New Music Gear Monday: Final Mix ParallelDrums Plugin

Back in 1999 I wrote in my first edition of the Mixing Engineer’s Handbook about how mixers based in New York City used a lot of parallel compression on their rhythm section tracks, which I called, for lack of a better term, New York City Compression. That expression as well as the use of the technique has now become widespread in the industry because it really does work well when it comes to beefing up the sound of a rhythm section. It’s no surprise that there are now plugins based on this concept now, and one of the best is ParallelDrums from Final Mix Software.

Final Mix is actually the brainchild of Grammy-winning producer Rob Chiarelli (Kirk Franklin, Christina Aguilera, Pink, LeAnn Rimes, among many others), who’s developed a number of very inexpensive and easy to use plugins. ParallelDrums is part of his 6 plugin Signature Series, which incorporates Rob’s take on the digital equivalent of what he used back in the analog days.

Like every plugin in the Signature Series, ParallelDrums is dead easy to use. The user interface is made to replicate the look of vintage audio device with taped-on descriptions There are only a few parameters.

There’s an Instrument selector control for All (the drum kit), Kick, Snare, Toms, O/H and Room, and a Response control that allows you to select between Fast, M/F (Medium Fast), Medium, M/S (Medium Slow) and Slow response. The Parallel Compression fader that adds the amount and a level meter show your level and that’s it.

The brief online instructions are reveling though – “The internal gain structure, compression, limiting & functionality of the PCP is exactly how it is done on an analog console. All the settings, processes, filters and algorithms were compiled from Rob’s personal gear and recall sheets from his mix sessions for P!nk, Christina Aguilera, Will Smith, LeAnn Rimes, Pat Monahan (Train), Josh Todd (BuckCherry), Janet Jackson and more. Very cool.  

The Parallel Drums plugin uses a patent-pending process that preserves all the integrity of the direct (dry) signal as you add fully processed, New York style parallel compression from -144dB all the way to +24dB.  Creamy and cool, like parallel compression should be… for your Drum Aux, Kick, Snare, Toms, Overheads & Room.”

I first tried this in place of the compressor that I’d normally have on my NYC buss and it didn’t seem to do much. Then I realized that it was made to work on the drum buss (or the kick, snare, tom, overhead or room buss) and the mix came instantly alive. Very cool indeed.

Every plugin that I tried from Final Mix Software is a winner. You get a great sound that would worth almost any reasonable price. The fact that the majority of them are just $19 means that you simply can’t go wrong.

The slight downside of a low price is that there are no trials or demo videos, and there’s not much in the way of support literature. You really don’t need any of that though since it’s all very easy and explanatory. I also really loved the MixBussEQ7, MixBussLite and BassBussLite as well, but there are no wrong choices here. Just pick one that strikes your fancy. It will be the best $19 you’ll ever spend on a plugin.

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