How to get that 80's Explosive snaRE!

[pistol_pete]

Hey everyone, im having a problem getting that wicked punch out of my snare, like the old 80's style. sounds like an explosion!

im using vst drum samples "drumkit from hell" I have the snare drum coming out of its own chanel, so im free to mess with the equalization and reverb ect without effect the other drum peices.

SO i been messing around with reverb and equalization but just can't seem to get the right sound, it either drags to long or doesnt punch enough? does anyone know where i can find a some samples to do this? or how i can mess with EQ and other effets to get the sound i want? thanks

[Nik D]

Have you tried using a gated reverb? That will probably get you pretty close.

[pistol_pete]

Whats a gated reverb? is it a gate + a reverb effect? or is it one efect in its own?

[tmix]

The 80s saw the heavy use of gated reverbs for fast songs and a big reverb sound for ballads with quite a bit of predelay.

Gated reverb: a big room sound reverb that has the long decay of the tail gated abruptly off shortly after the end of the drum sound. You can set the timing of the gate to shut off abruptly after so many milliseconds after being opened by the initial transient of the sample.

[picostudios]

I never liked 80s drums. I love clean sounding drums. Not muddy, heavily over verbed drums.

[Bulls Hit]

Have you tried boosting between 150 & 300Hz?

Sweep through that range till you find the sweet spot for your snare, and boost. Then do an equivalent cut right beside it

[gemsbok]

get yourself an old lexicon reverb unit. lxp-1