Snare sounds..?

[Youowemeapony]

Ok, I've been really struggling with getting good results recording and processing snares.

I know the room and drum are the two most important factors, so they go as follows..

Room: about 12 x 10 with Auralex Diffusors and like 12 2' x 2' studiofoam panels, 4 bass traps to make things sound a little tighter. Carpet over regular carpet padding, over concrete. I've heard building a floating platform is a good idea, but up til now havent really thought about doing that. In my opinion the drums sound good in the room. I've never been into a good drum room to see what they sound like there, so I spoze its impossible to compare.

Drum: 4 x 14 Tama Starclassic Maple snare. Tuned semi low, as to not get that stereotypical "crank it til you cant tell its outta tune" kinda sound. Usually I use a 57 or D1, about an inch in from the rim anywhere from 1-2 inches off the head. My problem is that the sound is too much boom and not enough crack or snare sounds. To compensate I use a 57 on the bottom as well, but always wind up with tinny sounding bullshit regardless of placement, even if I roll off at like 7k. I'm looking for a nice bright full sound..

Most of the bands I record want something that sounds like The Agony Scene, Killswitch, Acacia Strain, etc. Problem is, they all have shit equipment, and I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've tried messing with mic position, phase reversal, EQ, Reverb, Compression (lots of experimentation with compression), but I still cant that kind of sound. Also, I can't find any commercial samples that have that kind of sound either. Any suggestions?

Also, I'm recording into a Digi 002 r, into Pro Tools, and using mostly Waves and Bomb Factory Plugs.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Ok, I've been really struggling with getting good results recording and processing snares.

I know the room and drum are the two most important factors, so they go as follows.. Carpet over regular carpet padding, over concrete. I've heard building a floating platform is a good idea, but up til now havent really thought about doing that. In my opinion the drums sound good in the room. I'

If you have nothing to compare to, of course it will sound good to your ears. Now run down to Home Depot and get some plywood.

You're not getting any brightness out of the snare because your carpet is sucking up all the high frequencies & the concrete is bouncing the low frequencies back at your mics.

See my "acoustic drums" guide for more info.

-0z-

 

[Youowemeapony]

If I were to purchase a few sheets of plywood and hinge them together like you suggested, I think I might run into a problem with the kick and hats sliding around... I'm thinking maybe I could get some of the really thin rubbery mats like they put under rugs on tile, and that might help keep it in place. either that or just glue a few pieces of carpet to the plywood to keep stuff from moving.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Gluing carpet would totally defeat the purpose. Doesn't your kick have spikes?

If not, nail a piece of 2X4 down in front of the kick.

 

[rhythmicpunisher]

Thats all good but start with your snare if you want a killer sound tune it up. Snare drums are made to put some tention on them. Next try a diffrent head if your useing some totally heavy double ply head that may be the problem. If you want more highs try going for a lighter head.

 

[James Murphy]

...To compensate I use a 57 on the bottom as well, but always wind up with tinny sounding bullshit regardless of placement...

this is the obvious question, but just to get it out of the way.... you are inverting the phase on the bottom mic, yes?

 

[Gomez]

Try a Josephson E22 mic.

I have not yet used it, but many people are talking about it.

Steve Albini's secret weapon (apparently) and the guy does get really nice, huge snare drum sound.

 

[Youowemeapony]

this is the obvious question, but just to get it out of the way.... you are inverting the phase on the bottom mic, yes?

Yessir.

Also, before the last recording I did I put a Evans HD Dry on top, and a brand new Hazy 300 on bottom, with new puresound snares, made sure the snare sounds the best I could possibly get it. I'm thinking it's mostly my room.

 

[Dreathus]

i have the same problem, i will see about gettin some plywood in my space.

 

[Nebulous]

Might it work if you just put a small peice of ply under the snare?

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Might it work if you just put a small peice of ply under the snare?

It might, it might not. I've never tried it. The thing about a full platform is it benefits the whole kit, not just one element.



BTW, Youowemeapony, I hope you brought the drums in 24 hours before you tried micing them up.

 

[Youowemeapony]

Yeah, my drums are stored in my carpeted, air condonditioned/heated basement at all times.

I did a session today, and I decided to move my kit as close as I could to my back wall and set up room mics.. I only have like 12 feet in my room, so they're probably only 7-8 feet back, but I put an 1176 on them and squashed em pretty hard, and it added a considerable amount of beef and life to the sound. Also, I'm using a new technique with reverb that I learned the other day. Instead of putting the reverb directly on the snare channel, I set up two stereo aux's... one with trueverb on a tweaked studio A preset, and one with Rverb and a small hall... blending those two reverbs with a compressed drum submix sounds AWESOME. I'm finally getting where I want to be with my drum sounds.

On a slightly off topic.. do any pro tools users know if LE 6.4 uses delay compensation, or if there's any way to find out the amount of delay a plugin produces?