Snare drum Comp+EQ etc.

[sincethefailing]

Hi Guys,

been wondering how does andy/colin/joeymusicguy/blackneonbob get their snares to sit in a mix so nicely. With enough crack and pop. I've been playing around with DFHS + Drumagog using various samples and I can never get my snares to stand out as much as theirs do.

any EQ / Comp tips / tricks you guys would like to share would be much appreciated.

 

[azzxaa]

well I use waves Rcomp for snare with Arc, electro, warm -attack=6.01, release=45.0
thresh=-30, ratio=20.05, Gain=3.0 then just use a eq and boost some frequencys to get the sound you want, I heard the waves SSL comp are good 2 but havent tried it..

 

[sincethefailing]

i've got the Waves SSL Comp, RComp and a UAD Card with ALL of the Plugs. Running PC though, otherwise i'd have the MH Channel Strip running.

Andy, keen to share your MH Channel Strip settings for Snares? Chimaira, Megadeth etc.?

 

[Omega_Void]

One thing I've started doing is make a copy of the drum track, gate it and then mix that with the original, so if you need more attack, bring up the gated track.
Easier than messing with comp settings.

 

[QV]

In general slow attack - play with the release to get the amount of splash you want out of it... It also helps to have some bottom snare mic in there.

 

[JeffTD]

Sounds to me like you guys have your attacks waaaay low. I keep mine at about 16-20ms, the release way low (low release + low threshold = that front end smack you're talking about).

 

[deathtotaliban]

one trick i learned from somewhere on thsi forum, was to try and make your attack longer than your release, this especially helps with snare drums that have a lot of ring on them. It can really tighten those up. For eq I usually cut below 100 hz, depending on the original snare sound I may add some mids, and I almost always add some in the 3000hz range sometimes up to 8000hz.

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

Sounds to me like you guys have your attacks waaaay low. I keep mine at about 16-20ms, the release way low (low release + low threshold = that front end smack you're talking about).

Same here.

 

[JeffTD]

One thing I love doing is boosting with a narrow Q around 175 - really, really smacks you in the balls!

 

[CJWall]

One thing I love doing is boosting with a narrow Q around 175 - really, really smacks you in the balls!

haha, hell yeah buddy, same here. I tend to favor closer to 200hz tho... and not too narrow of a Q, I don't like using such narrow bandwidth all too often.

 

[Ermz]

I've found too much 200Hz on a snare can create an annoying node when it comes to mastering time. The snare itself can also take on a bit of a boxy tone. Boosting low-end on snares is definitely something to be done with precision. I like boosting around 150Hz, and making up the rest with a low shelf.

Usually use Rcomp on snares, but have experimented with Waves SSL on em in the past. The attack is usually from 20 to 25 ms and release around 100 to 150ms or so. IMO having a really small release sort of defeats the point of compressing in the first place. You want to enhance that transient at the start, the kill off and mellow out the body sound afterward.

Maintaining that snare transient after mastering is a different matter though, usually done with some clever clipping, rather than brickwalling everything with an L2

 

[Aaron Smith]

In metal, I've never been much of a fan of snare drums that have little ringing frequencies in them, and I've always felt that taking them completely (or mostly) out helps a lot as far as having a really clean, tight, smack-y snare (especially when you throw the compressor on there as well). If you've never tried knotching out all those little ringing frequencies, you should have a go at it. Use like a Q10 or something that has a lot of bands and lets you set them to very, very thin Q settings. There will probably be at least one blatantly obvious frequency to eliminate, so boost the thinly-Qed band like 18 dB until you're right on top of the offensive frequency, then cut it at least 10 db, I often cut even deeper than that. Then, once you've removed that first frequency, another one will probably expose itself...etc, etc. It's pretty cool how peeling away one layer of ringy crap, will expose another layer of ringy crap that you couldn't initially tell was there. It really depends on the snare drum of course, but I've come up with some really badass snare results after knotching out like 15 little freqencies. Then once those freqencies are gone , I usually find that the snare only requires a minimal amount of broad EQing to get it to sound just right!

 

[Seizure.]

Thanks aaron! that indeed doesn't sound to bad!

I useally just Eq the ringy stuff out with 1 or 2 pretty wide notches and just boost 200/240 and 6 khz.
and then strap a URS 1975 on there with a hard knee and 5/10 attack, 50/150 release. 4;10 ratio.

 

[CJWall]

Thanks aaron! that indeed doesn't sound to bad!

I useally just Eq the ringy stuff out with 1 or 2 pretty wide notches and just boost 200/240 and 6 khz.
and then strap a URS 1975 on there with a hard knee and 5/10 attack, 50/150 release. 4;10 ratio.

that sucker ROCKS on snare buddy, thanks for the tip!

 

[sincethefailing]

Ok guys, I've tried Waves RComp, Waves C1-Comp, SSLComp, UAD1176, UAD Fairchild, UAD LA2A, URS 1975 Comp. And honestly to me the URS1975 has to be the most versatile and best sounding comp for snares and kicks. Well, to my ears at least.

 

[AudioPhile777]

Ok guys, I've tried Waves RComp, Waves C1-Comp, SSLComp, UAD1176, UAD Fairchild, UAD LA2A, URS 1975 Comp. And honestly to me the URS1975 has to be the most versatile and best sounding comp for snares and kicks. Well, to my ears at least.

One question, probably a stupid one... do the UAD Cards/plugs work on PC?

 

[greyskull]

yes blud

 

[AudioPhile777]

yes blud

Do they work as a DSP source for other plugins as well, or is it just for the UAD plugs?

 

[sincethefailing]

yup... I'm running at least 3 plugs per channel (including 2 x Dreamverbs) and 4 or 5 UAD plugs and my CPU power isn't even half way. And I'm running a P4 3Gz with 1gb of ram. So I guess it does act as a DSP Source... its awesome.

 

[AudioPhile777]

yup... I'm running at least 3 plugs per channel (including 2 x Dreamverbs) and 4 or 5 UAD plugs and my CPU power isn't even half way. And I'm running a P4 3Gz with 1gb of ram. So I guess it does act as a DSP Source... its awesome.

NICE!

I'm running basically the same setup, only with 2gigs of ram, soon to be 4 if I can help it...