Getting that snare to “crack”

[olliepudge]

Hi Toontrack and SD3 users,

I know I’ve posted about this before and I’ve learned a lot about mixing drums since I bought SD3 on release day, but I would like to learn more.

I’m pretty happy with how my drum mixes are turning out, but I still struggle with the snare sometimes. I’m looking for that good, thick thud sound of the head of the snare if that makes sense. I don’t like a lot of the bottom snare sound in there and I’m wondering if any of you have some tips for me.

First off, I already know there is a separate channel for the bottom snare mic and I’ve played around with that, but I can’t seem to get that crack I’m looking for. I’ve tried multiple snares from the library and I’ve found a few that work well, but again I’d like to hear how you all go about achieving this. On a lot of the snares I try I’m just getting too much of that scratchy bright sound which I hate.

I’d love to hear some ideas from anyone on this. As long as you actually know what you’re talking about ?

Thanks all!

Josh

Topic

[Brad]

I sometimes (and suspect that other drum sample developers do this by default, although I enjoy having the control afforded by SD3) stack a rim shot on the centre of the snare drum and then have it only trigger at higher velocities. Like < 120, something like that. I find picking the right rim shot paired with the right centre can really create a crack that breaks through a dense mix.
Hope you were looking for something like that.

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[olliepudge]

@Brad said:
I sometimes (and suspect that other drum sample developers do this by default, although I enjoy having the control afforded by SD3) stack a rim shot on the centre of the snare drum and then have it only trigger at higher velocities. Like < 120, something like that. I find picking the right rim shot paired with the right centre can really create a crack that breaks through a dense mix.
Hope you were looking for something like that.  

That’s an awesome idea Brad! I’ll give it a shot for sure. I played around with this some more this weekend. One thing I tried was starting off with a snare I liked and then doing the normal EQ, compression, etc. Then I stacked a snare with the wires off and just turned down the volume down slightly on the original snare to blend them together. It’s actually turning out pretty good.

I will definitely try the rim shot stack idea though. Thanks for the help!

Josh

[olliepudge]

@olliepudge said:

That’s an awesome idea Brad! I’ll give it a shot for sure. I played around with this some more this weekend. One thing I tried was starting off with a snare I liked and then doing the normal EQ, compression, etc. Then I stacked a snare with the wires off and just turned down the volume down slightly on the original snare to blend them together. It’s actually turning out pretty good.

I will definitely try the rim shot stack idea though. Thanks for the help!

Josh  

@olliepudge said:

That’s an awesome idea Brad! I’ll give it a shot for sure. I played around with this some more this weekend. One thing I tried was starting off with a snare I liked and then doing the normal EQ, compression, etc. Then I stacked a snare with the wires off and just turned down the volume down slightly on the original snare to blend them together. It’s actually turning out pretty good.

I will definitely try the rim shot stack idea though. Thanks for the help!

Josh  

I forgot to mention that I put some of the transient effect on the snare with the wires off and set the treble kind of high to give it kind of a “slap” sound. I’ve found that the Slingerland snare in the SD3 core library with no wires is most useful for this. Just something to try if anyone else is struggling with this.

Josh

[Author]

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