A punchy snare that DOESN'T get murdered in mastering?

[Morgan C]

Right so I've got my snare track and its pretty spikey already, but after some very necessary EQ (not very good mic'ing and very boomy), I need some compression to put the smack back in it. Except now I've got a mix with the snare poking out and I need about 10dB of clipping and limiting to bring the level reasonably up, and then the snare's smack is gone again.

What can I do? :/

 

[ahjteam]

let someone else master it

 

[Ermz]

To be honest, once I started mastering with Gclip and the Sonnox limiter, I haven't really had any transient/punch loss problems. If anything my mixes are still too out of whack when I slam them. Just make sure you're using the right tools and your mix is balanced in a way that will let it get sufficiently loud without too much change.

Clips usually help.

 

[Metaltastic]

How are you able to use GClip and the Sonnox plug, Ermz? (cuz isn't the Sonnox PT only?)

 

[F.E.T]

How are you able to use GClip and the Sonnox plug, Ermz? (cuz isn't the Sonnox PT only?)

Nope, they´re not

 

[ahjteam]

How are you able to use GClip and the Sonnox plug, Ermz? (cuz isn't the Sonnox PT only?)

Nope.

http://www.sonnoxplugins.com/pub/plugins/products/limiter.htm

Platforms Supported
Pro Tools HD (TDM), Pro Tools LE (RTAS), M-Powered (RTAS), PowerCore, AU, VST

 

[Gomez]

I tend to clip my converters (lavry blue) withe the digital saturation function on... for me it works much better than any limiter plug I heard. I have not tried the Sonnox limiter.

uke: L1 and L2 are GREAT to kill yer snare. However the L2 has a good dither.

It also has a lot do with the overall frequency balance of your mix... if the snare has it's "gap" it will not die so easily.

 

[xFkx]

The sneap snare is a winner for me most of the times, has enough 'body' to not get lost in the mix (if the mix is good). That said, i think the transient designers most of the time are a semi-perfect solution. The snare needs to defends itself with it's body and timbre, not with it's attack

 

[Metaltastic]

Nope.

http://www.sonnoxplugins.com/pub/plugins/products/limiter.htm

Platforms Supported
Pro Tools HD (TDM), Pro Tools LE (RTAS), M-Powered (RTAS), PowerCore, AU, VST

Intriguing...

 

[Morgan C]

Just to clarify, I don't think its my mastering that is the problem but my mixing. I'm fine with using GClip and limiters, but I seem to have to clip them a LOT. The transients of the snare are 10dB (no exaggeration) above everything else.

Ok, here's a screenshot and clip. Left is 'before', right is 'after' clipping. As you can see I need around 7-8dB of clipping to bring the guitars up to level, and that's pretty damn audible (The clipping seems to be more audible when the guitars are playing too, than when the drums are solo'd).

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/324723/SnareTransients.mp3

 

[Cyanide_Anima]

distort it! a touch of distortion (with a good plug) will clip it, and add some 'content' to it so it sounds strong. works for me anyways...

 

[Zombietakeover]

Why are you Clipping the master to bring the guitars up in the level?? you would want to do that on the individual fader's

 

[Morgan C]

Seem to have a sort-of solution. Clipped a little bit, then compressed the master bus with a really short release time, then clipped a bit more before limiting. Not sure if I'm liking this snare sound though.. very Bulb-ish and I'm not sure if I like it yet. Always good to know how to get sounds though.

@Zombie
Clipping the master bus or snare bus doesn't really make a difference because of how far above everything else the snare transients are.

 

[joeymusicguy]

steven slate drums and ozone for the win (ozone can do the same thing gclip does, but with way more options in changing the tone / character / sound)

laugh all you want, but it rules. haha.

 

[462studio]

To be honest, once I started mastering with Gclip and the Sonnox limiter, I haven't really had any transient/punch loss problems. If anything my mixes are still too out of whack when I slam them. Just make sure you're using the right tools and your mix is balanced in a way that will let it get sufficiently loud without too much change.

Clips usually help.

Thank you for that. I'm trying the Oxford right now because of your comment and I must say I am digging it quite a bit.

 

[lordtech]

try GClip and PSPVintageWarmer2 in the same chain... it works with my production! \m/

 

[beyond dead]

it helps to break the clipping stages up a bit. one mild stage of clipping on the snare bus, and 2 stages on the 2 bus. compress between the clipping stages.

I have no trouble getting loud punchy snares with any snare ( natural, or sample)
fwiw im using the liquid mix and logic`s stock comp / limiting so i dont think the plug in you use is as important as what you do with it. I have gotten similar results with the event horizon as well.

 

[MartijnPaauwe]

My Master-Bus chain is al-ways the SSL GComp from Waves, the meter is going to +- 4 db and Timeworks Mastering Compressor. Works all the time and sounds great.

I can do a little comparison between L2 and Timeworks if anybody is interested.

 

[nwright]

steven slate drums and ozone for the win (ozone can do the same thing gclip does, but with way more options in changing the tone / character / sound)

laugh all you want, but it rules. haha.

Do you mean using Ozone on the snare track only, drum bus or 2 bus?

Only reason I ask is because Ozone already has a "drums" preset (4 band drum I think?). I've never used it, though.

Sometimes I will use the Ozone mastering verb or the limiter in small quantities before using better plugs for final touches, but that's OT.

 

[LydonB]

Ozone kicks ass. The newish limiter is pretty awesome as well.