Weak snare sound ( i know we've all encountered this )

[bannerj]

yeah, don't panic about having this to show other people either. let it be what it is: the project you are doing now--not the one you wish you were doing later.

[Dubious]

man im listening to this prince bootleg right now... prince is in RIDICULOUS full on guitar shred mode.. live in the studio with just bass and drums.. the band is mad kicking but the drummer has got the WORST piccolo snare sound.. no grit to it whatsoever.. they need to ban those things.

[billiamwalker]

9 times out of 10 the direct, close-miked sound sucks anyway. What's it like in the room mics or the kit mics?

agreed with the close miking, but like i said the snare sounds pretty good through the overhead mics, but the snare is barely audible while the whole kit is being used. (another downside to over tightening = less volumeof snare)

[JGriffin]

the drummer has got the WORST piccolo snare sound.. no grit to it whatsoever.. they need to ban those things.

Nah, like anything else they just have to use it at the right time. That clearly wasn't it.

[digitaldrummer]

Like drumsound said, try re-tuning also. The snare in this clip is a Pearl free-floating brass piccolo (3.5 x 14) with a standard Remo ambassador on top.

http://www.digitaldrummer.net/samples/jcge.mp3

If i wasn't there playing it, I would've swore it was a 6.5x14. I just tuned it down and then it was likely EQ'ed too. I don't remmeber much about this session cause it was 10-15 years ago. I think it was 57 on top and bottom but don't remember anything about the signal chain except it was 2" tape. Anyway, proof that the drum could be tuned to get something other than *poink*.

Mike

[dirtdog]

And it's making things also difficult because if a customer wants to hear the last project i've done and the snare sucks then they're going to be liek" i hate that snare sound" and they're going to think that sound will apply to them until i explain to them more indepth things.

The band paying you is the customer. Are they paying you to record them how they want to sound or are they paying you to build your demo reel?

That said, having another snare available to try or reamping for more snare sound are great things to try.

[Dave Nutz]

if you are stuck with the currently recorded snare, mults and insane processing might be your best bet if you dont want to replace the sound.

for instance, try one mult with daisy chained compressors, another with some crazy bandpass EQ(perhaps something telephone-esque), and another with some distortion

[@?,*???&?]

9 times out of 10 the direct, close-miked sound sucks anyway. What's it like in the room mics or the kit mics?

agreed with the close miking, but like i said the snare sounds pretty good through the overhead mics, but the snare is barely audible while the whole kit is being used. (another downside to over tightening = less volumeof snare)

Aha! An epiphany. You sir are a candidate for the wonderful world of the digital drum nudge.

In mic'ing a kit like this, 1' = 1ms of delay. With your overheads on, start engaging a short delay on the snare drum track and bring that up against the O/H tracks. Start with a setting of like .05ms and then start nudging up in .03 increments from there. Make sure your delay is set on 100% wet. Don't go past 1ms. Somewhere in there, you're going to increase the beef of the snare. If the drum disappears when all the other mics are in, then you've got some serious phase cancellation and comb filtering happening. Slight nudging and changing those distance relationships in this fashion can tighten up your kit. It won't always be the best solution and sometimes you'll have to let go of some other instrument, but it can improve what you've got.

[drumsound]

9 times out of 10 the direct, close-miked sound sucks anyway. What's it like in the room mics or the kit mics?

agreed with the close miking, but like i said the snare sounds pretty good through the overhead mics, but the snare is barely audible while the whole kit is being used. (another downside to over tightening = less volumeof snare)

Maybe try a mult of the room or OH with a lot of EQ to just pull out the SD tone. I tend to think of the Oh are Room for tone and the close SD mic adds presence and impact.

I also think the general tone of the SD defines the drum-set and thus is quite important.

[permanent hearing damage]

have you tried distorting the snare at all? i find that helps out pretty often

[billiamwalker]

have you tried distorting the snare at all? i find that helps out pretty often

i have not tried that. i've never even considered it or would have thought of it. i'll try it and see if i can pull through with better results

[Electro-Voice 664]

Last weekend I repaired a weak snare track, here's what I did:
Reamped the snare track through an amp (lying on its back) with a snare upsidedown on the grille. Put a R121 up and recorded that. While mixing, the new snare "bottom" was helpful, but I still needed more. I used the preset distortion in an SPX900 and it came together.
The added distortion helped the energy of the whole song.
I tried things read here and they worked!
Thanks everyone.

[stui]

I might be wrong but I don't think anyone has mentioned phase yet??
If my close mic sound detracts from my overheads or room mics I'll go back to the close mic and adjust so that it actually reinforces the other mics.

[billiamwalker]

Last weekend I repaired a weak snare track, here's what I did:
Reamped the snare track through an amp (lying on its back) with a snare upsidedown on the grille. Put a R121 up and recorded that. While mixing, the new snare "bottom" was helpful, but I still needed more. I used the preset distortion in an SPX900 and it came together.
The added distortion helped the energy of the whole song.
I tried things read here and they worked!
Thanks everyone.

ohhh luckyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. i have an R121 poster hanging above my bed.


ok not really but i really want one. im brokeded white boy.

[tintern]

ungh. i think top heads tuned within an inch of their life has been my main pet peeve for about 6 months, soon to be replaced though by bassists who play with sub-freq. EQ/FX cranked.

frankly, don't be afraid to re-tune the drums. i have it sort of easier in that i play drums so when i tell a drummer that he really should re-tune for a better sound, it's a drummer not some studio guy telling them - and usually i can just do it for them which helps too. the problem of course is a drastic re-tuning is going to whack his playing style out but eh... i'm sick of turd polishing. no more.

distortion can help but will only sound right if it's a really rocking song - on mellower songs it'll be weird in my experience. boosting it around 100hz or so is about the only thing that will definitely help, tricky of course but it will. the time-aligning thing is also helpful though i've never been able to get it to decrease the pinginess of the snare.