ABSTRACT
Drums are often the pillars of a song, and must be sturdy enough to carry the load. Equalization and compression can bring out the natural crack and boom. The function that characterizes musical instruments falls into two categories: tonal and dynamic. Equalization deals with tonal aspects, which are the frequencies, and compression/limiting deals with the dynamic aspects, which are the levels. Only the very best drummers can hit the drum the same every time, so using compression is almost a necessity. Early transients tend to be very loud, then quickly die down. This can present a problem, such as how to capture the meat of the sound while not overloading the input. Proper compression settings will control the drums transients, raise the overall level, and give the sound more punch. Compression settings on the vocal depend a lot on the settings on the rest of the tracks. A rock track may have tighter overall compression settings than a love ballad.
