Best Sounding Snare Sound EVER

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suppositron
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Post by suppositron » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:27 am

Screw that. Just record outside.
Actually, I read somewhere that Stone Temple Pilots were unhappy with their drum sounds on Tiny Music so they moved the drums outside to record. If it's really quiet outside that's not a bad idea.

Also, the new Sigur Ros dvd, they did some live songs outside and it sounded amazing. I wonder how they got rid of all the wind noise cause I know there had to be a ton as the wind was blowing pretty bad.

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Post by TV Lenny » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:31 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:humor is useful.

exactly.
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Nick Sevilla
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Re: Best Sounding Snare Sound EVER

Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:33 am

TV Lenny wrote:So I'm tracking this band and need help with the snare sound. I am currently using (2) SM57's on top, Beta 52 & AT4060 on bottom, (2) Beyer Ribbons as room mics (for snare only not for entire kit) and also backing it up with several canned snare sounds. I need more beef. I'm going to 2" tape, cassette tape (for more of that beefy goodness), and digital via Behringer Ultra Pro ADDA MKII Studio Voodoo Box.

The drummers complaining that he can't hear enough of the drums, especially snare. I'm compressing all of the mics at about a 23.5:1 ratio for that big open in your face sound. The Behringer box has the PHAT 1130 OpAmp based compressor which sounds better than any 1176LN I've ever heard.

My question is should I be using more mics? All my preamps are top of the line T1953 Ultra Gain pres so I'm cover there. Should I use maybe an M/S room setup too? Or hang a few omni's around? I've heard filling the snare with sand can improve subtle reflections.

thanks in advance.
You need more mics to mic the mics themselves. Everyone in the know knows this.

Also, the drummer's girlfriend had to shout at the top of her lungs at EXACTLY the same time the drummer hits the snare skin. Otherwise you are just wasting your time.

Cheers
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Post by JGriffin » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:35 am

blackdiscoball wrote:
yes, room treatment. fill the entire room with sand.
I had to laugh out loud on this one. I just imagine a room totally full of sand and a little straw sticking out the sand so the drummer can breath!

Who said anything about a straw?




Film anecdote: when they were filming the second "Frankenstein" movie with Boris Karloff, they had a scene where the monster is supposed to break out of a tomb/grave/something, so they put Karloff in a little pit and covered him with plaster with a little straw so he could breathe. When the lunch break came around the crew completely forgot about him and left him encased in plaster breathing through a little straw for an hour.
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Re: Best Sounding Snare Sound EVER

Post by Jay Reynolds » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:45 am

noeqplease wrote: Also, the drummer's girlfriend had to shout at the top of her lungs at EXACTLY the same time the drummer hits the snare skin. Otherwise you are just wasting your time.
If you have the singer's girlfriend do this instead of the drummer's, you've successfully replicated the snare sound on Nevermind.
Prog out with your cog out.

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Post by cgarges » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:48 am

You guys are making my day.

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Post by TV Lenny » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:59 am

Is it true brown sand gives more of a vintage "brown" tone, while white sand gives more of a silky sheen on the highs?

"If you have the singer's girlfriend do this instead of the drummer's, you've successfully replicated the snare sound on Nevermind." - I was thinking about haveing the bass players girlfriend do this part but I'm still waiting for both of them to show up to a session.
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Post by JGriffin » Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:15 am

* loads Wilhelm scream into sampler, keys off snare track *
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:24 am

TV Lenny wrote:Is it true brown sand gives more of a vintage "brown" tone, while white sand gives more of a silky sheen on the highs?

"If you have the singer's girlfriend do this instead of the drummer's, you've successfully replicated the snare sound on Nevermind." - I was thinking about haveing the bass players girlfriend do this part but I'm still waiting for both of them to show up to a session.
NOW THAT IS A TOTAL MYTH.

Only sand made by breaking the bones of the singer and grinding THAT down, is the only correct sand to use.

And Bass players never have girlfriends. If they did the snare would sound too muddy.

Cheers
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:43 am

true story involving sand:

when i built my speaker stands a few years back, i needed something to fill them with, so i went down to the local beach at 2:30am and helped myself to about 120lbs of pure, grade A South Boston sand. i was loading the last of the (many, very heavy) bags into the van when a police cruiser pulled up behind me.

the officer stepped out and said "son, just what do you think you're doing?" i replied "why, ossifer, i'm just putting this here bag into my van here."
"and what, exactly, do you have in the bag?"
"oh, well, nothing."
"then why are you struggling to lift it?"

i then launched into an elaborate discussion about the vastness of the universe, black holes, and how "nothing" is in fact something pretty serious to consider.

he wasn't buying and said he would in fact like to see what i had in there. wanting to appear compliant, i slowly opened the bag. he peered in, stuck his finger in the sand, and tasted it. "why...that's pure Southie sand you got there. you took it from the beach, didn't you?"

i stared at my feet.

"you know tampering with public sand is a felony offense. what's to keep me from hauling your ass into jail?"

"will 20 bucks do?"

"certainly."

i handed him a twenty and was about to be on my way, when he said "now wait just a goddamn minute, you don't think i'm gonna let you leave with all that contraband do you? you go and put it back where you got it."

my shoulders slumped and i started carrying the bags back to the beach. i then began dumping them out, one by one. the officer stood watch over me, tapping his billy club against his palm. just then, a killer whale came into the harbor and let out a massive infrasonic sound, like they do. the force of the <10Hz wave knocked the officer off his feet, and on his way to the ground he hit his head on the boardwalk, which knocked him unconscious.

thinking quickly, i reached into his pocket and took back my twenty, then buried him in sand (leaving a little hole so he could breathe of course, i'm not a monster), refilled my bags and high-tailed it out of there.

the moral of the story is, of course, just go buy the 2 dollar bags of sand at home depot.

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Post by stooge » Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:05 pm

Does it matter which end of the bag of sand you open to begin pouring? I've heard that the sand sounds better if you open the end that doesn't have "open this end" written on it. I think it has something to do with reversing the alignment of the sand grains.

I've also heard that if you color in the grille of the mic with a green magic marker it will help make the snare sound warmer and bigger.

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Post by the finger genius » Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:49 pm

Directional sand pouring is complete bunk. I'm interersted to hear the results of your marker test tho'.
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Post by chris harris » Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:43 pm

What kind of monitors are you using?

It doesn't matter how well the room is treated, what the compression ratio is, or whether or not there's a barcode on the snare drum if you can't properly hear 19.9kHz.

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Post by Brett Siler » Thu Dec 18, 2008 4:47 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:true story involving sand:
I thought this thread was dumb until this story. Good stuff, ha

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Post by JohnDavisNYC » Thu Dec 18, 2008 5:09 pm

does any of this matter if it isn't going to have a barcode on it? it IS going to have a barcode, right?

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