RNC on snare?

[mrface2112]

i re-vamped the way i'm running the board and whatnot for my band's practices (basically i put all the vocals on one sub bus instead of 2), and it's freed up a channel on my RNC......so i'm thinking about using it for my snare.

obviously i'll be giving it a shot this evening when i get home (so spare me the "try it and see" posts ) but in the meantime i was wondering who's used their RNC on snare and whether they've gotten usable results out of it.


wade

[Blue Bear Sound]

For fattening an overly-crackly snare it comes close, but its attack isn't quite fast enough compared to s/w plug-ins.... it can certainly level out a performance quite well, and the attack IS fast enough to mess around with the envelope of the snare sound.

[mrface2112]

bluebear--thanks, that's about what i figured (and corroborates what i discovered last night). i only need it there to ride the peaks and level out the performance, and it's fine at that.

sonusman--yeah, i know. i don't use my compressors as squashers going to tape. i only use them to ride the peakiest of the peaks and control the extremes.....so while having snare running off the same settings i've got it set to for vocal use isn't optimal, it does *ok* given that all i'm using it for is to control the occasional spike. not to ride and squash the daylights out of the signal. i'll do that later if i need to via software, as BB noted, it's response is a little slow compared to some software compressors i've used.

i prolly should've been clearer about what i had planned in my initial post, eh?

and i COULD use another RNC. ;-)


wade

[Bobalou]

Originally posted by Blue Bear Sound
For fattening an overly-crackly snare it comes close, but its attack isn't quite fast enough compared to s/w plug-ins.... it can certainly level out a performance quite well, and the attack IS fast enough to mess around with the envelope of the snare sound.

Blue Bear,

whats the fastest attack setting for the RNC ratio/attack/release/etc. ?

[Blue Bear Sound]

That's funny... I just looked at the RNC specs and it DOES have a fast attack.... it's spec'd at:
0.2 msec to 200msec

Yet - when I recently tried to use it to fatten a snare, I couldn't get a fast enough attack... so I used a basic Cubase plug using the 0.1 mS attack setting and it did the trick...

Interesting...!

[Bobalou]

Blue bear,

what would be "your" best setting on the RNC to fatten up a snare going in? threshold, ratio, attack, release?

[Blue Bear Sound]

fastest attack, 4-6:1 ratio, release/threshold settings vary depending on the sound.

The fast attack lets you play with the envelope of the sound - stretching it slightly, giving a fatter sound (at least, in the particalur example I had of having an overly snappy snare and I wnated to thicken it.)

[Bobalou]

thanks, I too have a great sounding but overly snappy snare and thickening it up going in has been a bit challenging. I'm using a 57 through a Great River ME-1NV and though I like the tone and the thick coloration of the GR when I push the gain, I still find the recorded track a bit thin and snappy as apposed to that upfront sound I'm seeking. (certainly proper Phase is audible and does thicken it up, but would like more)

maybe a different comp would be better? (though I dont like that heavy rock compression snare sound)...do you recomend against the super nice mode of the RNC? or something else all togather?

thanks man

[Blue Bear Sound]

For what I described above -- you don't want Supernice mode on...

But like I said earlier, I couldn't quite shape the sound quite the way I wanted to with the RNC -- which is why I resorted to the plug-ins...

[nwsoundman]

How about trying letting the attack of the snare through and only compress the body and tail of the snare. This will fatten the snare. Catching the whole envelope of the snare and compressing enough to fatten usually leaves the snare lifeless to me. AUYMMV

[mixsit]

I've been following this thread and it's interesting, like Nwsoundman, I figured that 'fattening' methods would want to let some of the front end through and play with the body envelpoe. I know it's not brickwall but RNC fully CCW should almost completely erase a snare transient.

Maybe someone can post some examples of a hardware comp and setting that's a known fix for this.
I mostly just use clippers on snare so I'm no help here.
Wayne

[Blue Bear Sound]

I would have thought so too.... I suppose it could have been that specific instance.... but I got the result I was looking for with the settings I mentioned...

[TexRoadkill]

Originally posted by mrface2112
sonusman--yeah, i know. i don't use my compressors as squashers going to tape. i only use them to ride the peakiest of the peaks and control the extremes.....so while having snare running off the same settings i've got it set to for vocal use isn't optimal, it does *ok* given that all i'm using it for is to control the occasional spike. not to ride and squash the daylights out of the signal. i'll do that later if i need to via software, as BB noted, it's response is a little slow compared to some software compressors i've used.

Then the snare is going to be triggering the vocal compression.

[jdier]

Originally posted by TexRoadkill
Then the snare is going to be triggering the vocal compression.

Yeah, like if your vocal is holding our a nice soft long note and the drummer hits the snare really hard, the compressor will kick in effecting (or is it Affecting?) the levels of both the snare and the vocal.

Do not run two different signals through it like you are thinking. You will be sorry in the long run.