Using Compression To Punch Up The Kick and Snare Drums

Compression is an effect often used to add punch and power to kick and snare drums, especially in pop and rock music. Adding compression to the drums in your recordings is a simple matter nowadays (yes, I’m still all geeky about how much easier it is to do recording now that everything is software – even 15+ years since I was able to make the transition from analog tape).

Anyway, the process of adding the compressor effect (now usually a plugin on the tracks in your software) is the same with pretty much all recording software. Below is an article showing you how to do it using Cakewalk’s SONAR X2 Producer software. I did a video showing you how to add compression in Reaper using the built-in compressor plug-in, “ReaComp” in my post, Vocal Compression Using Reaper’s ReaComp Effect Plugin.

Read the article on drum percussion in Sonar here: https://blog.cakewalk.com/make-kick-and-snare-sound-more-aggressive/