Flat drums? Check your attack.

When a drum bus sounds flat, check the compressor's attack before anything else. Set it fast and the compressor grabs the front of every hit, and the kit sinks into one flat wall.

Same drum bus, same compressor, only the attack changed. At 1 ms the hits sink into the kit. At 30 ms the front of each hit gets through before the compressor clamps down, and the hits stand out from the body of the kit.

Measured on the bars in the video, level-matched: the hits sit 7.2 dB over the body at 1 ms and 10.4 dB over it at 30 ms. That's 3.2 dB further out.

All 48 Mix Notes   Next: Your peak meter can miss 3 dB.