Side Chain... or Not?

notredamer0789

notredamer0789

Nashville Rocker
Hi All, I have been mixing this piece for a while and I am stuck in a rut (so to speak...). I have great levels and a good sound for almost EVERYTHING in the mix EXCEPT the snare and hi hat combo. Clearly it wasn't recorded very well and I had do a ton of work with the drums, but the snare is just terribly vague. It sounds like a OH mic IMO. So heres the problem: I am gettin' WAYYYY too much Hat in my snare (I think it's a snare haha) mic and I need to gate it to get just my snare sound, but the transients for both snare and hat are so large, it picks up everything. So I wanted to know if I sound side chain the gate/comp. to pick up on the hats only to kick in so that I'll be able to get the snare to pop thru. I'll be honest... I don't use side chaining OR gating for that matter a lot, only because I don't really ever have to when I track it. I'm using a pro tools DAW to mix, so maybe a little help or a better idea?

Thanks!

Cory:D
 
notredamer0789 said:
I have great levels and a good sound for almost EVERYTHING in the mix EXCEPT the snare and hi hat combo. So heres the problem: I am gettin' WAYYYY too much Hat in my snare. <snip> Clearly it wasn't recorded very well and I had do a ton of work with the drums, but the snare is just terribly vague.

I'm using a pro tools DAW to mix, so maybe a little help or a better idea?
Click to expand...

There are a bunch of ways to skin a cat (Sorry PETA) Some of which you've already mentioned.

If you've tried these and they have all failed, I would also recommend editing out all the high hats on the snare track (except the ones that hit with the snare) by hand and triggering a snare to blend in with the un-edited snare track. It ain't pretty but it works.

You could also try going "al natural" and getting your snare sound from the over head or tom tracks.
 
You know, it's funny, I've thought about doing those things. I currently have an "airy" type of mix going with a couple of OH tracks going at the same time. It sounds good and with certain EQ and Comp on the tracks everything is pulled out. I would do I usually do and just replace the snare hits by cuttin' 'em with Beat Detective, but it's soooo hard to pick them out of the mix because the hat transients are so large (Beat Detective isn't such a good detective either haha...). But thanks for the advice guys, I just told the client that with what I have in front of me there were limited options. They like where I am going, though, so that's good to know :)
 
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