Snare tones

[PunkGuy]

I think I had an epiphany today. I've always been able to get good snare tones on recordings, but nothing that sounded so good it made me crap my pants in glee. But today I was playing around with drum editing, trying to find that elusive perfect tone, when I accidentally stumbled upon a snare with a really smeared transient. It was smeared so bad it didn't even sound realistic. But man, once I played it in a mix I could actually hear more than just the crack of the snare drum for once. Ringing, glorious ringing!

I always thought that long decays, short attacks, and some EQ or multiband compression was the answer, but is smearing the transient all I really needed to do? I feel pretty dumb, but I'm glad I stumbled onto this.

I'm not sure how to duplicate this with a compressor, though, since I was editing in my Yamaha drum brain. Whenever I compress drums too much they seem to get dryer and deader, not ringier (is that a word?) Do I just need to learn how to use a compressor? Any input?

[garww]

You might try copying the peak wave form and pasting it about - maybe on a matching effect track

[PunkGuy]

You might try copying the peak wave form and pasting it about - maybe on a matching effect track.

Wouldn't that invoke the dreading machine gunning drums? I also do a lot of drum shredding, so that could make copying and pasting a royal pita, unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying.

[Rob K]

I accidentally stumbled upon a snare with a really smeared transient. It was smeared so bad it didn't even sound realistic. But man, once I played it in a mix I could actually hear more than just the crack of the snare drum for once. Ringing, glorious ringing!

I don't really understand this, and have a few questions..

How exactly do you define a smeared transient?
How did you stumble across it? What caused it?
What does a smeared transient have to do with the ringing of the snare (which would happen after the transient 'snap'?)
Could you post up a quick sample?

Sorry for the inquisition, I'm just curious

[brandondrury]

If you want to knock the attack off a drum, it's easy. You just need to turn both the attack and release down to very fast settings. This kills the peak and pulls up all the stuff behind it. If you take a look at the SPL Transient Designer, it has a knob for each function (adding attack or adding sustain). It's great for that sort of thing.

When I set up my parallel compression buses (which you'll be seeing in my next video series) I always use 2. One emphasizes attack, the other sustain. I can then blend them to taste with the fader.

[PunkGuy]

I don't really understand this, and have a few questions..

How exactly do you define a smeared transient?
How did you stumble across it? What caused it?
What does a smeared transient have to do with the ringing of the snare (which would happen after the transient 'snap'?)
Could you post up a quick sample?

Sorry for the inquisition, I'm just curious

Basically, the peak of the snare waveform was more spread out. Think of it like widening the Q on an EQ: it goes from a narrow "peak" to a wider band. The snare peak I stumbled upon had the main transient (the crack/attack of the snare) really, really spread out. I imagine it was smashed with a fancy schmancy compressor and possibly had other devious things done to it. Idk really, Yamaha drum samples are shrouded in mystery, but I do know they are real samples, and there's a * to denote whether a sample was recorded with one mic or two (top and bottom). So, between turning the "Q" setting way down, finding the right spot between top and bottom mics, and turning the "Attack" setting way down, I came up with a layered sound using multiple samples that would make any speed punk band proud. Theoretically, that is, as I have to record an actual song to see how it sits in a mix that isn't a MIDI drum brain mix, lol.

If you want to knock the attack off a drum, it's easy. You just need to turn both the attack and release down to very fast settings. This kills the peak and pulls up all the stuff behind it.

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm guessing they'd both have to be set pretty dang fast in order to work well with tempos over 210 bpms. I can play around with it once I get a chance to record.

When I set up my parallel compression buses (which you'll be seeing in my next video series) I always use 2. One emphasizes attack, the other sustain. I can then blend them to taste with the fader.

I've never tried parallel compression with drums. I'm afraid my computer will explode trying to keep up. I do have a question though: why is parallel compression so much better than multiband compression? It seems to me that you could get very similar results with both. Then again, how would I know if I haven't tried it?

[garww]

This might also be great for tired analog gear. I snagged a old mixer recently and in my research I found one guy saying the newer (still '80s) model had smearing and bad crosstalk. He also reflected that the tunes from this mixer are the best sounding he's ever done.

[brandondrury]

The snare peak I stumbled upon had the main transient (the crack/attack of the snare) really, really spread out.

That means the peak was shaved off and the makeup gain brought it back up.

I'm guessing they'd both have to be set pretty dang fast in order to work well with tempos over 210 bpms.

The song tempo is nothing compared to the being able to instantly clamp a transient, which is often faster than 1ms. It depends on the compressor. My Distressor is so fast that it could work as a brickwall limiter, letting nothing through a certain threshold.

why is parallel compression so much better than multiband compression?

There are entirely different things. Specifically compression certain frequency bands is hard to compare placing a compressor an aux and blending that in with the uncompressed signal. It's an apples and oranges thing and neither is "better". They are totally different tactics.

I'm afraid my computer will explode trying to keep up.

Really? It only takes an additional aux send or group and a single compressor plugin instance.

Brandon

[fHumble fHingaz]

When I set up my parallel compression buses (which you'll be seeing in my next video series) I always use 2. One emphasizes attack, the other sustain. I can then blend them to taste with the fader.
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This is my method too... I call one buss "Snap" & the other "Fat"...they don't mind it.

[PunkGuy]

Really? It only takes an additional aux send or group and a single compressor plugin instance.

So, assign all drum tracks to a bus and slap a compressor on the bus? Compressing the kick drum and crash cymbals with the same compressor? I tried that before and the cymbals end up sounding totally screwed up. Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding you. I rarely, if ever, use bus tracks; I've always dealt with each track on an individual basis.

[fHumble fHingaz]

So, assign all drum tracks to a bus and slap a compressor on the bus? Compressing the kick drum and crash cymbals with the same compressor? I tried that before and the cymbals end up sounding totally screwed up. Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding you. I rarely, if ever, use bus tracks; I've always dealt with each track on an individual basis.

You're right, if you really smash a drum group, the cymbals turn into white noise. I dunno about Brandon, but I send them from the individual tracks - you still only need one buss (or two in my case) to send to from the individual tracks. You just use the send level to determine how much of the parallel sound you mix in. I also strap a compressor right across my drum buss, but it's not really smashing it - it's controlling overall dynamics & punch, & "gluing" the drums together - I usually use UAD2's Fatso for that task.... then again, I do also create an aux send to another buss with a "smashing' comp on it - I usually high pass it to get rid of the huge cymbal wash - then just automate it at different points in the song to generate excitement... (I'm talking very subtle blending here).