While EQ can restore dull snare drum sounds’ presence, sometimes generating some extra fizz from scratch is the only way forward. We go beyond the traditional methods to get a totally authentic sound deployed with a twist…
Maybe this will sound familiar to some: a drum kit that sounds good in the room is recorded with decent mics, seemingly in the right place. Upon playback, the kit mics convey a snare drum sound that is anything but lively and involving, with the close mic offering the dreaded ‘donk’ that sounds like it’s been recorded with the drum under a blanket.
EQ Can Only Achieve So Much
This can sometimes be remedied with EQ, and many engineers will use more top-end lift than is perhaps considered normal to get where they want to be. Certainly, many drums on record sound a great deal brighter than the real thing. This works to a point, but EQ can only boost what’s there, and there comes a point when even the best don’t have any upper end information to hold on to.
Generating Snare Presence From Scratch
We can take snare presence as being any information (spectral and/or transient) living in the Presence band. This could be defined as from 4kHz upwards (this is a subjective value that will depend on taste and on the drum itself).
Synthesis
Some reading this will be familiar with the ‘trick’ that sees a noise generator aping the fizz that comes from the snare wires underneath the drum. This is gated from a top mic sidechain signal and shaped into a drum-like envelope. EQ is then used to sculpt the sound further.
Samples
Drum replacement or augmentation samples are commonplace in contemporary production, however there is usually an emphasis on finding ‘whole’ sounds that encapsulate the entire snare drum from fundamental through to the upper mids and beyond.
Existing drums whose lower fundamental character is ‘right’ might still lack in presence further up. These can benefit more from using a specific ‘buzz’ or ‘fizz’ sample taken from a real drum. This can then be treated in the same way as a synthesised sound from noise.
Using A Dedicated Tool
Watch in the video as we use the free SnareBuzz plugin from Wavesfactory to generate authentic sounding bottom-mic style brightness to fix a dull snare, as compared to using noise shaped with audio plugins. We then explore some techniques to really sell the effect that go beyond the drums themselves…
The Best Remedy For Dull Snares?
Like so many things in music mixing, the answer to great mixes lies in a great recording. With that in the bag, the mix engineer need only use light touches to achieve the music’s potential. Inevitably, sometimes time or logistics and/or budget will dictate that sounds that need more fundamental improvements must be used.
The dull snare drum recording is a common example that many engineers will have had to contend with. Where noise-shaped synthesised sounds jeopardise an organic feel, and full-on sample replacement is too blunt an instrument, there is much scope for a dedicated tool, or even for using isolated under-mic samples where available. As remedies go, it’s the next best thing out there.