SNARE thread - EQ, compression etc...

[dan weapon]

Ok guys, before anyone says use the "search function" - I have trawled/lurked through the brilliant info on this site for the last few years, and already found loads of information on this topic alone that has helped me. However, even though snares have been covered on numerous occasions, it's always good to go over them again...
Here's my main question though:

How would you process a snare (lets say Sneap's snare sample that he posted up here) to make it as close to the snare as heard on his records? I know only Andy could really answer this question 100%, but there are a lot of people on here with far superior drum processing skills than me, who also get great results:

Would you use multiband compression on certain frequencies?
What compression settings would you use?
Important frequencies to boost/cut?
What reverbs/settings to use?

[I am aware that the above parameters change depending on the raw snare in question, hence why I am using a well known snare as an example]


As Sneap's snare is a sample *everyone* on here must own, it would also be interesting for comparison's sake if people uploaded their processed attempts to make it as similar to the classic weighty crack as heard on records from Nevermore to Testament.

And I'm starting this thread (hopefully) for a lot other people's benefit and discussion as much as my own

 

[Ermz]

Processing it, along with other snares is pretty standard fare. It depends from snare to snare, but for that particular one you might be sucking out some of the low-mid, adding 'crack' at 3 to 6kHz, and boosting air at 8k and above with a shelf. Boosting lows either with a shelf or a bell at 150 hz or so. Compression with slow attack, fast release, maybe 20 to 30ms attack and anywhere from 0 to 50ms release. I usually use 100ms release on snares due to the SSL Channel Strip being limited to that as the quickest.

For verbs, if you want Sneap, something 'hall-like', large, fairly long, bright and linear sounding. Cheap algo verbs work great. I like freeverb 2 and Breverb personally. Give it a nice predelay of anywhere from 13 to 20ms and it's peaches.

 

[Seizure.]

150 hz? on a snaredrum? i'm useally around 200/240.

 

[Aaron Smith]

Yeah, my snare body is normally right smack at 200Hz.

 

[brandy]

Processing it, along with other snares is pretty standard fare. It depends from snare to snare, but for that particular one you might be sucking out some of the low-mid, adding 'crack' at 3 to 6kHz, and boosting air at 8k and above with a shelf. Boosting lows either with a shelf or a bell at 150 hz or so. Compression with slow attack, fast release, maybe 20 to 30ms attack and anywhere from 0 to 50ms release. I usually use 100ms release on snares due to the SSL Channel Strip being limited to that as the quickest.

Hey - that sounds like a "standard procedure for mixing a snare" to me

Regarding the Sneap Snare: I never was able to make that snare fit in my mixes, I checked that just for more or less fun a couple of times. I don't know - I would say this snare will fit in Andy's mixes, but not in someone others ;-)

Getting a cool snare can need a lot of things. Something it is enough to just apply little eq/compression, sometimes a transient designer will save your ass. Distortion... Extrem Limiting... Parallel Compression.. Nothing exept a little touch of "medium room" coming from a cool Lexicon verb?

Sometimes it is cool to use a sampled snare instead of the original mic because you have to boost a lot of higher frequencys which will result in a lot of nasty artefacts from cymbal bleed and stuff.

Ok, sometimes I have the impression anyone here is just mixing with samples, but I have to say that samples are booring, I love some life in the snare as well as I really prefer some kind of uniqeness..

Samples can be processed up to taste, so maybe it is cool to just put a distortion on it... Not kidding..

I often use samples to just add that what the original snare is missing instead of replacing the original snare.

 

[brandy]

150 hz? on a snaredrum? i'm useally around 200/240.

I would say between 150 and 240hz is everything possible, depending on the snare.

A low shelf starting at 150 hz will even effect the 100hz area which can be cool as well. Make sure to use a hp at at least 80z then. I am talking about a real snare track. Because of the kick-bleed.

I even had snares which liked to be boosted at around 300-350 hz... Others are asking me to suck them out there..

 

[Ermz]

Hey - that sounds like a "standard procedure for mixing a snare" to me

Well hey, he wanted a 'Sneapish' sound, and from what I've heard all of Andy's recent snares sound 80-90% similar to each other from record to record, so there's a good starting point

Re the low boosting: Yeah anywhere from 150 to 220 or so normally. I find the snares usually have plenty at 200hz when I'm dealing with them. I'll usually be sucking mud from 250 and in order to give it beef, I'll try to boost as low as possible and get away with it. Ideally 150, but sometimes it's gotta be higher. The 200 to 300 hz region can get boxy sounding REAL fast.

 

[pifos_2]

just when I needed these infos, thanks for asking!!!

 

[Machinated]

Room mics for me are key for bringing the crack sound out of the snare. I love to have the room mics pretty high up in the drum bus. The room mics and reverb can bring some mids back into the snare

Clipping the snare can really help bring it out, sidechaining the gate with a trigger track is really cool and as moonlapse said using a cheap reverb (sometimes boosting from around 300hz-1khz with an EQ after) can be really good too. Those are my tips!

 

[The Unavoidable]

Bookmarking this thread, my snare sounds need alot of work!

 

[Seizure.]

I also recently discovered that some transient designer and compression gave me a pretty completed snare sound (along with my oh's and roommics obviously), if i had freshdrumheads on it that is.

Were i useally would eq myself to death on the whole damn drumkit!

 

[Machinated]

Also attack times of 30-35ms are really cool, lets the transients poke through. Release times are usually around 80ms but depend really.....

 

[Skinny Viking]

150 hz? on a snaredrum? i'm useally around 200/240.

Strange but thats exactly where I put a 2.2 bell boost on the Sneap snare. High pass at around 90 and a small high shelf boost at around 2400 (like 1.5 db)

that going through either Freeverb2 or ArtsAcoustic verb with a send set to around -8 or -10 to my verb bus. However I also don't use it as a main sound in anything. If I do use Sneaps snare on anything, its blended about 6-8db lower than my primary snare sound. It just adds a nice cut to everything but I noticed the boost at around 150 really just adds a slight thump to the overall snare sound that I really like. Oh yeah, the compression settings are almost the same as moonlapse has stated, small adjustments depending on the song itself but for the most part I actually find myself using just the good 'ole RComp on it ... nothing too fancy.

 

[Ermz]

Room mics for me are key for bringing the crack sound out of the snare.

Interesting to hear that actually. I usually crush the room mics with very fast attack, almost limiter-like, to crush all transients out of them. I essentially use the rooms as ambience mics that add mids and meat into the snare, but all the 'crack' comes from the direct mic and OHs.

 

[deanbailey]

...Ok, sometimes I have the impression anyone here is just mixing with samples, but I have to say that samples are booring, I love some life in the snare as well as I really prefer some kind of uniqeness..

Samples can be processed up to taste, so maybe it is cool to just put a distortion on it... Not kidding..

I often use samples to just add that what the original snare is missing instead of replacing the original snare.

+1
That's exactly what I do.

I got the idea of using distortion from Addictive Drums but I only really apply it to the upper area (3-10 kHz depending on the snare) for extra snap.

The audio from the trigger adds a decent amount of crack too. If you listen to the beginning of Henchman Ride from Testament's latest, it sounds as if a snare trigger was used there. (I'm not saying it is being used in case I'm wrong )

Bring up the room mics/O.H for extra mids/clarity/definition and mildly Multi band compress with a tight Q if there's an ugly over tone.
And boost the low end quite a bit and compress with a multi band so it's not killing anything else in that 150-250 Hz area.

Also Parallel Compression saves lives.

 

[Machinated]

Interesting to hear that actually. I usually crush the room mics with very fast attack, almost limiter-like, to crush all transients out of them. I essentially use the rooms as ambience mics that add mids and meat into the snare, but all the 'crack' comes from the direct mic and OHs.

Should have been more clear - by crack I'm not talking about the initial transient part of the snare, but the actual snare sound as it would sound in the room.

I'm squishing the room tracks too - just using the room mic sound to bring out like the snare sound as it would sound in the room.

 

[Aaron Smith]

This is a very good thread, although I've never had trouble getting snare sounds I like. I'm gonna have to mess around with room sound though, because it's something I haven't explored much.

 

[Machinated]

I REALLY love roomy snare sounds - check out any CD with Paul Northfields name in the booklet. Definitely a good thread, seems to be a collection of a lot of the tips I have seen on this forum in one place

 

[brandy]

Haha, Snares often made my hair grey... Every snare I mixed --> one or two grey hairs! I already have a lot of grey hairs

I personally find it difficult to create a satisfying snare.. Maybe because I start from scratch every time, using either the mic-track or samples I made with that snare and which I never used before or combine both with another sample. And maybe because of I am a drummer, so I am not that easy to please with "just a snare".

Combine that with suboptimal drumming!!

If you have an AC/DC style song/drummer than you will have no problems to get a cool sound, maybe with lots of room...

But usually those kids are playing stuff which they can't perform propper, here a slow and heavy part, there a blast with the snare barely touched... then a Entombed Riff, after that a short blackmetal passage... then that riff composed by the bass-player who is actually a huge Metallica-fan.. You know what I mean.

It is not only difficult to create a cool snare sound AT ALL, it is often nearly impossible to create a snare sound which fits all those riffs in that 8 min song...

IMHO a somewhat "real" snare fits way better here than a hyped one which will suck in the blast beats or those fast rolls...

 

[brandy]

Oh, I forgot one damn important thing:

Tom-tracks!

Don't edit them out, if the drumkit was recorded proper you can feature the snare a lot with the tom-mics... Usually you have to lower everything but the hits a couple of db.

Voila - much more glue, much more organic drums.. less artefacts from nasty crashes bleeding through fill ins cause the crashes are already there