Even though ONLY mixing midi drums is unhealthy…I LOVE them nonetheless.
If I’m being frank, I couldn’t imagine running my studio without my heavy reliance on programs like EZdrummer.
I use midi drums on a near-daily basis for songwriting and pre-production and it makes the process soooo much easier.
Also…
Almost half of the songs that I mix for my clients utilize midi drums.
That’s not an exaggeration. A huge chunk of bands choose to skip the drum recording process and rely on midi for budgetary and time-saving reasons and I honestly can’t blame them.
As much as I love recording real drums, midi drums are so much more convenient.
Traditionalists don’t like hearing this, but the truth is that programs like EZdrummer can sound just as good as the real thing if you know what you’re doing.
With all that being said, I’ve been noticing an all-too-common issue with the mixes that people have been sending me:
Most mixes sent to me that feature midi drums sound extremely amateur.
Not only can you spot the that the drums are fake from a mile away…
But it’s blatantly obvious that the mixer has never worked with real drums in their entire lives.
Believe me, I get it…
Recording live drums not only takes a lot more effort, it also takes more knowledge and experience (as well as a great human drummer to record in the first place).
Here’s the thing though…
Even though this might seem counterintuitive:
I’ve learned that the best (and fastest) way to get good at mixing MIDI drums is to get good at mixing REAL drums.
If you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
For the most part, we want our fake drums to sound like the real thing and that’s not easy to do when you have absolutely no idea what real drums (played by humans) sound like in their rawest form.
**Fun Fact** Many midi drum programs that claim to feature “raw” samples are NOT actually raw…unfortunately🤦🏻
So what should you do if you’re limited to only using midi drums, but you wanna get better at mixing?
Even if you have no interest in recording live drums, I highly recommend getting your hands on RAW multitracks of live drums to practice you mixing chops with.
Luckily, I have something that will help you if you don’t know where to start:
As a thank you for being on my email list and for being a part of the Frightbox family…
Click the link above and compare the raw drum tones to your already-polished midi drum program and I think you’ll be shocked at the difference.
In this video, I explain why mixing REAL drums is the fastest way to get good at mixing MIDI drums.
