Achieving A Tight "Death Metaly" Snare a la Misery Index "Heirs To Thievery"

[IHHguitar]

I absolutely love the drum mix on this album, as well as the entire mix as a whole. My main question, as stated in the thread title, is:
how would one go about getting a snare like this?



It sounds some what thin, yet it still maintains all the balls and "oomph" that a snare needs in a death metal mix. I know all the basic compression and eq techniques that one might normally use on a snare in most mixes, this overall tone is one that I have been struggling to get, though.
Any insight, and or tips would be greatly appreciated.

I would like to avoid just using a specific sample, and if it helps at all I am using Superior Drummer. Lame I know

 

[Internity]

the sound of the snare comes from the snare itself... start with some sample / snare source that have same characteristic like this one..

 

[ratsapprentice]

Piccolo snares

 

[IHHguitar]

I've been using the 13" Piccolo from Superior's library. I can get it tuned similarly and all, but I can't seem to get it to sound as tight as the one on this record. My main problem I guess is dealing with the snare's transients. I really love how the one they used is almost "dead" after it's hit.

 

[Virgil.]

I've been using the 13" Piccolo from Superior's library. I can get it tuned similarly and all, but I can't seem to get it to sound as tight as the one on this record. My main problem I guess is dealing with the snare's transients. I really love how the one they used is almost "dead" after it's hit.

Compress the shit out of it with a low threshhold.

 

[IHHguitar]

I've tried that a few times with a few different comps. I always get this really nasty transient that rings off, or it ends up sounding like one of Bulb's snares

 

[Mago]

kill ring with a gate or a transient designer may help?

also sounds like there's room and or overheadsound involved to make the snare sound like it does I think

 

[Virgil.]

I've tried that a few times with a few different comps. I always get this really nasty transient that rings off, or it ends up sounding like one of Bulb's snares

What types of compressors have you used or tried? Each one out there has it's own characteristics that could be good/bad for your snare. What sort of EQ are you doing as well? Not using a compressor correctly, bad eq, poor reverb/room impulses, etc. can all contribute and lead to really nasty transients or causing the sound to tear. Some examples of what you're talking about and maybe more details as to what you're doing would be helpful.

Edit: are you using only a SD2.0 snare? You may want to try muting the overheads and all room mics in SD and just listen to the snare and the kick. If you notice those fragments returning when you unmute the overheads, then you should adjust the bleed and how much verb you have going on in the room. You may want to also mute the snare completely and use other snare samples -- that way you isolate the snare and can control it better. I'm also not a fan of SD snares. I prefer using SSD or Sneap samples for kicks and snares.

 

[IHHguitar]

Here's a quick example:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9233272/Dimensions Intertwine Drums 01.mp3

Obviously there are other aspects of the kit that need work, but right now I'm focusing on getting a snare that I like. I've tried using the stock compressors in Nuendo as well as Waves Rcomp which are the only ones I have at my disposal right now. I also used the Renaissance eq as that is the bundle I purchased from Waves.

If I were to try using other snare samples, are there any good freeware replacement plug ins you could recommend? I'm completely broke and can't afford to look at something like Trigger

 

[Virgil.]

Here's a quick example:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9233272/Dimensions Intertwine Drums 01.mp3

Obviously there are other aspects of the kit that need work, but right now I'm focusing on getting a snare that I like. I've tried using the stock compressors in Nuendo as well as Waves Rcomp which are the only ones I have at my disposal right now. I also used the Renaissance eq as that is the bundle I purchased from Waves.

If I were to try using other snare samples, are there any good freeware replacement plug ins you could recommend? I'm completely broke and can't afford to look at something like Trigger

I'm at work now so I can't listen, but I'll give this a listen later. I use APTrigga (http://www.apulsoft.ch/aptrigga/) and it's really cheap and nice. They even have a demo version available to try, but it's only like $50 US I think. It's just a plugin that executes the samples for you. There's all kinds of great snare samples that peeps on here have uploaded over the past 10 years to fiddle around with to find ones you like. Erkan uploaded his entire organized sample library that included all of the Sneap samples at one point, but i'm not sure if it's still up or not. Check the Drum Samples sticky thread and just start downloading away.

Oh, and I would also suggest picking up Lasse's snare pack when you have some extra cash: http://lsddrums.bigcartel.com/ but you'll still need something like APTrigga to trigger the samples.