Huge reverb for snare.

[TimeGhost]

Hey guys,

No matter how wet I make the snare track with reverb, it does not cut through the rest of the instruments. I'm basically looking for that "metal" snare or even 80's sounding. The decay is set low so it has that gated feel. Ive been messing with the pre delay and other stuff. Soloed it sounds huge, but the reverb is gone once it is unmuted. Help!

 

[Ermz]

Then it's a problem with the rest of your mix. You need to cut holes in the other instruments in order for the ambience to cut through. Also you may need to play with the upper mids of the reverb signal. See if boosting them helps, or if slamming the verb with a short attack, and then bringing it up with the make-up gain makes a difference.

 

[vespiz]

Sometimes, making the guitars darker brings out the reverbs and ambiences in other instruments.

 

[TomAwesome]

Mess with the EQ and compression. The reverb isn't what's going to make it cut through a mix and give it presence, it just adds a little more depth after the fact.

 

[kaomao]

Uhm did you pay attention to the predelay?
Setting it to 15-30 ms make it sounds natural, basically the reverb starts kicking after those seconds, your attack will be uneffected

 

[Disconnekt]

I've actually gotten MUCH better results compressing the shit out of a room mic than any reverb has ever given me. If I turn up a reverb loud enough to ring over a mix, it always sounds fake, even when I use Altiverb or something similar (I think due to the fact that you're not getting the sound of a drum in a room, you're just getting the sound of top and bottom mics dragged out). However, when I take a room mic where the snare has a nice midrangey "pow" and compress it to bring up the tail, that sounds pretty tasty, totally natural, and blasts right through the mix.

 

[Machinated]

I love using the cheaper sounding reverbs such as Freeverbtoo, D-verb, Reverence, AVerb and GoldVerb (in Logic) for snares. I also find myself boosting the mids (sometimes low mids, sometimes high mids, depends on the mix) and boosting treble too. Also depending on the mix it may be an idea to trim off some of the low end of the reverb to stop things muddying up.

 

[jesterroot4]

well i always put my effects on sends, and when soloed the snare track can sound like it has a load of verb, but when in mix, its gone, so i just tent to send more and more to the reverb until i can hear it.

things like this i always put on with the whole mix playing, just keep adding until its right.

I'm probably doing it wrong but its fine for me

 

[ahjteam]

I have usually used two different reverbs for snare. I personally like Yamaha SPX990 because it sounds kinda bad in a good way, and it usually cuts thru pretty well. When I go live, I always use the "Concert Hall" preset (also used for rest of the kit and vocals), and if there is another SPX990 available, I also use "Snare plate".

 

[El_Gato]

I find that compression/enhancer in the master can affect drastically the verb in the snare bringing it up so I try to use it with caution. Good idea from kaomao to set pre-delay 15-30 ms.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

er high pass


edit: er, er, I meant low pass, meat!!!!

 

[everybody's x]

a few things to try

don't use verb as an insert , use it as a send effect, 100% wet.
two verb busses, one short and one long, put a bandpass on them so you get the verb just hitting the mids and doesn't muddy things up.
pre delay somewhere between 30-40 ms to let the hit pop through
try a short delay and fuck around with the delay time, some comb filtering does interesting things to make them cut.
mult the snare, use one to feed the fx and leave one completely dry.

read Oz's guide, and the fadewear guides, lot's of good stuff there

 

[Sly]

I'd say the problem is the rest of your mix, as said previously try to darken the guitars and vocals by cutting a bit in the 3-7 khz area and listen what happens.

I also tend to find that reverb sounds a bit old an dated, and the less I use it, the better it is. Instead of that I use room mics to get the natural ambience. Room mics help A LOT when you want your drums to cut through. Without ambience, your drums will sound a bit unnatural, dry with no life. In fact room mics bring a lot more than you expect to your drums most of the time, of course you have to put the mic(s) in the right place, and treat them correctly when mixing. Then use a bit of reverb on your snare if the room doesn't make it to cut through enough.

 

[everybody's x]

I agree, I much prefer messing with short delays,compression and room mics to get a more natural sound and keep it clean

 

[Ouroboros]

This won't fix your problem, but it's wise to do a fairly extreme HPF as a part of your band pass before the reverb that is in the aux. Cut up to 300Hz or even up to 500Hz so low frequencies aren't booming around, muddying up the reverberation.

 

[Machinated]

This won't fix your problem, but it's wise to do a fairly extreme HPF as a part of your band pass before the reverb that is in the aux. Cut up to 300Hz or even up to 500Hz so low frequencies aren't booming around, muddying up the reverberation.

I agree with this, although some reverb tails tend to have beef to them, and as long as there is space in the mix it can work. I have boosted around 300-400Hz to get a fatter reverb before. I have found Andy's reverb tends to have quite a lot of mids in it.

 

[colonel kurtz]

don't use verb as an insert , use it as a send effect, 100% wet

b-i-n-g-o, and bingo was his name-o!!

in addition to using it as a 100% wet send and doing some EQ'ing, looking beyond the typical 100% L/R panning for the reverb can help open it up as well