The Greatest SNARE Mixing Trick I Ever Learned!
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- Mixing a great snare can be a daunting task. Here's my step-by-step breakdown to get a great snare, with ZERO samples required. Check out the Drum Producer Pack at AIXDSP: aixdsp.com/drum-producer-pack/.
and get my "Savage Grooves" mixing pack, PLUS "Producing Prog Metal" for FREE with any AIX purchase! Sale ends December 26th!
0:00 That Paper Thin Snare
1:41 Starting Point
2:38 Gating technique
5:32 Applying EQ
9:18 Parallel Compression
10:47 the 3D effect
12:23 Bring it together
Disclosure: Plugins provided by AIXDSP. No cash has changed hands.
About Spectre Sound Studios:
I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and plugin effects.
We've covered Moon on the Water, played Bias FX, given you the absolute best in Stupid Musician Texts, ranted & raved about bass guitar, and this channel is where The Eagle has Landed.
Everything you've wanted to learn about recording Hard Rock & Heavy Metal can be found right here on this channel!
I also respond to your comments & questions: The best make it into the SMG Viewer's Comments series of videos. Loads of fun, lots of laughs.
Thanks for checking out my channel & please subscribe!
I know it wouldn't work for most metal productions, but wanted to share: I have been practicing recording a band live off the floor and tried this old technique I found that had been used on Beatles recordings that sounded way better than I expected.
I used only 3 mics: I set up a ribbon mic about 6-8 feet back from the kit at kick drum height, a single mono overhead ribbon mic, and a large diaphram condenser close micing the snare (I aimed it directly at the shell approximatly in the middle between the skin and snares) and this sounded fantastic! Easily my favourite drum sound that I've ever got. No gating at all, and next to no phase issues. I fed the bus into a stereo reverb and it brought out the ambience and made it feel less mono and a bit more modern. I want to try using this technique a lot more
Yea I have experience this as well. Gernally speaking its much easier to make fewer mics sound better than many mics. Thats why it takes "more work" to make metal drums sound good.
This sounds really interesting. Idk if you’ve ever seen any videos of how Kevin Parker from Tame Impala records his drums, but your technique reminds me a bit of his setup
Dude this was so simple and effective. Was struggling with my snare for so long, and this fixed everything with 5 minutes of fiddling around.
I purchased the Drum Producer Pack - GAME CHANGER!
okay that drum eq is freaking dope
Love this stuff, Glenn! I’d love to see a series on 500 gear. From which rack is good for the price, what’s the best stuff to start with, how to set it all up. I know you have some 500 stuff on here but I’d love to see it as a series. Love ya!
Hey Glenn, thanks for this. I really like drum related recording tutorials. Keep 'em coming!
I totally agree 🤘
5:36 - Glenn - "And that's just Spank City!"
Which is also coincidentally what I used to call my computer desk in highschool.
🤣
Imagine tuning drums. This video is so so sooooo required! Not joking.
For me, this plugin works best when you actually tune the drums to specific intervals, the basic included presets are sort of built on that. But you can with the resonant knob actually get a similar effect of say thirds and 5th intervals between the heads, but its so much more present (without having to turn the drums up as much) when the drums were pretty specifically tuned. At that point, DrumEQ really can poke in or pull out of dense or thin spots in a mix
Yoo MultiBandGate actually keeps me livin!
me too!
YOURE THE SINCLE REASON I NOW LOVE YOUR GENRE OF MUSIC! IVE ALWAYS LOVED DRUMMERS IN THIS GENRE THOUGH. THANK YOU!
Boomin boomie boom boom. boom the boom. poom the poom boom. boomy boom bom.
great video glen. already have the complete AIXDSP drum producer pack. best plugins for drums!!!!! use them on every mix I do.
Great video!
Just got this AIX package and I'm applying it to some tracks from Huart's site, one of those contests. It's amazing how stupidly well this works. Stu pid ly well. Everything I bothered to learn up to this point about mixing drums has almost been a total waste of time. Life, frustration, strain on relationships and bank balances, all flushed down the waste-of-time toilet....In a GOOD way!
Yesss for live drums!!👏 sounds great Glenn!
I bought the AIXDSP Drum Producer pack back when you talked about it years ago. Multi Band Gate is literally a genius plugin!
I totally agree 🤘
Oxford drumgate kills it
That's awesome, man. A mighty snare sound that kicks you in the teeth every time
This guy is a perfect balance of intelligence and humor. Well done. Great tricks!
Awesome Glenn! I'm going to go check out your toms video now.
oh good idea. I am new to this do you have a recommendation on what tom video to start with?
Haha, Glenn said hump. lol
Seriuosly, great video, love how easy it (mixing real drums) can be with the right tools.
I totally agree 🤘
Glenn... Oh.. Glenn.. I do not comment much but THANK YOU! I have loved your drums sounds since day 1! (or when i discovered this channel..2 years now :) Most definitely getting this pack... and the extras you give with it!!! hands down.. you are da man!! Thanks for all you do!
Been watching for years and have to say that was pretty bloody good! (and immediate), as lets face it, not many of us have the proper mic's or have the rooms to be able to experiment properly with placement. But I'll be scurrying off to my cave tomorrow to try this. Cheers!
Sounds Killer. The racks also sound like thunder. The separation is so good! I think i can hear what i call head flutter in a good way. The Breath of the head. 😳
love this video and thanks for the tour of the AIX stuff
Had to scoop these plugins. Thanks for the free courses!
Awesome Glenn
Great video tutorial, those plugins look so tasty 😍
Always, always, always - snare tone. Couldn't agree more, and I think I'm finally gonna pull the trigget (no pun intended) on that AIX multiband gate.
It's killer!
Just to make Glenn super happy, MBG DOES have a MIDI output on galte close events that you can specify in settings so you can add a trigger anyway :) BLASPHEMY!
A+ content Glenn! Keep it up!
I feel like this video was aimed at me lol.
Some real thumpin' humps! Thanks Glenn for another killer video!
The DRUMEQ is pretty genius! It can turn a garbage snare recording to a sample-like result. Thank you Glenn for showing this to us! I prefer sonnox oxford drum gate to gate my drums though. Works wonders on the cymbal bleed on snare and toms.
Glenn kicks ass....All Day.....Wholesale!!!!
Damn I hadn't seen that drum EQ before, definitely looks like an interesting plugin.
I totally agree 🤘
You can actually do this in the daw with stock eq. Find the fundmental and double up. It just does the math for ya and a nice interface to show what you need to know.
@@TheeRocker yea I get that, but there is nothing wrong with a nice interface and plugins that automate certain aspects of the worlflow for you. Its all about the user friendliness. That sort of thing can go a long way when you got to make thousands of little decisions in the course of mixing a song.
@@Ashadowtotheworld yep, I know. Just thought I'd mention it. Many don't know this ;)
Thanks for sharing!! I'm sure my recordings have been getting better. Also remember the Loud max !!!
Living after midnight ! wonderful tips !
Thank you for showing your process. Monster sounding snare. I do like a little bit more of the resonant frequency though.
me too
snare slaps so hard, it told me to keep its wifes name out my mouth. great info.🤣🍻
🤣
Awesome drum sound. :D
Nice very nice great sound love your videos
Dude that drum sounds amazing.
Thanks so much!
Oh wow!!! Not only do you get Glenn's courses, but the plugin is also on sale for only $60 USD! 😵
black friday came late 🤣
Wait wait... what?? I never heard about this multiband gate. What the heck? Praise Krom!
Glenn you have lost a bunch of weight, I hope you're well mate! Thanks for the trick
Gleeeeeeeeen! Thank you dude!!! I just opened a session and tried this. Happy to tell you I DELETED the samples I had blended. No shit dude, was sitting here mumbling "holy shits" to myself for twenty minutes. Used the math because I don't have the drum eq but what a difference! I was wondering why after using 421's on a set of Sonors, I didn't get better tracks. I just didn't know what to do with them lol. They are awesome! Many thanks Dude! Have a stellar day!🤘
I personally love getting the kick in the bottom snare mic. I find that the bottom snare mic turns into a really good punch mic for the snare and the kick since it adds a sizzle to the two drums. I’ll expand the bottom snare, compressor the shit out of it and then set it right in the happy medium between the the close mics for the kick and snare
I appreciate you keeping your drums sounding like real drums and not dubstep samples. Thank you, Glenn. I've been learning drum tracking tips from you since like 2007 (Sneap Forum).
Although if you did a dubstep remix for this it would be epic
holy crap that first change
" boots, cats, boots, cats ... "
(* - Stevie T. )
Let's make a snare drum 🥁
Sound like Lars', from Metallica,
on the ' St. Anger ' LP, album 🤦🏻
😹🤣😹🤣😹🤣
🤘🏻😸👍🏻
We always said, boots n pants n boots n pants 😂
Boot camp booty camp! ALL BOW before power metal
Going good
Awesome
Finally Deathcent video from you
KILLER!!!!!! Damn this is GOLD, thank you! I only deal with "real" drums and end up having to add, or totally use samples.
🙌
Great video Glenn… will this also work with drum programs? I find it difficult to get that killer sounds from programmed drums. Thanks for any advice. Keep slaying it man 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
I would love a similar episode about kick drum!
Since I've watch your tom cannon video I apply the same trick to the snare ^^
What’s important to note is that the source tone is really good. If you don’t have a good source tone then you’re gonna have a harder time mixing it
Definitely true, quality up front makes all the difference. Drums are just a different animal, imo. I think a lot of people struggle with live drums because even great recordings kinda sound like garbage until you get some balancing and shaping done. It's just so many mics picking up the same sounds from different perspectives, even well-recorded frequency buildup is still buildup.
This is absolutely gold...and perfect timing Glenn, THANKS!! Just got some killer tracks from a blastbeatin' drummer friend but am having MAJOR difficulty making that snare smack hard like I wanted. Only question, is this a plugin included with reaper? I don't believe I have it. I know you have the video about how to get a ton of extra free plugins so if I need to reference that one again to get it just lmk! Rock on dude! 🤘
Totally agree. I don’t think it’s included. There’s a link in the description if your interested in the plugins.
@@bj97301 thanks man !
Get them at aixdsp. ...if you've got a lot of blast beats, the Multiband Gate can be a serious help.
@@SpectreSoundStudios yer a LEGEND! 🙌
But do keep in mind that If he's playing fast blast beats, he will never sound quite as powerful as these back beats do, not just because it's fast, but he's likely not "rim-shotting" when playing those either. That's the way it's gotta be with blast beats. Some black metal drummers never rimshot in order to even out the difference in power. Don't beat yourself up over it, as we can't make everything sound like everything. He probably knows lots of it comes down to how he hits and his choice of drums as well. Actually, you probably know all this too. (In a way it's kind of obvious that the performance matters a whole lot, but some mixers seem to forget and forget to forgive when the pressure is on) Haha. Cheers.
Very interesting
I like this angle of the room, Glenn. Mix it up. Lighting is nice too BTW. :)
It looks like a 'late-night secret' we're in on. :)
Ty! Thought I’d try something new!
ty bro
I think I'm going to have to download this. As much as I like spending hours equing well into madness, this seems like a very helpful tool! Now my only issue will be trying to explain to people that you only have so much sonic space in which you can work with and... you cannot just keep cranking levels otherwise everything will be distorted and clipping.
Tell them it's "mixing". ...that means give & take. Otherwise it would just be "turn everything up."
@@SpectreSoundStudios and/or, remind them it's a mix*down*, and not a mix up lol
"everything can't be louder than everything else"
@@pipelineaudio It's really difficult sometimes to try to get people to understand that just because a certain aspect of the song isn't glaringly obvious, that it's not exactly where it's supposed to be, "in the mix"; providing an overall good sonic picture.
very true
Damn Glenn, nice! Now, show how you got those Toms sounding so phenomenal!
Link for that video is at the end!!
Ooooof when you bring it all in at the end
I was amazed at the end. Sounded really good imo.
Thank you very much! Happy to pass along the knowledge!
I am sure using fab filter EQ, you can do the exact same thing as this eq.
It can show you resonant frequencies, so you can turn them down specifically.
It seems easier than sweeping a parametric EQ. This sounds like a good plug-in to have in your toolbox.
I like that you don't look down on people that haven't mastered the art of recording a snare drum.
It takes a LOT of work. I’m happy to help
Its tricky stuff, even Bob Rock often messes it up, ask Lars
Great
Just like the boss said...to get the snare drum sound he wants.
So if your happy the way You want it...don't worry. Its just ones personal preference and opinion.
Good morning glenn!
Good morning, Scott!
🔥🔥🔥🔥
It seems to me a fantastic way how you use the bottom snare drum mic to mix the transient it produces and mix it with the total snare
Cue mad scientist voice.... "It's the greatest snare mixing trick IN THE WOOOOORLDDD!!! Mwahahahahahahahahaaaaaaa!"
Fantastic video. Thanks Glenn!
You’re very welcome
With the reverb are you putting it on an aux or directly on the track? I always put mine on an aux and I figured you would too, but the whole 80% dry threw me off. If it's on an aux, why not just have it fully wet and send less signal to it?
At any rate, I appreciate the tutorial. It sounds great.
Hey Glenn! What do you think about the new Waves plugin, BB Tubes? Good tool or a scam? If it's a scam, well, they got me but they also got Warren Huart too. Love your shows and your pure honesty/ Keep it up, bro!
How can i record drums with 2 p170 low diaphragm mics 1 rode nt1 And p20 kick mic. ONLY with xy orAB and kick and snare? Or nt1 between drummer And floor tom for Toms And 1 for snare kick And 1 overhead? Idk , Can you show IT?
Hey Glenn,
what do you think of the Silencer(black salt audio)? Would nice to hear, what you think off.
Cheers Mike
4:48 Im kinda curious on what you’ve got going on behind you for your room treatment.
Interesting workflow. Speaking of instrument specific plugins, I wonder how the specter bass plugin is doing.
same!
For real! That bass sounds 🔥
How do you mix skin flute?
Ask your sister.
Don't be a stupid dork.
😂😂😂
@@kellykellerstein-meatchamb5361 Too late. I asked your mom already.
I was going to say "ask your mom" but you beat me to it. No pun intended.
Great video! I've always thought using snare samples is kind of strange, because a snare sample is just a well-engineered recording of a snare drum. If someone doesn't have nice gear to work with I can see where samples might help punch up a mix, but why not just get the real thing and do it right in the first place!
Do it right ? At 240 bpm blastbeats, during a 7hour recording session ? Not as easy as it seems maybe. Wait !! Its not easy at all 😕.
Record and mix real drums, with average gear, at your home, and you’ll know 😘
It can also help add some more depth or frequencies to give the snare more oomph. I actually recommend taking samples of the snare you are using and edit a few hits then blend it since you have it isolated.
@@DVaderOfMusic Haha, I actually do that exact thing. In fact I usually record samples of every drum and cymbal on the kit after the mics
oom are ready to go. Blending samples that aren't from a completely different session
ecording environment (which is unavoidable when using sample packs) goes a long way to maintaining a consistent sound. It really depends on genre. For jazz I'd never even consider samples of any kind. For polished rock and pop it's a no-brainer.
For an obvious AIX ad, this was a pretty good video. I just wish it was more clear it was an ad from the beginning.
See the “included paid promotion” declaration at the very beginning of the video
I'm really hoping this will be about the Def Leppard snare!
aiXdsp iconic reverb, Audio Assault XCTR, blend in a lin drum snare sample to taste and see Bobby Huff's RUclips videos if you want the pitch shifted part of it, I think he even has a sample that will help (Don't tell Glenn)
@@pipelineaudio haha nice, I was being a wise guy but I will check that video out, I also think on an old Pensados Place they talked with the engineer from some of those records and talked a little about the snare, about as 80s as you can get along with the Phil Collins toms,lol, Cheers!
Glenn! I remember you talking about a Jojo Mayer trick which consisted in making a parallel snare track and using a Transient designer to crank the sustain. I can't quite find the video where you showed it, any chance anyone remembers which one it was?
That sounds awesome; I’m def interested in finding that too!
Hi Glenn, thanks for the video. I went out and bought the AIX pack but when I tired to download your courses, it said the codes I was provided with had expired. I lodged a ticket on your website. I have used the AIG plugins and yes, they work great. PS: The codes worked this morning so all good!!! Not that I mix metal however I am interested nevertheless
Glad they got it sorted!
how dose the multiband Gate handle ghost notes from the snare?
Great video Glenn! Curious if you have advice for those of us who only have a top snare mic to work with? Most of the drum tracks I receive only have 1 snare track. Thanks!
Yes. Insist the bottom is miced as well
@@SpectreSoundStudios good idea
You could try adding a little eq around 8k to bring out the snares. But ask them to mic that bottom head in the future!
@@SpectreSoundStudios I will attempt to get the drummer to spend money LOL
Is that reverb on the snare before it goes through the busses? Does the reverb end up going through the parallel compression or is the compression happening before the reverb and if so how did you separate it?
No, in this example, he has a Drum Buss that goes to the Master Fader. a Drum Crush (parallel compression) going to the Master Fader, and the Drum Verb going to the Master Fader.
@@BeatsAndMeats ahh i see. Thank you.
Hey glenn, did you use the virtual mix rack on the global EQ channel?
No.
Do you still use that debleeding plugin you used to push?
Ive only been doing home recording for aroud 8 months,. Can we achieve these results using only the Reaper stock plug-ins?
You could, technically, do it with stock Reaper EQ, but you'll first need to figure out the main resonant frequency, and then check a frequency chart to find out which frequencies repeat up the chart... and then manually create the EQ points. But it's possible. For the gating, no, Multi Band Gate is a one-of-a-kind plugin in that sense. You can use a regular gate but you won't have nearly as much control.
Glenn! I recently purchased a Focusrite Scarlett Solo Gen 3, and no matter what I do to my dials, amp sim, or even reinstalling the drivers repeatedly, the sound through my mic and the instrument line in sounds weak and watery through Audacity. I know, I know, try using Reaper, welllll..... Reaper doesn't want to record any audio information period on my machine. I'm on an HP machine running Windows10, do you have any tips and tricks to fix this problem? Thanks from Oklahoma if you read this!
Have you changed your ASIO settings?
@@CantKillACowboyTX Regrettably, I'm not too technically literate to begin to know where to find those at 😅
If you find me on facebook or whatever, discord, I can probably walk you through it
Wow, actual content!
Too many ads all the sudden.
Wasn't this an ad?
What mic are you using for this video Glenn? Rode Procaster?
Lauten
Nice ad for AIX there Glenn... I do admit that drum EQ looks kinda nifty, but everything else here can easily be replaced, and it might even turn out better. For example, nothing beats an 1176 for parallell compression, even if it's a software version of one. Also no way that multiband gate was needed on the bottom mic. There wasn't even that much kick in there, and if you needed to get rid of it a high pass would've done just fine and then a normal gate after that.
Seriously Glenn can I send you some pickups to try, no obligation
Why are your pickups better than any other? I'm genuinely curious.
@@SpectreSoundStudios Theyre not to be honest. Unless you're into the vintage thing because that's my specialty, it's really hard to satisfy those vintage tone snobs.
As far as high gain and stuff you would be interested in, to be honest I cant compete with the likes of Duncan and Dimarzio for price and range, I dont buy in bulk, I'm just a one man operation so costs are high.
I know you're interested in doing a pickup comparison to see how much they effect the tone and I wanted to provide you some evidence of how different I can set the EQ. It could be an informative video and I would like to get my Brand out there even if its negative.
I do high gain stuff too not just vintage, but I'm finding the vintage crowd have responded really well where as the metal crowd is very sceptical....I wonder who's influence that could be.
Maybe you'll find there not much difference and you get to prove I'm full of crap and my pickups suck. I dont care.
I know I troll you a bit but I really love your channel man, you get me fired up that's all and in my defence my butt was really hurt, ive been using ointment!. I love people who express themselves openly! Love your work Glenn
Real drums will always be the hardest thing for home studio producers to both record and mix well without resorting to samples. I don't know if that's because they just haven't learned the skills to get the sound right, don't know what it should sound like, etc... Your tutorials make it really easy to accomplish, at least they appear to. But, you have to start with a good source, meaning a good mic set up and a good player. If you have those, it is probably 100% easier to mix a great drum sound than if they don't have that.
At my home based studio, while I do have Reaper, I prefer (and my clients overwhelmingly prefer) my stand alone HDD recorder. Using it requires doing things more like they did back in the day, without having access to EQ like what you display on this video which will help take a lot of the guess work out of the EQ process. Now, I personally don't make that much of a fuss over the technical stuff when it comes to mixing, such as calculating the harmonics to EQ them out. I do things simply by ear. But, I'm not finding that I would really need to be so intricate with the EQ adjustment to get a great sound from a snare, or any drum or instrument. Is it really necessary, am I just wrong with my approach, perhaps not going as far as I should to properly mix something to sound great?
Lol... Warren Huart's testimonial from the Aixdsp drum producer pack!