Favourite snare mixing techniques

[maartenl945]

Just finished mixing a snare into a new song in my home recording studio and am wondering about some of your favourite snare mixing techniques that I can try. Care to share any ?

Regards,
Maarten

[CS70]

Not much really, mostly it's at recording stage: make sure the snare sounds good, always two snare mics, overheads equidistant from the snare to make sure the sound is in phase.

At mixing, checking the phase of two mics (one of the two opposite polarity of course) and nudge them in the right spot as needed, see what the rest of the spill does for phase - the balance between the two depends on the song: more bottom, more edge.

The only "trick" is that often I use an exciter to make the drums pop - it works better than distortion for me... nowadays I often do it on the drum bus as a whole but occasionally it's only the snare, in which case the old BBE Sonic maximizer tends to work surprisingly well! Used to have a hardware one just for that but the plugin does the same job. Or Waves Aural Exciter - it's one of my few must-have plugins.

A little compression brings out ghosts more if that's what the songs calls for and the drummer is good.

Gate and reverb, of course, in quantities determined by how much I feel back in my teens..

As of balance, it depends on the arrangement but usually on level with the vocals.

[Drew Stephenson]

If the drums are samples, or if they weren't recorded at the same time as the rest of the song (in a live band set up) then sometimes I put a sucker on the snare triggered by the vocal. It's a quick way of adding a bit of the sensation that the drummer is holding back during the singing but letting go when there's space.

[maartenl945]

Not much really, mostly it's at recording stage: make sure the snare sounds good, always two snare mics, overheads equidistant from the snare to make sure the sound is in phase.

At mixing, checking the phase of two mics (one of the two opposite polarity of course) and nudge them in the right spot as needed, see what the rest of the spill does for phase - the balance between the two depends on the song: more bottom, more edge.

The only "trick" is that often I use an exciter to make the drums pop - it works better than distortion for me... nowadays I often do it on the drum bus as a whole but occasionally it's only the snare, in which case the old BBE Sonic maximizer tends to work surprisingly well! Used to have a hardware one just for that but the plugin does the same job. Or Waves Aural Exciter - it's one of my few must-have plugins.

A little compression brings out ghosts more if that's what the songs calls for and the drummer is good.

Gate and reverb, of course, in quantities determined by how much I feel back in my teens..

As of balance, it depends on the arrangement but usually on level with the vocals.

Thanks for your reply. In this case the sounds were coming from Superior 3 but due to the bleed I treat them like an acoustic drum recording (more details on the linked channel in my signature). Never tried the sonic maximizer on drums/snare so will give that a go to see what it does .

[maartenl945]

If the drums are samples, or if they weren't recorded at the same time as the rest of the song (in a live band set up) then sometimes I put a sucker on the snare triggered by the vocal. It's a quick way of adding a bit of the sensation that the drummer is holding back during the singing but letting go when there's space.

Ah that's a nice idea that I never would have though of, thanks. And yes, the drums were from Superior 3 in this case but I do further treat them like an acoustic drum recording.

[The Elf]

One of my favourite tricks is to add a burst of triggered noise to snares to give them a little more sizzle.

Cubase's transient designer is a pretty useful tool, too.

[Drew Stephenson]

If the drums are samples, or if they weren't recorded at the same time as the rest of the song (in a live band set up) then sometimes I put a sucker on the snare triggered by the vocal. It's a quick way of adding a bit of the sensation that the drummer is holding back during the singing but letting go when there's space.

Ah that's a nice idea that I never would have though of, thanks. And yes, the drums were from Superior 3 in this case but I do further treat them like an acoustic drum recording.

Sorry, auto-correct got in the way there; I meant 'ducker' but I'm guessing you guessed that.

[RichardT]

If you’re using superior 3 it’s well worth playing around with the velocity response curve you can edit when you select the snare in ‘drums’.

[maartenl945]

One of my favourite tricks is to add a burst of triggered noise to snares to give them a little more sizzle.

Cubase's transient designer is a pretty useful tool, too.

Great idea about the noise. Never tried that either ...

As for transient designer I didn't even know Cubase had one. I tend to use the SPL one on mu UAD card, like i'm showing in my latest video.

[maartenl945]

If the drums are samples, or if they weren't recorded at the same time as the rest of the song (in a live band set up) then sometimes I put a sucker on the snare triggered by the vocal. It's a quick way of adding a bit of the sensation that the drummer is holding back during the singing but letting go when there's space.

Ah that's a nice idea that I never would have though of, thanks. And yes, the drums were from Superior 3 in this case but I do further treat them like an acoustic drum recording.

Sorry, auto-correct got in the way there; I meant 'ducker' but I'm guessing you guessed that.

Yes I got what you meant, but did actually think it was just a more modern way of talking about ducking .

[maartenl945]

If you’re using superior 3 it’s well worth playing around with the velocity response curve you can edit when you select the snare in ‘drums’.

Hmm, nice one. I got the Superior 3 tracks delivered from our drummer as audio for mixing, but I guess earlier you can try to get it more right at the source. I have to say that I quite like the quality of the Superior 3 sounds already though.

[James Perrett]

One of my favourite tricks is to add a burst of triggered noise to snares to give them a little more sizzle.

I seem to remember that was a trick back in the 80's to help get those big drum sounds.

[The Elf]

One of my favourite tricks is to add a burst of triggered noise to snares to give them a little more sizzle.

I seem to remember that was a trick back in the 80's to help get those big drum sounds.

Still works nicely when you dial it back.

[Drew Stephenson]

Just been listening to this SOS podcast which may be of interest: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ps-podcast

[maartenl945]

Just been listening to this SOS podcast which may be of interest: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ps-podcast

Thanks for the tip. Will have a listen!

[Zukan]

One of my favourite tricks is to add a burst of triggered noise to snares to give them a little more sizzle.

Cubase's transient designer is a pretty useful tool, too.

Denise Audio's Noise 2 handles this quite well offering various colours for noise.

[Zukan]

I use parallel processing for snares with the duplicates being processed with various forms of distortion. Additionally, and more regularly nowadays, I reach for a transient shaper. Transgressor 2, Physion, Entropy Q+ and Transient Designer being my go tos.

[maartenl945]

I use parallel processing for snares with the duplicates being processed with various forms of distortion. Additionally, and more regularly nowadays, I reach for a transient shaper. Transgressor 2, Physion, Entropy Q+ and Transient Designer being my go tos.

Yes I have heard about major mixers applying parallel processing to drums/snares with distortion but haven't tried it myself yet. WIll give it a go though. Thanks for the suggestions .