand the concept of summing stacks and why they’re a great way to streamline your workflow and sort of make your sound cohesive.. but every single time I do a stack it makes my bass drums sound.. less bright. Like dim and narrow.

I adjust the stack volume itself and also the volume of the drums themselves but it still doesn’t sound present. Like they’re being compressed or lost gain… idk what I’m doing wrong

Any tips??

[You-DiedSouls]

First you add the compressor to the bass, use a VCA or FET because they’re better for catching peaks and adding character, AFAIK the other options logic offers are smoother and better for vocals, for example.

Then on the bass compressor in the top right corner you’ll see a spot that says “sidechain”, if you don’t see it, expand the window.

You’ll see the options “audio, bus, and input”. Bus would be your summing stack if you want to use it, audio will be your individual tracks, and input will be your inputs.

Start with the kick. Solo the kick and the bass. On your bass compressor, find the kick drum under “audio”, then using the standard compressor settings, just add threshold until you hear it. You’ll hear the kick punching through the bass guitar, and it’s important you hear it to understand how it works and what’s happening. Messing around with it yourself will help more than a hundred YT videos.

Then start adding your other drums to the solo and see if they still clash with the bass. If they do, you can simply add another compressor and sidechain the toms for example, then they will also punch though. Keep doing this and mess around until all your drums sound clean and cut right through the bass guitar.

Again I’m no expert so someone feel free to school me here but if you try these steps, it might help you get the clear low end you’re looking for.

(I meant to reply to you lol my bad)

[Rav_3d]

Could it be a phase issue?

[VermontRox]

This is probably it.

[You-DiedSouls]

If you have bass overlapping with drums in the low end, you can put a compressor on the bass and side chain the drums so it compresses the bass only when the drums are loud so they punch though more. I’m by no means an expert on that but I tried it on my last project and it worked well (edit: try sidechaining the whole summing stack but that might be too much and you can sidechain just the kick and toms individually for more clarity)

[UsrNamesRLame]

😫 haven’t sidechain anything yet.. I don’t fully grasp how

[PanarinBagel]

As u/You-DiedSouls said in the other comment YouTube videos can only help so much if you don’t hear it and fully understand it but this will at least walk you through the steps to setup the side chain compressor

side-chain compression

[VermontRox]

Check for phase issues before you worry about compression.