Tom-toms glue

[ceco]

First of all I'd like to thank everybody out there since that's my first post here and I'm really learning so much, and having some fun too which is never bad.. so big up to all of you from Italy :Thumbsup:

Getting back in topic I just wanted someone to clarify me what Slipperman once referred to as this "glue" thing to use with sampled tom-toms. I understand the general point in using it but I don't get what I should be looking for exactly in the original recorded tracks.

Should I be looking both before and after each hit?

What if there is just one tom or floor hit at the end of a fill? It seems to me like there is only some cymbals or snare blend before the hit and the same rumble I can get louder and clearer from the sample afterwards..
maybe it's because these tom-toms were tracked without a bottom mic?

what if it's a fill with different tom or floor hits, should the glue be a "continuum" from the biginning of the phrase to its end or just a "collar" to each hit?

what kind of EQing does this glue require to be effective?

and please forward me to another thread or forum if this topic was already discussed

thanks
Francesco

[otek]

"Glue" as I understand the term refers to the aggregate tone of the entire kit when played, i.e. you hit the kick drum and the toms and snare will resonate.

This tone, or sympathetic resonance, is very important to the sound. Too much of it will be distracting, too little and the kit will sound lifeless.

Gates should be used to achieve control over the resonance, but not obliterate it.


otek

[Brendo]

i'll point out that slipperman was talking not about tom samples but proper live-off-the-floor tom tracks.

and the idea was that the gates are set to expand instead of to hard gate - leaving some of the kit spill behind, and hence providing some "glue".

and because the gates are expanding, the glue is there the whole time, so the toms dont sound like theyre coming out of nowhere when they're hit, the tom bleed has always been there, just at a lower level.