How I Mix a Snare

scottfreems

New member
Hello Folks -- This is just from a Facebook post I was doing. I'd love to hear how you all approach the same situation, so please do share your methods and or critiques. I'm always open to learning more!

Just like mixing everything else, you do not want to solo your snare (or turn it up way louder than the rest of your mix) when mixing, otherwise you'll end up with an amazing sounding snare that won't fit in the mix. I turn the gain on mine up a hair, but the key is to not overwhelm the rest of the mix.

Often (most) times, you will get at least two snare tracks: 1) snare up (snr up) and 2) snare down (snr dwn). However, I've gotten as many as 5, maybe 6, tracks intended for snare (snr up, snr dwn, snr trgr, snr smple, snr sub, etc). Provided I have more than one snare track, I run them to a dedicated stereo snare bus -- regardless of whether they were mono or not.

If everything was recorded well, you can often get a fantastic starting point just by blending the snr up and snr dwn tracks to taste (remember, just because they provide you with a snr smpl track, doesn't mean you have to use it if it doesn't add anything to the mix). If you can't get to a decent starting point with just those two tracks, bring them down a bit and try to start blending in the other snare tracks to see if you can improve your situation (if you have them).

If you only have one less-than-optimal snare drum track, or if you just can't get to where you want to be by blending the all of the snare tracks, it may be time to call in reinforcement. By this, I mean Superior Drummer 3 (SD3) or a similar program. The goal of this is to not replace the the original snare, but to reinforce the original snare by blending it in with the original signal -- whether you need more body, attack, or whatever, you can find it with SD3. The program has a ton of snares to choose from -- just make sure to strip off any post snare effects SD3 may have put on whatever kit you choose for your snare sound so it will sound cohesive with your kit when you process your drum bus.

Onto processing. The first thing I do is add a visual, parametric, multi-band EQ. This is the only entirely snare-specific EQ I use. I like the SSL Native X-EQ 2. Many people start with subtractive EQ, but I like to boost the sweet frequencies of the snare until I get the snare sound I like. This means a bit of a boost from 120-240 Hz and boosts at 900 Hz, 5 kHZ, and 10 kHZ. I alter the levels of each boost until I get a great snare sound. I also use this EQ as my high and low pass filters.

After this, I add compression. I've personally found the dbx-160 to be quite effective; however, I've used a CLA-2A, Fairchild 660, and some other compressors with equally good results. I'm a proponent of light compression except in the most dire of circumstances. I like a compression that will hit about -3 or a little less on most snare hits and will go absolutely no higher than -7 on the hardest of hits (if your track allows). If your track does not allow, sometimes I will double up two very light compressors in a row to get where I need to be.

When I'm finished with compression, I use two old school EQ plugins which I use to try to tailor the snare to the mix (bring out the good parts of the snare which do not conflict; attenuate any conflicting frequencies). First I use the Pultec EQH-2 followed by the Pultec MEQ-5. Remember, depending on at what point in the mixing process you EQ your snare, you may have to go back and tweak the settings a little bit if additional conflicting frequencies or openings arise. THEN, I may or may not use a simple three band shelving if I feel it needs a bit more bite

Sometimes... if I still do not have the sound I am looking for, I will use a saturator/harmonic distortion plugin. There are good ones and bad ones. I won't name any names, but I will say that the SSL Native Saturator is superb.

Now, some people will add an early reflection reverb to their snare, but that's a whole different topic which I may address later when I talk about drum bus processing -- it's really song- and mixing- style specific.

PS: Way, way back when, I used to just use a visual, parametric, multi-band EQ, a compressor, then run it through something like Vitamin on one of their snare presets (tweaked a little bit). I found out early on that I can get a much better sound through this more rigorous method. There's no shortcuts to a great mix.
 
Impressive, but not really for me. I belong to a minimalist school, and do as little to the snare as I can get away with, for example, I only ever use one mike.

Because I use Reaper, I use ReaEQ and ReaComp for any remedial work that's needed.

When people play whatever I've recorded, I would want them to say, "that's a great song", rather than "that's a great snare sound".
 
Impressive, but not really for me. I belong to a minimalist school, and do as little to the snare as I can get away with, for example, I only ever use one mike.

Because I use Reaper, I use ReaEQ and ReaComp for any remedial work that's needed.

When people play whatever I've recorded, I would want them to say, "that's a great song", rather than "that's a great snare sound".

Understood, but I have a process for everything. I was just singling out the snare as an example. I'm not going to just make someone have a great snare sound and say "done, here you go!" to a client -- it's going to be the whole deal.
 
Impressive, but not really for me. I belong to a minimalist school, and do as little to the snare as I can get away with, for example, I only ever use one mike.

.....

When people play whatever I've recorded, I would want them to say, "that's a great song", rather than "that's a great snare sound".

Same here. I try to go with as little as possible...and I don't often look to feature the snare in any way...it needs to just sit there the right way...and that is a song-specific thing.

The OP's method is involved and it may be just the ticket for a given song...but it's only one way, and again, it's probably song/style-specific, so it probably won't work on everything.
I believe that the type of tracking that does tend to work well for most applications...is when it is more minimalist...but I know that seems to be the opposite what a lot of folks do these days with their tracks. :D
 
Same here. I try to go with as little as possible...and I don't often look to feature the snare in any way...

Again, not looking to feature the snare -- just using it as an example. All I was trying to do was help some less experienced mixers.
 
Again, not looking to feature the snare -- just using it as an example. All I was trying to do was help some less experienced mixers.

I wasn't being critical of your method...rather mentioning my own approach.
I'm sure some newbs will be quite grateful that you detailed it so well...they all kinda want basic step 1, 2, 3 instructions...and you provided that quite clearly. :thumbs up:
 
I wasn't being critical of your method...rather mentioning my own approach.
I'm sure some newbs will be quite grateful that you detailed it so well...they all kinda want basic step 1, 2, 3 instructions...and you provided that quite clearly. :thumbs up:

No worries mate! I appreciate the thumbs up. I was just a little concerned that people might get the wrong idea in that I focus on the snare when I mix.

In reality, I give every track that treatment -- no matter how much of a major or minor roll it may play. All that I do for a living is mixing and mastering, so I have to hit it out of the park every time to maintain my reputation and clientele.

I know it's a little late, but I wish a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2020 to you and yours!
 
Well, step one for me is always deciding the best snare sound for the song, hopefully before recording! Genre and tempo are the big deciders but snare tones can vary wildly depending on how it's mic'd, tuned, etc

Mixing is all about refining that sound to fit the tempo, tune, space , etc. Usually just basic eq, compression, volume rides and sends to verbs, not necessarily in that order. But i agree with the KISS rule so to me it's get as close as i can tracking so i have less to do mixing. Of course, things don't always work out that way:D
 
In a way, a description of what one may do in any element of the mix doesn't really mean much unless one hears the result in the context of a song. I appreciate everyone's descriptions of what they do, from an interest point of view and sometimes, it can tweak one's own train of thought and get one thinking "maybe I'll try that and see what it sounds like." But the bottom line is always going to be what the individual mixer mixing the tune wants it to sound like, especially in our kind of situation.
One of the snares I use comes from the drumkit I had back in the early 90s, a Mirage kit. At one point around 2004, I gave it to my nephew but he didn't use it and a few years later I got it back, all crusty and rusty. The damper was broken so it's stuck on a permanent sound. The only way you can get the wires to rattle is to turn the snare upside down and play it with the wires up. The other snare is a small one that came with my Flat~lites kit, equally awkward but tweakable.
But I love the sound either way. They're both very different and when mixing, I do all kinds of things to effect the snare, if I'm going to at all, but I never do the same thing twice because I don't keep any note of what I'm doing. I just EQ and tweak until I like the sound for that particular song. I'm definitely minimalist, but tweakbly so.
 
I genuinely understand and appreciate everyone's KISS and minimalistic approach.

The thing for me is that I *just* mix and master. I have no say in how things are recorded, what mics are used, etc.

And, being realistic, I'm not getting stuff that was produced and recorded by Andy Wallace or anyone like that, so sometimes the quality of the tracks suffer.

This is kind of my method to squeeze the best snare sound out of a mediocre (or sometimes worse) recording.

But to be honest, I have gotten snare (and other audio) tracks recorded so well that I didn't even want to touch them, so I am definitely appreciative of a minimalistic approach when possible.
 
The thing for me is that I *just* mix and master.

Oh...then yeah, that's a different animal, and you're limited by the tracks you get.

Also...I don't think it's bad to feature a snare in some mixes. There are quite a few songs out there where the snare just has that beautify "pop", and if it was pulled back, the song would lose its drive.
That said, I think there are also a lot of songs where they tried to bring the snare, the vocal and other mix elements, all "in your face"...and it don't work, IMO...it just becomes irritating to listen to, because with each beat/word, you feel like the music is slapping you....of course, I'm sure some folks like that too. :)

And yeah...a hope everyone has a great 2020! I feel like it's going to be a good year.
 
EQ the kick
EQ the snare
Send both to a fuzz channel and mix a little of that in.
Transient controller on the main drum bus.

The last two steps seem like a cop-out, but every mix I've done that on has sounded better more easily and gotten better feedback.
 
EQ the kick
EQ the snare
Send both to a fuzz channel and mix a little of that in.
Transient controller on the main drum bus.

The last two steps seem like a cop-out, but every mix I've done that on has sounded better more easily and gotten better feedback.

Do you automate the fuzz channel in and out when the snare needs to sink in the mix? I often do a bus with an eq'd and smashed Aphex Aural exciter but i have to ride the return otherwise it can kind of takeover the mix.
 
The thing with "recipes and presets" is you don't know what has been done before or what's going to be done after.

G
 
Do you automate the fuzz channel in and out when the snare needs to sink in the mix? I often do a bus with an eq'd and smashed Aphex Aural exciter but i have to ride the return otherwise it can kind of takeover the mix.

I could picture myself doing that, but I don't think I ever have.
 
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