"For drums, we always layer a lot of different sounds. First, we choose the best sounds we can find. To create more sonic depth, we tend to use analogue sounds, dusty sampled sounds and live recorded drums at the same time. We EQ them, compress them, smack them, filter them – anything goes. The danger is that it can sound disjointed. By routing all these drums to one group and putting parallel compression on the buss, we can glue them together. Another benefit is that we have greater control over the dynamics. This is very effective in the loudness war, as we now can ‘pre-master’ our sub groups, so the compressors and limiters on our master channel have less to worry about, which gives us a more open and dynamic mix, which is still very loud.”