In this video Julian Rodgers demonstrates just how quick Sound Radix Drum Leveler is when tidying up drum parts. When faced with inconsistent playing a mixer might reach for a compressor but Is that the right tool? It depends.

Compression Or Leveling

Compressors have been around for a long time and they aren’t going anywhere, however this definitely isn’t an either/or choice. Leveling in the way Sound Radix use the term wasn’t around until relatively recently and for some jobs traditionally done by compressors it’s probably better, but se still have compressors as well.

Compressors Change More Than Just The Level

Compressors control dynamics but they also change the sound in other ways. This is why we like them so much and why it often seems that the least transparent compressors get talked about the most. That must feel ironic for all those designers who put so much time and effort into making them as transparent as they could!

If you want to manage the relative levels of hits in a drum performance and nothing else, not changing of the transient relative the the body of the sound or timbral changes, just how loud the hits are compared to each other, then Drum Leveler is the right tool.

In this example Julian takes an indifferent recording of a good performance and uses Drum Leveler to even up an inconsistent bass drum and uses the gating features of Drum Leveler to clean up low frequency rumble caused by the drummer “burying his foot” - Keeping the beater in contact with the drum head between hits and bouncing his knee, causing a pumping rumble on the mic.