Gating Snaredrums

LSD-Studio

LSD-Studio

HCAF crusher
Jul 2, 2006
3,446
1
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Germany
www.lsd-tonstudio.de
Hey there,

I'd be interested in how you guys gate your snaredrum.

When I started Mixing I Gated the shit out of the snare (sidechain), somehow that did not really satisfiy my since it doesn't sound very natural, hihat hits are emphazised on the snare hits etc...
so I started to gate it not as tight anymore (120-140ms release on the gate) and leave a floor (-12 thru -30 dB or so), that helped alot and is/was the usual method for me.
Yesterday I started mixin a very natural rocksong and my goal was to treat the drums as little as possible to keep a big natural sound, the recordings were pretty good so this approach went pretty well.
I didn't gate the snare at all and was pretty impressed with the overall sound of the drums, the bleed on the snare didn't harm the drumsound the least.

usually I'm using a sidechain-gate on the snare (triggered via trigger-spikes) but since I'm on cubase sidechaining is a pain in the ass so I try to settle with the snaresound (top vs. bottom, mix of- and fx on both) as early in the mix as possible....but that means I can't make anymore adjustments (top vs. bottom-lvl etc) later in the mix...I'd like to keep that oportunity though.

By not gating the snare at all I wouldn't have that problem anymore and since I was really impressed by how well it worked on the light rock mix I was wondering if it would work in a denser metal-mix, too...?

do you gate the snare?
how much?
do you keep separate top-and bottom-tracks until the end?

..in general...just tell us how you treat your snare
 
LSD-Studio said:
By not gating the snare at all I wouldn't have that problem anymore and since I was really impressed by how well it worked on the light rock mix I was wondering if it would work in a denser metal-mix, too...?
Click to expand...

For me it all depends on how much processing the snare needs. If you process the snare more, the bleed will sound stranger and more obvious. For example raising the highs of the snare often makes the hi-hat and cymbal bleed in the snare mic sound very obvious and harsh. That's a problem that cant be really avoided with a gate(only faked to be less obvious as you described).
So what I do if I have a snare that sounds not good as it is: I use samples to avoid the problem all together....
If the snare sounds great as it is and I don't need much processing then I dont use a gate as well....
 
I try gating every time, sometimes it cleans up the mix a lot with no really noticable side effects and sometimes it destroys everything. If it works, I keep it.
 
Kjaerhus golden audio gate.


Bought it the other day to give me the choice between SOnitus gate (awesome!) and The Kjaerhus.
 
i never gate snares.
i use a wee touch of the expander on the ssl channel every blue moon,
but other than that... naaah
 
I've never been one to gate the snare.

I may gate the room to the snare, though.

YMMV
 
I'm fairly impartial either way. I find that if after the snare is processed and the hat bleed in the snare mic is too intense whenever the gate opens, that means the mic's been positioned incorrectly. I boost absurd amounts of high-end on snares usually, and the cymbal bleed absolutely has to be minimal to get away with this. If I can't, then I'll sample. Otherwise I may set a gate reducing about 20dB. The slight bleed in mics is cool. It creates an ambience, which in conjunction with the room mics can give you that 'real life' sound which drum samples and drum machines lack.
 
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