So there is no way to fix that during the mix and it needs to be re-recorded. The sustaining element encompasses the rest of the sound or the “tail” (rattling, pitches, ringing, etc…), If you were listening to your snare by itself, you’d most likely hear all of these elements, BUT…. Required fields are marked *, I recently distributed one of my tracks through RouteNote so I thought I’d share my experience! You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Firstly, we’ll need to make the distinction between the “transient” and “sustaining” elements of our snare drum. 3. As you can see, it’s nothing complicated and once you understand the basics, you can easily adapt these settings for any situation. Problems with a short attack timeOne thing is very much for sure, you have to experiment with the attack time. The best solution I could, Perhaps one of the most misunderstood concepts of the mixing and mastering process is loudness. Your email address will not be published. This post contains affiliate links. I personally use Vulf Compressor at this point because it’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard! Bear in mind that the “dominant and crispy snare sound” is recommended only for instrumental rock music since 2000Hz – 3000Hz frequency range are not cut. Before getting into my personal compressor settings for snare, we need to understand what we’re striving for. Drum Mixing Tips and Techniques for Modern Rock Music, https://www.audiorecording.me/audiosamples/defaultsetting.mp3, https://www.audiorecording.me/audiosamples/compressionsettings1.mp3, Mixing Cymbals and Hi Hats: Getting it sound right, Drum Frequencies of Kick Bass Drum, Hi Hats, Snare and Crash Cymbals, Mixing Conga & Sitar– EQ, Panning, Compression and Reverb, Micing and Recording a Cajon or Acoustic Percussion Drum Box Tips. However, you’ll realize that professionals often use compression in multiple stages for various reasons. At least recorded at a reasonable sounding level with dynamics. Unsubscribe at anytime. This where most music producers will usually get into what I refered to as “parallel compression” a little earlier on. The recording objective should be: 1. To make sure you are recording at optimum levels; you need to implement proper gain staging. Start here for light snare drum compression. I’m actually working a free-course on mixing and mastering an entire drum kit. For example, if you record drums in the center of the spacious big hall, the snare drum sound would have much more ambiance and reverb than recording in a heavily carpeted and concrete small rooms. Too much compression may bring up the hats so care about this. There’s no other way! Now that we have this basic understanding, we’re ready to get to work! We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Decibel Peak (decibelpeak.com) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon (amazon.com). We then compensate for this reduction in amplitude by adding more gain and there you have it! The only other compressor my drums will experience is the incredibly subtle compressor on my master bus. Naturally you should experiment with all of these settings. Today, I’ll be sharing these compressor settings for snare with you using Logic Pro X’s stock compressor. Release from 50ms to 120ms. Tags: Snare drum production techniques, Using panning effect in mix. No clipping or distortion. Besides the use of Vulf Compressor, you can clearly see that your DAW’s stock compressor plug-in will do the trick. Lastly the panning settings; most engineers can pan the snare drums at the center. Instead of just giving you my preset, I’ll also be explaining why I made the decisions I did. This will have a profound effect on the resulting sound. You’re trying to add punchto your snare that’s why you need to use slow attack so you can let the attack of the snare drum through. Your email address will not be published. Copyright © 2019-2020 Decibel Peak Productions. This is how the snare drum sounds like: This is a useful guide for a beginner in choosing the best compression settings for the snare. By understanding the different elements of your snare’s sound, you’ll also understand what we’re looking to get out of our compressor. I hope you’ve found the knowledge you were looking for in this tutorial. That’s okay! The compression ratio can be set to around 4:1 and the release time to 100 milliseconds. Although this sound is not as thick as the other compression settings to be illustrated later on. Need more bite? This is the resulting sound: The snare drum sounds scratchy. This is where I usually stop though. It also uses moderate compression ratio of 4:1. The compressor’s primary function when it comes to percussive instruments like snare drums is to balance the transients with the sustaining elements. If you’re familiar with the mastering process, this can be seen as the mastering bus for the drum kit exclusively. More details are discussed in this tutorial: “How to pan drum instruments”. You’ll be one of the first to have access and you’ll receive weekly updates on new content we release. It’s obviously exaggerated which is why you’ll need to adjust the mix to blend the two sounds together. Lastly the panning settings; most engineers can pan the snare drums at the center. The compressor settings for snare we discussed in the previous section are what I use for my first compression stage. It is important to know that EQ settings for snare drum mixing are treated differently between each song. 4.) In fact, great rock songs are often associated with unique snare drum sound which we often remember throughout the years. There’s also some parallel compression to mix the dry and affected signal. Ratio: During my first compression stage (more on this later), I always work with a 4:1 ratio. So, how can we correct this? This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Each instrument will inevitably begin to compete with one another, so we must use compression. We’re simply reducing the dynamic range of your snare so we can “squeeze” all its elements into the mix. Feel free to experiment the attack and release settings. Compression ratio: 5:1. It’s not too subtle and not too strong; the perfect intensity in my opinion. Basically, you’ll want to route your individual drums to the same auxiliary channel strip (I usually call it DRUM MIX). Feel free to experiment the attack and release settings. Slow attack, 10ms to 30ms. Most any software or hardware EQ will do the trick when it comes to EQing the snare, but some E… We respect your privacy. If these are used in music with vocals, the snare drum may drowned the vocal frequencies affecting vocal clarity. 2. Raising this parameter will simply result in more compression. We’re not actually altering the snare in any way though, we’re simply bringing out more of the elements we’d like to hear. It’s much simpler than you think and once you’ve completed the tutorial, you’ll be set for life! Let’s get started with the default settings (original and uncompressed snare): This is how the snare waveform looks like “uncompressed”: Supposing you want to apply this first compression setting: -30.4dB threshold 2:1 Compression ratio Scan mode: RMS Smooth saturation: Yes Attack time: 5ms Release time: 10ms Output gain: 7.6dB.