Everyone always talks about compressing drums to get that sound. People that distort their drums already know, the only way to get them that way is to crush your drums someway.

Compression, you can compress them to get them loud, but they might be running too loud in the compressor. Which ain't a problem, it's just one of the ways to get loud.

Other ways are when people record their sounds and they clip, this is a way most get those loud drums. Everyone say don't clip, which is true if you are on a computer, with an MPC or some roland just let your drums clip.

My way is to run them trough some distortion then compress. For me Distortion does most of the work, then compress to fine tune the sound.

Thank you mr. buddah, this is actually some really interesting advice....none of my favorite beats of all time have super-heavy compression. And personally I've always been afraid to let shit clip,since i don't have monitors-I'm always thinking I might not be hearing something that would sound fucked up on a really good set of speakers...peace

clapping is ok if you limit after, or during sampling, cancel + mfx, it really comes in handy for shows and stuff because it wont ever clip

my drums are either really quiet or loud, i never compress anything ever. but on my drums i use mfx 12 and fuck with the knobs until im satisfied.

But mfx 12 is compression...

something to also think about is relative volume.

If everyone were the same height, there would be no tall or short.

Likewise, when everything is at the same volume, there is no contrast- which is an important part of loud punchy drums. Although starting with the right drum sounds, eqing, compressing, etc will take you a long way, if you drop even the most powerful drums into a really busy and dense track, they're going to have less of an impact than if the material is a bit more minimal.

Sometimes the best way of maximizing contrast is to take away the less significant.

-lodger

On some Sun Tzu Art of War tip right here.

compression is key to getting some loudness and heavy hitting all around sound.
I personally love compression especially layered with some dirt/crackle/tape hiss.
shit gets really grimey.
PLUS distortion is the tits when using bass. but...of course..this is all personal opinion

I feel compression / distortion on some analog medium will add soooo much warmth and realism to your sound. It's a technique/secret i have been testing and learning for years. Helps level your beats too!

more power to you, if you can get some hard hitting drums without compression

P.S. MFX 12 is a compressor

fuck with the knobs in and out on every sample in the pattern... youll see

I was reffering to you saying you never compress anything at all-but use mfx12.

Compression is for wimps.

I like it RAW!