Snare recording question

[Cirrus]

Some really good advice from very experienced people above me, so I feel my input may be a little redundant, but here it is anyway!

 

I used to have that problem too in a big way, always boosting huge amounts in the upper frequencies to try to get that bright and exciting element of the snare sound into the mix. I tried different mic techniques but nothing seemed to work properly.

 

Eventually, I bought my first decent snare drum, and learned to tune it. Suddenly, there was the sound I'd been missing. I'd say that's the single most important thing - having a good drum, well tuned. The thing is, mic placement is very important, but if the snare drum simply sounds brilliant, and you can play it reasonably balanced with the rest of the drum kit, wherever you put the mic it's going to pick up the sound of a good drum tuned well. It becomes a matter of taste rather than passable or no good.

 

Apart from that major thing, there's a few little things that help; a good room will give a good snare sound that's lively without being too bright or too muffled, and in that case a lot of the snare sizzle can come from the overheads. I have a sheet of wood i place under the snare if it's sounding too muffled in the overheads, because that's when you'd start having to pile on the high EQ.

 

Anyways, there's my 2 pence. or cents. or whatever.

[TBush]

 

Anyways, there's my 2 pence. or cents. or whatever.

 

 

Tuppence?

[Jimbroni]

I tend to favor drums on a solid built hardwood stage of some sort. If that means plywood so be it. You can always put blankets under the bass drum. But nothing beats a kit in room with nice acoustics on a drum stage. The natural resonance of a snare off hardwood is to die for, IMO.

[KillerV]

I've been thinking of ripping out the carpets in the room I use for drum-recording and installing a wooden floor, but it's not really possible just yet. Maybe I'll try getting a big sheet of plywood to put under the drums or at least just a smaller piece like UstadKhanAli mentioned for under the snare. I really does seem like that may very well be one of the missing ingredients.

[Music Calgary]

 

I've been thinking of ripping out the carpets in the room I use for drum-recording and installing a wooden floor

 

 

Everytime I work in a real studio with a wood floor the drums seem to be setup on an area rug -- but the rest of the floor is bare. That seems to be the setup of choice by some of the drum specialists in our area.

[WRGKMC]

Drums skid around easily. I like wood floors especially for live shows. You can feel the vibrations in your feet.

[Majoria]

The main thing that wanders away is the kick drum, in many cases you can get away with a rug that goes under the kick drum spurs and the throne and leave the rest open to the wood floor. 3' wide x 5' deep is plenty for that, even 3'x4'. The rubber backed entry mats are an easy option.

[Lee Flier]

 

I tend to favor drums on a solid built hardwood stage of some sort. If that means plywood so be it. You can always put blankets under the bass drum. But nothing beats a kit in room with nice acoustics on a drum stage. The natural resonance of a snare off hardwood is to die for, IMO.

 

 

It should be pointed out that an actual "stage" or drum riser is a no-no in the studio unless it's a permanent installation that has been filled in with sand or other solid material. The resonances created by a hollow stage ain't pretty.

 

If you must record in a carpeted room, just lay a piece of plywood on the floor under the kit. You can tack a bit of indoor-outdoor carpet onto the plywood to keep the kick drum from sliding around - that stuff is much thinner than actual carpet and padding and won't have the same deadening effect.

[Lee Flier]

 

Everytime I work in a real studio with a wood floor the drums seem to be setup on an area rug -- but the rest of the floor is bare. That seems to be the setup of choice by some of the drum specialists in our area.

 

 

Yep, professionally designed studios always have reflective floors and absorptive ceilings. Area rugs can always be placed on a bare floor as necessary to deaden the sound as much as desired.

[Lee Knight]

On every project I produce I have a ritual. The drummer and I get together a day or 2 before tracking and we strip the entire kit of its heads and re-head and re-tune. And everytime, no matter what we discuss prior, the drummer will hesitate in taking every head off. I don't know why. Strainer too. Everything comes off.

 

This does a couple of really cool things. 1. It gets me tight with the drummer. We hang, we tune, we talk. 2. We get great sounding drums.

 

Buying a kit was the best thing I ever did for getting good drum sounds. And we rarely use my kit. But having that kit and learning to re-head and tune it was the key for me. Most drummers don't know how to tune.

 

And once that bond between Bam Bam and me is happening, the session flows so much easier.

[HuskerDude]

It seems to me that a lot of the "sparkle" in a snare's sound comes from the overheads. I've found that kindof lifeless snares can be brought to life by some careful compression applied to the OHs.

[UstadKhanAli]

I like Lee's description of "bonding with Bam Bam".

[Music Calgary]

On every project I produce I have a ritual. The drummer and I get together a day or 2 before tracking and we strip the entire kit of its heads and re-head and re-tune. And everytime, no matter what we discuss prior, the drummer will hesitate in taking every head off. I don't know why. Strainer too. Everything comes off. This does a couple of really cool things. 1. It gets me tight with the drummer. We hang, we tune, we talk. 2. We get great sounding drums. Buying a kit was the best thing I ever did for getting good drum sounds. And we rarely use my kit. But having that kit and learning to re-head and tune it was the key for me. Most drummers don't know how to tune. And once that bond between Bam Bam and me is happening, the session flows so much easier.

Awesome post. You are making music with that sort of approach, not just recording audio.

 

Huskerdude, I used to think that until I started using an API preamp for snare. I can't speak for anyone but myself -- but the API preamp seems to have a great deal to do with getting that really pure, natural snare sparkle so many people love. Could be because it's such as "fast" pre.

 

Granted OHs are most of the sound and must also sparkle... I like the Millennias for that, they have plenty of sparkle -- though they can be bright.

[Phil O'Keefe]

It should be pointed out that an actual "stage" or drum riser is a no-no in the studio unless it's a permanent installation that has been filled in with sand or other solid material. The resonances created by a hollow stage ain't pretty.

 

Thanks for pointing that out (and saving me the trouble) Lee. :phil:

 

I used to work at a studio where the owner had decided to install a stage when he built the room. He couldn't make up his mind about a few things - he wanted to do both video shoots and recording in the place; when I was hired as the CE, the first thing I did was tell him he really needed to get that big resonator (the raised stage platform that filled half the tracking room) out of there. When he asked about the video thing, I told him he needed to make a decision - was he going to put his emphasis on video, or audio? The room was really a bit too small to do both jobs effectively, and IMO, he was better off optimizing the room for one or the other - and since recording audio was 99% of their workload, the obvious decision IMO was to optimize it for that.

 

The room and recordings done in it sounded MUCH better once he rebuilt that tracking room.

 

If you want a raised platform, IMO, Lee's absolutely right - it has to be big, massive and non-resonant.

[Phil O'Keefe]

On every project I produce I have a ritual. The drummer and I get together a day or 2 before tracking and we strip the entire kit of its heads and re-head and re-tune. And everytime, no matter what we discuss prior, the drummer will hesitate in taking every head off. I don't know why. Strainer too. Everything comes off. This does a couple of really cool things. 1. It gets me tight with the drummer. We hang, we tune, we talk. 2. We get great sounding drums.

 

I normally don't have time for that, but I do make it a point to tell the drummer the importance of having new heads and getting the kit properly set up by a good tech. I always recommend a few local folks who know what's up and who are good at it.

 

Buying a kit was the best thing I ever did for getting good drum sounds. And we rarely use my kit. But having that kit and learning to re-head and tune it was the key for me. Most drummers don't know how to tune.

 

Which is exactly why I recommend good techs! I'm simply flabbergasted by the amount of "drummers" out there who don't know how to tune their own instruments! Yes, I know how to tune drums, but I'm no Ross Garfield... if we've got the budget to hire Ross, then IMO, that's ideal... but even if we don't, it still makes sense to hire a good tech to go through the kit, check the bearing edges, reskin it and get it ready to go. It minimizes the amount of time I have to spend fooling around with it.

 

You wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) bring a guitar that had a bad setup and needed an intonation job into the studio to cut tracks with, or a sax with leaky pads; why should drums be any different? Yes, I have the tools and knowledge to set up guitars, but again, that's not what you're coming into the studio for, so IMO, it's best to get all of that stuff handled in advance.

 

Despite my advice, I still occasionally get drummers who come through the door with "crap kits".

 

Repeat after me folks - BAD sources = BAD tracks!

 

So yes, even though I'm not much of a drummer, I went ahead and got a kit for the studio. It gives us an alternative. If the drummer's kit is cruddy and they ignored my advice regarding the importance of a good sounding kit, I'll strongly advise them to use our kit instead.

 

Besides, as Lee Flier has said in the past, it's great "drummer bait". Drummers are more likely to come over and hang out if they know that all they need to bring with them is maybe a stick bag, a cymbal bag and an alternate snare or three, as opposed to having to tear down their entire kit and lug it over here.