how to fix distorted snare??

[Hi_Flyer]

so I kinda screwed up and hit the tape a little too hard recording this band yesterday. the snare is kinda distorted, the transient is kinda squashed.

anything I can do here? I have tried some gating and compression to get it to pop a bit, and it kinda works, but I'm wondering if some of the more experienced guys around here have a better idea.

What would an expansion plug-in do? I have never used them... how about something like a "transient designer" type plug-in? Any freebie plugs that would help? I'm mixing in Reaper... thanks.

oh yeah, I would rather not sample replace too...

[NL5]

Originally Posted by Hi_Flyer

oh yeah, I would rather not sample replace too...

Hey, I have some wood I need to cut, but don't really wanna use a saw. Got any ideas?

[ecktronic]

Your kinda screwed then.
I would suggest resampling. Use a bit of the original snare track along with the resampled snare track.
Not much else you can do really.

Eck

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by Hi_Flyer

What would an expansion plug-in do? I have never used them... how about something like a "transient designer" type plug-in? Any freebie plugs that would help? I'm mixing in Reaper... thanks.

I don't know whether Reaper has such a plug, but I know that there is such a thing as "peak restoration" plugs; Sonic Foundry/Sony offered such a feature plug as part of their Noise Reduction bundle, for example. Best I could suggest would be to search kvraudio.com for "peak restoration" or "clipping repair" or something along those lines to see if there are any free ones.

Those plugs are going to be far from perfect in sound, though. Re-record if you can. If you can't, and sample replacement is not on the table, then such a plug would have to do.

G.

[DAS19]

Most engineers would say if your fucked going in, your fucked.

[Hi_Flyer]

Originally Posted by ecktronic

Your kinda screwed then.
I would suggest resampling. Use a bit of the original snare track along with the resampled snare track.
Not much else you can do really.

Eck

yeah, I guess this would be ideal, it takes forever to manually line those hits up, and I'm not getting paid for this, just recording a friend's band...

[NL5]

Originally Posted by Hi_Flyer

yeah, I guess this would be ideal, it takes forever to manually line those hits up, and I'm not getting paid for this, just recording a friend's band...

It don't take as long as you think. I also believe drumagog gives you a free trial period...

[fatstrat]

Originally Posted by Hi_Flyer

yeah, I guess this would be ideal, it takes forever to manually line those hits up, and I'm not getting paid for this, just recording a friend's band...

There is a tutorial on how to automatically fix drum hits, lemme see if I can find it..


Aha, here it is: http://www.reaper.fm/~pipeline/REAPERVideos/basics/

One of those videos has info on using the ReaFir gate function to auto-trigger a sample track. Really spiffy.

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by NL5

Hey, I have some wood I need to cut, but don't really wanna use a saw. Got any ideas?

Use an ax

[Hi_Flyer]

thanks, I'll check them out. Pipelineaudio's stuff is very helpful.

I have messed with drumagog before, and I always kinda got mixed results. once all the hits were lined up precisely with the original tracks, I could usually get a decent blend between the two, but i could never get drumagog to do it with any degree of precision... maybe ReaFir does it better??

[NL5]

Originally Posted by Hi_Flyer

but i could never get drumagog to do it with any degree of precision...

You were doing it wrong then. It is pretty easy to make it seamless........

[bennychico11]

Originally Posted by SouthSIDE Glen

I don't know whether Reaper has such a plug, but I know that there is such a thing as "peak restoration" plugs; Sonic Foundry/Sony offered such a feature plug as part of their Noise Reduction bundle, for example. Best I could suggest would be to search kvraudio.com for "peak restoration" or "clipping repair" or something along those lines to see if there are any free ones.

iZotope has a new noise restoration program out called RX. I just tested its trial version but the clip remover did a great job on some stuff of mine.

[Hi_Flyer]

Originally Posted by NL5

You were doing it wrong then. It is pretty easy to make it seamless........

maybe, I always got the feeling there should be an easier way or I wasn't doing something quite right. care to offer any pointers?

[FALKEN]

i never tried this but always wanted to. what if you put a speaker right on the snare and mic'd it from underneath and from the side. Not sure if it would sound best if the snare track were the original, or if you were to mess with gates, severe band limiting eq, compressor, etc going to the speaker.

[IronFlippy]

You could physically redraw the peaks, but I don't know if Reaper offers this capability. Plus, it would take forever. Drumagog is probably your best bet.

[BushmasterM4]

How many tracks need fixed and what software are you using ? I may be able to help

[mattamatta]

How are you lining up hits using drumagog? Just put it on your snare track and pick your poison/sample.... seemed to work automagically for me when I had a working trial version.

[LeeRosario]

Originally Posted by Hi_Flyer

so I kinda screwed up and hit the tape a little too hard recording this band yesterday. the snare is kinda distorted, the transient is kinda squashed.

anything I can do here? I have tried some gating and compression to get it to pop a bit, and it kinda works, but I'm wondering if some of the more experienced guys around here have a better idea.

What would an expansion plug-in do? I have never used them... how about something like a "transient designer" type plug-in? Any freebie plugs that would help? I'm mixing in Reaper... thanks.

oh yeah, I would rather not sample replace too...

yeah. I really think it's been thoroughly answered, but you're not getting any use out of distorted tracks like this. Unless you turn the problem into a creative solution.

You could compress it, process it in some kind of cool way, even going as far as trying to redraw the waveforms by hand. None of these really remove the distortion. It's embedded into the track.

Sound replacing is cool, but you run into the problem of trying to match up a sound that fits the drum without sounding out of place. Unless you sample off the same drum, maybe even using a better mic and/or micing technique. You could have the drummer come in with his snare and have him do a few sample takes for you.

It's because of this exact reason I always have drummers sample things like snare, kick, toms...basically anything on the kit minus cymbals, before we start tracking drums. It's in the same room, it's the same drum, just about the same tuning, which makes it practical and seemless just incase these hiccups happen. In fact, having a sampling session gives you opitions because you can opt to use your best mics on each individual drum, whereas you might not have that option on the full kit.

If reamping (yes there are ways to reamp a snare) or sound replacing (with either a good section or just entirely different sample) dosn't work, you're either really screwed or you can opt for rerecording.

There's tons of magic out there, but none good enough to perfectly fix what wasn't tracked optimally in the first place. Only patches or deviations at best.

[jaybriggs84]

Can you take one of the snare hits that isn't clipping and sample that

[TerraMortim]

Originally Posted by FALKEN

i never tried this but always wanted to. what if you put a speaker right on the snare and mic'd it from underneath and from the side. Not sure if it would sound best if the snare track were the original, or if you were to mess with gates, severe band limiting eq, compressor, etc going to the speaker.

it would sound odd, but interesting, I'm sure...wouldn't sound like a stick hitting a snare I don't think. I could be wrong, though.

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by FALKEN

i never tried this but always wanted to. what if you put a speaker right on the snare and mic'd it from underneath and from the side. Not sure if it would sound best if the snare track were the original, or if you were to mess with gates, severe band limiting eq, compressor, etc going to the speaker.

Depending on the size of the speaker, two things I think would happen:

1. It would likely rolloff the high-end.
2. The transients would likely get rounded off.

[Hi_Flyer]

thanks for the replies.

I may try some sample replacement after all, at least in the songs where its most noticeable. Some stuff sounds OK, and although the orig snare track doesn't sound "good" in a traditional sense, it strangely sounds kinda cool in some of the songs. Its got character in a lo-fi kinda way, which these dudes might be into...

[NL5]

I turn advanced triggering on, set resolution to auto, and adjust the threshold. That's about it. Works flawless for me.

[Hi_Flyer]

don't you find the hits don't quite line up though? like you have to nudge them a bit?

[NL5]

Originally Posted by Hi_Flyer

don't you find the hits don't quite line up though? like you have to nudge them a bit?

nope.

I use Cubase with ADC though, maybe that's the problem......