These three audio examples demonstrate the techniques described in my Cubase workshop article in SOS January 2026. I used a 12-bar acoustic drum recording, featuring separate channels for kick, snare, hi-hat, three individual toms, a stereo overhead mics channel and a stereo room mics channel (so 10 channels in total). The 12-bar performance features three four-bar sections, each with different combinations of drums and/or cymbals. Alongside the kick and snare throughout, the first includes a hi-hat, the second includes a tom pattern and the third features crash and ride cymbals.

www.soundonsound.com/techniques/cubase-14-controlling-acoustic-drum-dynamics

Cubase 14 Dynamics Processing On Acoustic Drums Audio Example JW 01.wav

A two-stage compressor approach applied on the drum bus . The 12-bar drum pattern is repeated three times, as follows:

1) The raw drum mix achieved by just balancing the faders on the various channel but without any dynamics processing applied. 2) The same drum mix but with the first instance of Compressor active and acting to catch just the initial transients of the hits which then allows a modest amount of make-up gain to be applied. 3) The same drum mix but with both instances of Compressor activated.

The differences are modest (a good thing if the aim is to retain the natural sound of the kit), yet the drum mix sounds more impactful — without any undesirable change in the overall character.

Cubase 14 Dynamics Processing On Acoustic Drums Audio Example JW 02.wav

This example demonstrates additional options for track-level dynamics processing, as described in the article. It’s divided into five sections as follows:

1) Four bars of the soloed kick drum mic, without any processing (and lots of bleed from the other drums). 2) The same four bars, but with the track-level dynamics and saturation processing applied using two instances of Compressor, and an instance of Envelope Shaper and DaTube. The aim was not to radically change the sound, but to shape it a little and give the kick more weight and punch. 3) The 12-bar drum performance with just the bus-level processing applied as in Audio Example 01. 4) The 12-bar drum performance, with the bus-level processing bypassed, and channel-level processing applied to all the individual drum tracks using various combinations of dual Compressor, EnvelopeShaper and DaTube. Each channel has its own settings, configured as appropriate for the specific drum. The Master Bus has been adjusted by a dB or two to more closely match the level of (3). 5) The 12-bar drum performance with both the bus-level and channel-level dynamics processing used in combination. Again, the Master Bus has been adjusted by a dB or two to more closely match the level of (3).

The differences between just the drum bus processing and channel-level processing are fairly modest, but there are some subtle changes in the individual drum elements. This is perhaps most obvious within the kick (less clicky, more solid) and the hi-hat (it has a more percussive sound and cuts through more clearly). The ride cymbals also seem to be placed better within the mix with a little more sustain within the last four bars. When the drum bus and channel-level processing are combined, it seems to add a subtle additional weight/density to the overall sound, and this can be seen within the resulting waveforms when once the drum mix has been rendered.

Cubase 14 Dynamics Processing On Acoustic Drums Audio Example JW 03.wav

This example demonstrates the additional options for track-level dynamics processing described within the main article. It is divided into two sections as follows:

1) The 12-bar drum performance with both drum bus and channel-level processing applied and the two parallel busses active (and their faders set to blend their signals into the overall drum mix) but with the insert effects on those channels bypassed. 2) As above but with the parallel bus insert effects active. In particular, on the ‘drum shell bus’, this includes the Tube Compressor and Distortion plug-ins.

The processing on the drum shell bus adds an additional layer of overdrive/distortion to the sounds being sent to it, and you can clearly hear the somewhat spongy character it adds to the kick and overtones (not all of them good!) it adds to the snare. The level of that in the overall mix can be easily adjusted using the channel fader and I’ve set it here to a point where the additional overdriven element of the sound can be easily heard without it being very obviously OTT. That choice is, of course, yours and would obviously depend on the musical context.