Snare Drum Snap!

[wedge]

So, I'm recording my solo effort, and playing the skins meself. Prob is, no matter how I try, I'm getting a boxy sound for the snare, when I'd rather more of a crack & snap to it. I want the Crack, Snapple, and (a little bit of) Pop!

Listening to the snare head open air, all is well, and I'm using an SM57. Not quite sure about the signal chain, but I think it's going into a Presonis Blue Tube and into PTs. The SM57 is mounted tight to the edge, pointing about two inches away from the head -- not at the center, in other words.

Should I pull the mic a bit back from the head? Use a different mic?

[Skipwave]

I feel your pain, but it's all my fault for having an old steel Ludwig snare. One day I'll save enough pennies for a nice wood snare.

Do you have the 57 clamped to the drum? I could never get a sound I liked with the Shure clamp. I switched to stand and backed the mic off a little. Less proximity effect, so more snap and less thump.

Do you also have a second 57 (or other mic) on the snares themselves? The top only can make it hard to hear the rattle.

[soundguy]

does the drum sound exactly the way you want it to in the room?

Once you get the drum tuned to behave like you want, its just a question of moving the mic around and trying different amps until the right sound comes out of the speaker.

dave

[drumsound]

A few things to think about. What is the room like? How does the instrument sound in the room? Make sure the drum sounds the way you want it to be before the mic are involved.

You might need to work with the room. If it?s short and overly reflective those things need to be dealt with first. There are many who believe that it the ceiling is low (less than 10 feet) the area above the drums should be totally absorbing. The reflections from the ceiling make matters worse than anything else involved.

You might have to adjust the tuning and muffling if any.

How does the snare sound in the overheads, and room mics?

If it sounds good in the room acoustically, and in the OH and room microphones, then its time to think about the close mic. From your description it seems like the diaphragm is parallel with the head. That tends to get a lot of attack but not a lot of tone. I usually point the mic on an angle to it pointing 'through' the center aimed at the point where the bottom head and shell meet if you were to draw a line and there was no top head. I like to have it about 2 inches above the head. I have miced the shell instead of the head to with success as well. This method worked well when I was still using 16-bit VHS tape and pro-summer board (from WA...) many moons ago. There is also the possibility (quite high IMNSHO) that you are using the wrong mic for that drum in that space for that sound. You might want to try a faster preamp if you have one, or one with more headroom or something more or less colored that you are using.

[syrupcore]

cheat the man and sneak a slow attack compressor underneath the original recording?

[soundguy]

Id add to tony's comment, how are you intending to mix the drums? why are you close mic'ing? Not why are you doing it because Im an asshole, but what is the intended purpose of the close mic? If you dont intend to have the close mic be the main focus of the snare ddrum in the mix then you REALLY need to focus on everythign else in the room. Alot of times you can spend a shitlload of time getting a close micc'd snare to work right and then get to mixing it and wind up relying upon room mics for most of everything, at which point you realize that all that time you spent fuckign with the close mic might have beeen beter spent fucking with the room mic or whatever.
dave

[concubine]

what everybody up above said. but, also, sometimes throwing an additional mic underneath the snare helps too. from my experience, you get more of the crack and less low-end stuff when you mic under the snare (say, throw a 57 beneath the snare, close to the rim, coming in at an angle). but you may also get more snare rattle and weird transients and whatnot.

the under the snare trick sometimes sounds a bit too cracky and harsh by itself, so it's good to try with another mic on top to balance things out.

micing the shell can help too, sometimes.

[wedge]

Many great suggestions to chew upon... In the room, the snare sounds the way I want it, so I'm guessing that the positioning of the mic is the issue. It is, in fact, clamped to the edge of the drum. I used the clamp because it's not my set, and it was there when I sat down to track; plus it seemed so bloody convienient to just have the thing clamped there tight, you know?

I'll endeavor to use drumsounds micing suggestion for mic angle and distance. Something tells me I'll get the sound I'm looking for with that...

Having said all that, I don't *hate* the boxy sound I've been getting. It's kinda growing on me a bit, and it's always cool when things don't go how you expect them, but you like them anyway: that's the fun of creating. I did grow up loving the Ringo crack (snare crack, that is), though, so I use that as a touchstone of sorts...

[Fletcher]

There are a couple of ways to get a bit more "crack" out of a close mic'ed snare drum... one way is to tune the bottom head seriously tight with 12 or 14 strainer that is also pretty tight. This can sometimes be bit more susceptible to sympathetic snare rattles... but you can tune those out with minimal effort.

You can also try pointing the mic at the shell of the drum between the top and bottom rim about 4-6 inches off the side [hopefully with the hi-hat in the null of the 57's hypercardioid pickup pattern].

Best of luck with it.

[drumsound]

Isn't the 57 cardioid not hypercardioid?

[joeysimms]

I get 90% of my snare crack from a mono OH. If it sounds good in your room, see how well a mono OH captures it. You might be pleasantly surprised.

[Phiz]

Isn't the 57 cardioid not hypercardioid?

Yes it is. Although the Beta 57 is a hypercardioid.

[TeReKeTe]

chances are that, even if it sounds great in the room... it's the room. if not, it's prob. the relationship of the other mics in the room. phase and resonance issues just straight-up kill your transients.

try backing off the snare a bit and making sure that you're not clipping anywhere in the chain. As a player, lay off the cymbals and really smack the bejesus out of your snare... make it speak and the mic's'll start getting it.

otherwise, yeah... mult it w/ some slow compression and create your "snap." or hell, do it on a parallel drum bus and get everything pumping.......

[Professor]

I say it often, but here goes again.
I think the big problem is that most guys try to mix the drumset from the bottom-up instead of mixing from the top-down.
If the objective is to record the drumset with some sense of natural sound and with less than an individual microphone on every individual drum and cymbal on the set, then the overhead mics should be the primary building block for the sound. The overheads should capture nearly the entire sound of the set in a clear and balanced way. Of course, the bass drum is pointing the wrong way and is kind of important to rock music, so an extra mic there to provide a little extra punch is good to add. Yes, snare is important too, so even though most of its sound is projected upwards already, it doesn't hurt to add an extra mic there to get a little extra presence and attack into the mix.
That's it. That's your whole drumset - unless you need a little extra push from some other instument (hats, ride, etc) or if you want to do some kind of special-effect mixing like huge reverb and panning on toms.

I think that if you plan your tracking that way and get your overheads into a manageable pairing and placement, then you'll only need a tiny amount of snare mic to bring in the presence. But if you go the other direction and try to get some kind of ultimate kick sound, and then some ultimate snare sound from a single mic on each, and then just lightly bring in overheads for 'the rest of the kit' or worse, as 'cymbal mics' then you're going to have all kinds of trouble getting a good sound and a natural mix.

-Jeremy

[wedge]

Jeremy

Awesome points to consider. I've never really thought of recording/mixing drums as a top down or bottom up affair, but it makes perfect sense. As far as actually recording the set is concerned, I'm doing pretty much as you advise. Mono overhead, mic on bass drum, mic on snare, plus mic on floor tom, for an additional dash of sonic fun. I'm not into the close-mic every drum thing. Been there, done that, and didn't like it. Too clinical...