Getting rid of LOT'S of unwanted noise in the snare top mic!

[Black neon bob]

If anyone could help me out here, i would be most pleased..

I get a lot of noise in my snare top mic in a project im doing now.. you can hear the hihats, cymbals, and the kick pretty damn loud.

So to those who do a lot drums recording/mixing.. how do you solve this without using drumagog?
The drummer wants the natural snare, not samples..

I know i could sample his own snare sound, but i would rather not use drumagog since it keeps giving me unwanted noises and hits over the whole project, and it seems the snare top mic has been moved during the project at some point, so drumagog is not really a solid option..

Thanks in advance!

 

[James Murphy]

gate it or edit

 

[Black neon bob]

cool...

With editing, do you mean cutting all the noise out and leave the hits of the snare in?
There are quite some fast fills and quick parts where all explodes in the snare top mic.. would be pretty difficult..

Which gate is good/best in the waves package for this stuff? never really used a gate before..

Cheers.

 

[Gomez]

I find that gates never work properly if you have a lot of bleed.

you might be better off using drumagog or S.R.

 

[KillDivision]

Do you have a lot of compression on the snare? Maybe you are amplifying those unwanted noises. Could try to set the compressor different.

 

[Black neon bob]

Yeah.. there is compression, but the real issue seems to step in once i put on the EQ (which contains a lot of high frequencies and amplify the hihats and cymbals pretty hard)..

But i need the EQ in order to get that snap in the snare..

 

[Niels]

Did you record the drums already?

If not put the off axis of your mic pointed to the HiHat. If you want to get rid of more noise, you can put some cardboard around the mic, but be careful, if you take too much cardboard or if you put it too close around the capsule you might have some phasing effects.

I think editing(cut between the hits) works better(cleaner) than a gate. If you use a gate and it's not working well, try a gate with range or an expander. Sounds more natural then...

 

[nwright]

This may be really dumb, but maybe you could duplicate the rhythm track, edit out the bleed or gate it, add the high end EQ, etc. and blend that in with the original to give you the more realistic sound of the mic, but the clean palette for the EQ to work on.

 

[Niels]

Just had another idea to get the gate work properly...

Duplicate the snare track and pull it forward a few samples, cut everything out except the snare hits, normalize every single hit and use it in the sidecain of the gate you're using on the original track. This is somehow similar to the technique Andy uses by recording the transducer signal from the drum triggers. -> Gate with preview function.

 

[Razorjack]

I agree that editing is the best option, that or replacing it with samples of the actual snare.

 

[Andy Sneap]

if its recorded, trigger the snare then put that into the sidechain of a gate.

 

[Gomez]

if its recorded, trigger the snare then put that into the sidechain of a gate.

Thanks for the trick sir.

 

[STINNETT]

I know i could sample his own snare sound, but i would rather not use drumagog since it keeps giving me unwanted noises and hits over the whole project, and it seems the snare top mic has been moved during the project at some point, so drumagog is not really a solid option..

Thanks in advance!

Sometimes you've got to really do surgery on a snare track to get Drumagog to give you what you want. Strip out the silence (or lack thereof) between the hits, sometimes slip edit some of the hits so they don't trigger multiple samples, etc. Drumagog never gives me what I want without alot of editing on a snare track.

 

[nwright]

Sometimes you've got to really do surgery on a snare track to get Drumagog to give you what you want. Strip out the silence (or lack thereof) between the hits, sometimes slip edit some of the hits so they don't trigger multiple samples, etc. Drumagog never gives me what I want without alot of editing on a snare track.

Hmmm, I had an extremely easy time using Drumagog on our disc. I used the snare mic signal, ran it through Drumagog and it was easy. I had to edit some of the bleed out and boost some hits a bit, but really it took no time at all in hindsight. I used advanced trigger mode, set the threshold for triggering at 10.5 and that was it.

 

[Black neon bob]

Best.. forum.. ever!

You guys are the best.. all those options and replies in just a couple of hours.. thank you all, i will try the methods given!

 

[STINNETT]

Hmmm, I had an extremely easy time using Drumagog on our disc. I used the snare mic signal, ran it through Drumagog and it was easy. I had to edit some of the bleed out and boost some hits a bit, but really it took no time at all in hindsight. I used advanced trigger mode, set the threshold for triggering at 10.5 and that was it.

Often when I set the resolution and the sensitivity to a point where the fast fills and ghost notes sound realistic, I end up with alot of false triggering. For instance, sometimes a really hard hit will trigger two consecutive samples, but lowering the resolution or changing the threshold would ruin the realism of the rolls. That's when I have to get in there and really edit the snare track. Like you're saying, it's not a long process, pretty easy really. Just enough time to listen to the song a few times while stopping here and there to slip edit, or slice out sections of the track. An alternative would be to split the mic'd snare track into different tracks and dial in drumagog differently for different sections, but I don't mind the editing.

 

[Niels]

if its recorded, trigger the snare then put that into the sidechain of a gate.

...or create a 2nd snare track with drumagog and use this one in the sidechain.(if you don't have a trigger signal)

 

[wishtheend]

Bouncing drumagog's snare to a new track is probley the easiest. I go section by section, adjusting the sensitivity according and while can be time consuming, I rarely have to go back and edit. Then again, I'm not using a mic signal, but it should work the same

 

[Ermz]

Welcome to the world of actual drum recording, Bob. You'll find it's quite a bit more stressful than simply loading up DFHS and going for it.

I know I'm probably stating the obvious here, but try to position your mic well to start with. You can minimize bleed with placement. Here's a kit I prepared earlier:

 

[Nebulous]

How long will it be till someone starts tellnig us how crap our OHs are lol