That Fat 80's snare!?

[tjorenby]

Hey yall

Just wondering as to how I could achieve that fat 80's def leppard sounding snare.

I know there's some verb, but there's gotta be something else.

If anyone has the answer it would be great to know!

Thanks alot,

~Tyler Jorenby
www.mp3.com/adifferentseason

[Prizmaxic]

lots of reverb!!

[Chris Tondreau]

Drum machine..... seriously! Not sarcastic!! If nothing else, use samples to fatten up your live snare - then add 'verb.

Chris

[Lopp]

Yupper. Def Leppard used samples.

[Chrisjob]

Try the 'Phil Collins' gate trick.....

Add lots of reverb, then add a gate to cut off the tail in time to the music, and then open up on the next hit. The tail is still there from the previous hit, but is masked by a new hit with a whole new mess of reverb-

look up gated snares, or Phil Collins snare on this forum- I;m sure its been discussed to a greater degree and someone else can show you how to set it up properly

-Chris

[Chris Tondreau]

Gate trick sounds neat. I had to read that post twice, as I was caught up in reading about how Def Leppard's sounds are achieved, I read the name Phil Collins (yes, I KNOW who he is...), but found myself thinking Phil Collen (the guitar player from Def with the short blonde hair).

Funny that the two names would wind up in the same thread...

Chris

[dr.colossus]

yup, gated reverb, mixed very wet... both of my mutli-fx units have a gated reverb preset (they're both early ninties units)....

but why the hell would you want to go and do that to a snare?

[Lopp]

I'm suprised Voxvendor hasn't replied.

He must be off doing something with sheep...

[Tim Brown]

If you Really want that sound.

Take off the drumhead.
place a bandana over the drumshell.
drape it over the whole shell, then put th head back on and pull the bandana tight.

Tighten the snare to a loose-to-medium tension.

adjust the snares to the effct that you want.

Mic, and add a little bit of a large reverb, and gate it.


You can also run this through a 31-band graphic EQ for additional tweaking.

Sure, this is unorthadox, but so what?
It's exactly how I was getting that sound back then.

Want that tom sound as well?
Evans oilheads on the batters, and thin resonant heads, and tune the drums as low as they will go.



Tim

[VOXVENDOR]

Go here to see how they got the "huge" Pyromania drum sound.

Seriously.

http://www.vintagesynth.org/linn/linn9000.shtml



And 80% of other "hair band" acts used this same unit for that big snare sound back in the 80's too.

Alot of people don't realize that most of the hair band stuff, like Poison and Skid Row's studio recordings, were all electronic pads triggering huge sounding samples, .....

However.. Most the cymbals and hats were live on those albums, either as overdubs or live cymbals incorporated with an electronic kit.

Listen to Poison's "Your Mama Don't Dance".. Really cheesy drum machine sounds.... Played with Rikki Rocketts aweful timing I might add, was not a big help..

Shit.. You hear heavier sounding drums on some Pet Shop Boys songs, than on Poison's earlier recordings...

But I guess for them it was the look and the song.

Anyways.. going off on a tangent.

I will leave it at that.



Joe

PS> Great tip Tim, Thanks!

[Lopp]

LOL Vox.

Sorry about misleading you to this thread, but I was sure you'd have great insight.

[Gidge]

Tim and Vox, you guys rock......