How do you treat snare top and snare bottom ?

[LeSedna]

Hello

Just wondering, when you have 2 snare tracks : top and bottom, how do you process them ?

 

[bryan_kilco]

Me, personally, I gate first, then EQ with a bump maybe around 200Hz and a bump in the highs around 8-10khz, then compress with 6-12 GR with quick attack and slower release. Been using GClip on the snares too to cut some of the bigger peaks. I might use reverbs on each snare as well, then send them to a Bus with some more reverb and another clipper.

 

[pipaguapique]

i check for phase alignment first. then i send them to an aux track, where i eq both of them, and i adjust the volume individually blending in the bottom mic till it sounds good.

but tbh...i hardly ever use a bottom mic. i get enough snare from the oh's/room mics

 

[bryan_kilco]

pipaguapique - what is the advantage (if any) of sending them to an AUX track? is this basically the same as Bussing?

 

[LeSedna]

I had heard some set the bottom track higher than the top track. I found it strange, so I was wondering if that was a little trick some do, for whatever reason. I do usually not use the bottom track or just blend it if it can give me some body but mos of the time I don't see the interest of it... So I'm asking this question.

 

[bryan_kilco]

I find the bottom snare to be very useful in giving some cut and more high end in the drum mix.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I always get the basic snare sound from the top mic and blend the bottom in just a little bit to get some additional crack.

 

[JamesNorman]

Depends were and what I'm tracking, if I'm at my studio I use the channel I would use for room mic, and sample the snare with the bottom mic on! Then I sample repace this along the snare. Gives me a snare bottom! In my university studio I get a mic or two underneath, depends on the track!

 

[Dollarosa]

Check phase(reverse phase of bottom mic).
Send the two tracks to a snare buss which has an output to the drum buss. In the snare buss I will eq and add some compression.
Create sends on each of the snare tracks, which are sent to a reverb buss.
Adjust the volume of each snare track until happy with the overal sound. Been adding slate vcc to the snare tracks aswell Never really have to gate, have been getting very minimal bleed from the hihat, There seems to be more bleed from the kick with the bottom snare mic (seems to give a little omph to the kick though)

 

[Erik Monsonis]

I process them together in the same track folder (Reaper) as a single source track.

 

[AboutBlank]

I kinda hate the bottom mic.
Till now it sucked ass, everytime.

I rather add a sample for that stuff...

But if a REALLY cool snare comes into the studio, I'll definately wanna check the bottom mic, anyways.

 

[pipaguapique]

you want to send them to an aux track to eq, compress ect. both at the same time...and to only have one fader instead of 2 when mixing.

 

[Max Morton]

when the snare, snares and the tuning are ok, I love blending the top (sm57) and bottom (oktava mk012) together 50/50, then routing them to the group channel and only then - processing (hipass, a couple of resonance cuts, etc, then artistic equalisation, then gate, sidechained from the snare trigger or from the midi file i've created using Slate Trigger on the snare drum, then compression, parallel compression and probably a touch of saturation). Never felt the need of using the GClip on the snare drum. When mixed with the kick and all other instruments, it regains it's peaks that still affect the mastering chain. So why destroying something in vain?)))

 

[Lasse Lammert]

different depending on style and snare...
sometimes I just group them and treat bottom and top with the same EQ/comp..then perhaps adjust from there...sometimes I'll bus them to an aux and EQ/comp them together, sometimes I treat them seperately, sometimes I compress the shit out of the bottom mic and key a gate off the top mic....really depends

 

[amarshism]

When I started micing the bottom of the snare my snare sounds improved dramatically.

 

[drew_drummer]

I'm trying to get away from sample augmenting the snare, and just get everything from the acoustic recordings. So the snare bottom mic is quite important in adding some extra crack to the sound.

 

[colonel kurtz]

i always, always, always, treat the top and bottom mics separately from each other, because each has a different purpose for me

top mic usually ends up being compressed with a ratio between 2 and 4, attack around 25ms, pretty short release...gain reduction of maybe 4-6db. EQ is ??, but usually HP at 100-125hz, with a couple boosts using a "secret weapon" EQ plug that just kills on snares.

bottom mic gets compressed way harder, and gated to hell and back...10:1 ratio if not full-on limiting, fast attack and long-ish release, GR pretty much set to pancake. i also high pass the bottom track at around 150hz, maybe even low pass if it's too shrill sounding on the top end. all i want out of this mic is a solid SNAP to mix with the fuller bodied top track.

then i send both tracks to a single snare buss together, where the bottom is usually 6-9db lower than the top, and then finally they get Gclip'd together and sent to the snare verb

 

[IronApe]

using a "secret weapon" EQ plug that just kills on snares.

You really think you can get away with that?? SPIT IT!!

 

[John_C]

I'm trying to get away from sample augmenting the snare, and just get everything from the acoustic recordings. So the snare bottom mic is quite important in adding some extra crack to the sound.

same

although the better the recording, the less i find i need the bottom mic as the top is hopefully plenty bright and snappy. With a shit snare recorded shittily the bottom mic has to come in to save the day

 

[darthjujuu]

the bottom rejects cymbals/hats better, so you can crush it harder and high shelf it more. i've always flipped phase on the bottom, as well. wouldn't try clipping it on though, damn thing falls off 98% of the time and no one notices til the sessions done.