Help me with some snare samples?

[Morgan C]

Hey there
I'm trying to get a decent sound out of my snare but I can't, and I know I should be able to. Using an SM57 and its a Pearl Brass Freefloater, so it should give an excellent sound. But its not.

Mic'd it up today, a few different ways. Here is the way that sounded best to me. There is also the backing of the song, as I know the sound will change in the mix. I'm aiming for either something like the snare from Opeth's Blackwater Park (doubtful because the guitar tones are so different, I don't think mine will allow that kind of snare), or the snare from Slipknot's latest album.

Pic of it here.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d78/-Kyrane-/IMG_2307.jpg

Sound clips coming in a second.

I also tried mic'ing like this: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d78/-Kyrane-/IMG_2305.jpg

Will post soundclips of that too.

Going back to the root of the 'problem', how should I change the mic'ing and/or tuning of the drum? Unfortunately I have a thick head (powerstroke4) on there atm and thats all I have as I was using Controlled Sounds but going through them in 6 weeks..


Of course I'll post the samples up here when done. I COULD just replace the snare with another (as I'm programming the drums and sound replacing with Drumagog) but out of principle I want to use mine, and additionally there shouldn't be a reason as to why this great snare and the standard mic shouldn't produce a great sound, unless I just suck XD.

 

[-Noodles-]

I've not listened to those records (that you mentioned) for a while, but have you tried getting the 57 close to the rim, and then pointing towards the middle?

So it's not as high off the drum, but capturing a fair amount of the tone?

Are you bottom mic'ing it?

 

[Morgan C]

It was fairly close, the pic makes it look further away than it is. But I will try putting it closer tomorrow.

No I'm not bottom mic'ing it, neither of those snares I mentioned have much 'snare action' in them and I don't like much anyway, but most of all for some reason this drum has a horrible snare sound. It has the initial attack but then it rings out for a while and the ringing sounds disgusting and I've never been able to get rid of it. There's a sample in the .zip file I'm uploading now, if anyone knows how to get rid of that. I got this drum 2nd (or possibly 3rd) hand, and although its a good drum it obviously hasn't been taken very good care of.

edit:
http://rapidshare.com/files/150831256/SnareMic_ing.zip.html
2a is the snare mic'd with the first technique pictured above
2b mic'd with the second
DescBacking is the backing to the song, to see how the snare fits in the mix (not well ><)
BotYUCK is, as described, the disgusting sound I get from mic'ing the bottom of my snare.