client asks for snare sound similar to this - problem

[colonel_claypoo]

hey all,

anybody knows the band traktor (not exactly metal)?
they have an album called "lights" and I tracked a band that wants a similar sound, especially on the snare cause it's so prominent.

however, with everything I tried, I couldn't get it.
I have to use samples because the recorded snare was nowhere in the ballpark of sounding like traktor's to begin with.

I think my main problem is finding the right drum sample and room.
furthermore, the drummer from traktor seems to hit the snare really, really hard and I haven't had much success replicating that with samples thus far.

I have slate and SD with avatar, music city, metal foundry and hit factory to work with.

would you guys try to help me out here and listen to one of traktor's songs?

thanks a lot!

[ame]http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B003Q055EW/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk10[/ame]

 

[Leon--]

in general,it's stupid that clients demand specific sounds because that's nonsense and even if this would have been possible(to take that snare,take the guitars from another band,the bass from another band etc) and mix those sounds together then 99% it will sound really bad.
i sugest you to have the final decision since you are the audio engineer and you have more experience from the bands(ussually)

 

[006]

+1 to Leon. It's a ridiculously unreasonable request. Unfortunately most musicians/bands don't realize the technical reasons why it doesn't really work that way. Explaining it is a 50/50 shot, they either will understand or they won't. But on the side of not understanding, there are some people that will just think you don't know what you are talking about, instead of realizing that it's the other way around. It's incredibly simple, if they want those sounds, they need to be those musicians. If they aren't the people in that band, they aren't going to get that sound. We all know this, musicians don't. Sucks. I actually have a band I am working with right now requesting a specific guitar sound from some band. Of course they don't even have the same guitar/pickups/picks/strings/amp/cab as the band, let alone the fact it won't sound the same even if they did. Fortunately I explained to them why that doesn't work and they trusted me and we moved on, getting a guitar sound that works for them.

 

[Soundlurker]

Oh man, I get requests like that all the time. It's especially annoying when they want to sound like some band's album and claim it sounds great when in reality it sounds awful but they love the music and that influences their judgement.

 

[colonel_claypoo]

I agree with all of you, thank you.
I guess you're right, gotta man up, Im the engineer here.
thing is I don't have much experience yet in woking with other people and the whole psychology side about recording.
so I thought:"better make them happy so they might return in the future of put the word out that I'm easy to deal with etc."
I realize why I can't get that sound and it's no problem for me to work out something else that the band could be satisfied with.
part of the reason I started this thread is that I myself was very intrigued to learn what you think about how that particular snare sound could have been achieved since it does sound a little unusual.
I know I can't get it but maybe something similar to it. that's why I started this topic.

thanks for your input.