SUPER SNARE SOUND
- Thread starter Arcay
- Start date
the trick to getting a sweet snare sound with the slate samples is to layer the ambient samples in with the close mics...throw some of the Z3 on top of the Z1, and see how that sounds.
i try not to compress samples if possible...the slate stuff, along with many others, have a lot of processing on them already, so i do as little as possible to them.
i did EQ the Z3 snare layer on a mix i'm working on right now, though...i found it to be a little too bright, and cutting a few db's with a hi-shelf helped out a lot
i did EQ the Z3 snare layer on a mix i'm working on right now, though...i found it to be a little too bright, and cutting a few db's with a hi-shelf helped out a lot
Jaymz
Stymphalian Productions
Colonel, do you usually use a number of the ambience Z wav's along with the dry sample, or just use 1 ambient sample along with the dry snare? If you use a few, how do you go about layering many ambience wav's?
i just listen to the 2/3/4 samples along with the Z1...and to be honest, i can't even remember what the Z2 and Z4 are supposed to be, i just know that the Z3 has a really good room sound, so i blend that guy with the Z1
OTOH, i'm a total amateur, so i take what i say with a grain of salt
also, on the mix that i mentioned previously, even after shaving a few db's off of the high-end of the ambient track, it still seemed a little too bright, so i ended up sending the Z1 snare out to the same fairly dry but big reverb i used on the toms, and dropped the level of the ambient track by quite a bit. i'd heard of other people using multiple reverbs on the snare before and didn't know how much it would help, but i can tell you that having a close-mic'ed sample, plus the ambient sample and a touch of reverb not only gives it a realistic sense of depth, but also helps the reverb sound keep from getting buried, as seems to be the case when only using a single of source of reverb/ambience.
OTOH, i'm a total amateur, so i take what i say with a grain of salt
also, on the mix that i mentioned previously, even after shaving a few db's off of the high-end of the ambient track, it still seemed a little too bright, so i ended up sending the Z1 snare out to the same fairly dry but big reverb i used on the toms, and dropped the level of the ambient track by quite a bit. i'd heard of other people using multiple reverbs on the snare before and didn't know how much it would help, but i can tell you that having a close-mic'ed sample, plus the ambient sample and a touch of reverb not only gives it a realistic sense of depth, but also helps the reverb sound keep from getting buried, as seems to be the case when only using a single of source of reverb/ambience.
Jaymz
Stymphalian Productions
The manual says the Z3's are the totally dry samples? Z2's are the stereo samples with compressed room amb, and Z4 is total room ambience 
IIRC.
Do you copy the snare wavefrom then drumagog it with the ambient samples? The verb sounds interesting, ill try it out when my package arrives.
IIRC.Do you copy the snare wavefrom then drumagog it with the ambient samples? The verb sounds interesting, ill try it out when my package arrives.
The manual says the Z3's are the totally dry samples? Z2's are the stereo samples with compressed room amb, and Z4 is total room ambience
well son of a bitch...i must have some really whacked-out version then, because my Z3 samples are most definitely the ambient/room samples. long story short - mix the dry, close mics with the ambient samples, and you should be able to find something that sounds pretty good.
and to answer your Q, i originally applied drumagog as an insert on the snare track i was programming with the Z1 applied...then i sent this out to an FX track, which had drumagog with the Z3 loaded. then i went ahead and rendered the snare track to a .wav, loaded it into the DAW, and aligned it with the original snare track(i had bounced the track from the sequencer to a .wav file as well). then i changed the drumagog on the snare track to the Z3, and rendered it as well.
now i ended up with 2 snare tracks...1 with the Z1, one with the Z3, and no drumagog running, since that bastard of a plug eats up my CPU like crazy.
vespiz
Mixing!
A little bit of distortion (or a lot, if you prefer) can sometimes be just the thing. Actually, I almost always use the LoFi plug-in in ProTools on snares and toms when mixing metal.
BassTard
Member
When it comes to snare compression, be aware of the different sounds that compressors will create. Even if you just use plugs, their behaviour will vary quite a lot. Some thoughts:
- In general I do prefer VCA-style comps, or one VCA as a peak-comp and another comp in RMS mode afterwards.
- Emulations of the 1176 will do fairly good.
- I found the Waves C1 to be quite metallic (sometimes usefull) on snare.
- For an instant, nice, wood-like "smack" just drop in the Blockfish and raise "compression".
Best wishes.
EDIT: Oh yeah... controlling the transients, you might use a distortion (like vespiz said) or some saturation (for freeware I would recommend Jeroen Breebaart's Ferox). Some of us even clip the snare (GClip). And if you wanna try the LoFi-thing not having ProTools: E-Phonics LoFi is great.
- In general I do prefer VCA-style comps, or one VCA as a peak-comp and another comp in RMS mode afterwards.
- Emulations of the 1176 will do fairly good.
- I found the Waves C1 to be quite metallic (sometimes usefull) on snare.
- For an instant, nice, wood-like "smack" just drop in the Blockfish and raise "compression".
Best wishes.
EDIT: Oh yeah... controlling the transients, you might use a distortion (like vespiz said) or some saturation (for freeware I would recommend Jeroen Breebaart's Ferox). Some of us even clip the snare (GClip). And if you wanna try the LoFi-thing not having ProTools: E-Phonics LoFi is great.
Wackner
Member
Fuck man - this is really the shit in macking a real nice metal snare sound!
THANKS for the tips !
