Getting a really high-octane snare sound?

[Alchemist3k]

Hi,

I am using a Steinberg LM-4 drum sampler in my tunes. I always love the brilliant snare sound that loads of industrial bands like KMFDM, NIN etc get. How do they get that sound? I can't get my snares to sound anywhere near as sharp or cracking as that?

I'll post a clip here if I can.

[Alchemist3k]

Here's a clippet. Taken from the Skinny Puppy song 'Warlock'.

[heinz]

no clue on this track, but in my experience:

- layer two or more samples to bring out the composite qualities you want. For example, you may have a sample with a nice CRACK to it, and another with a good thick THWOKK. Combining them may give you a nice thick snare with a good edgy attack.

- It helps greatly for the samples you combine to be similar in pitch or "drum tuning" as it were. If not try adjusting pitch to match (this is something Reason's ReDrum is a great tool for).

- spend time mixing the relative volumes of each sample to get good balance. Think of this process like making a great soup.

- eq is crucial, experiment with eq to help bring out the edge or sonic qualities you want in each sample.

[tubedude]

Copy the snare onto another track, take the new track and compress it really super hard, I mean squash the hell out of it, EQ the hell out of it, cut a bunch around 315hz, sweep a boost and cut on it and see what sounds good boosted and boost it, see what sounds good cut and cut it, be extreme if necc...
then, get your other snare at the level you want it, and sneak this new snare in behind it, season to taste....

[Alchemist3k]

Cool. I will give some of those a go.

[Meshuggah]

somewhere around 500Hz is úsually nice to boost a bit...