Last time we talked about the basic functions of the Bomb Factory PSA-1. Today we’ll talk about using the PSA-1 on a drum track, either to beef up the track or as an effect. It’s no big secret that bussing the drum tracks to a single stereo compressor can give the drums an overall fatness and punch. But the PSA-1 can be inserted in an Aux track in addition or in lieu of compression and EQ to deliver drums that sound huge.
We ran drum tracks consisting of kick, snare top and bottom, rack tom, and a floor tom through the PSA-1 starting with the “Warm Drums” preset. We added a little Buzz and Punch, which really beefed up the kick and toms, and used the Crunch to add sizzle to the snare. These three knobs ended up set at around 1:00. The High and Low EQ knobs ended up set in the neighborhood of 2:00 and 1:00 respectively, which let us dial in a nice balance between the low-frequency drums and the snare. We left the Pre Amp knob set where the preset had it, and slowly turned the Drive up until the drums had just a bit of distortion. It should be said that these settings are what worked for our individual drum tracks, but you should feel free to adjust any of these settings to suit your individual tracks. From here we used the send level to balance the levels of the drums in relation to themselves and ended up with a drum track with fat kicks, punchy in-your-face toms, and a snare that will cut through the mix.
And here’s where the fun begins. The drums we were using came from a reggae-styled tune that had a two-measure drum break before the third verse. We had the drums nicely situated in the mix, but being knob-twiddlers by nature, we decided to automate the Drive control during the break for a heavy, hip hop drum-loop styled break. We dialed the Drive back just in time for the verse. This makes the PSA-1 great for remixers as well. Though it’s designed for amp emulation, the PSA-1 can be a powerful tool for mixing or remixing drums. And the best part is, it’s very processor-efficient.