Anyone ever tried this?

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asi9

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Once we were messing around in the studio and tried sending the snare drum track to a guitar amp on the clean channel, and micing up that cab and then combining those two snare tracks together. Sounded pretty cool, added a lot more substance to the snare.

Anyone ever tried sometime like that, or have any other cool experimental things like or in a addition to what I just mentioned?
 
There is something similar to that that has been done for years. Run the snare out to a little speaker, put that little speaker on the snare, then mic the snare. That could be cool sometimes too.
 
I've done veriations of both tricks. I like to run the drum mix thru a set of PA speakers (Peavey SP-2s) at very high SPL and mic the speakers. Take the tracks and mix them into the tune to beef up the drums. This works good with guitar as well.
Also take any speaker ( something like an Auratone or the like) and place it face down on a snare and run only the snare track back thru it. Loosen the snare springs a bit and mic the bottom of the snare. If you use this trick, check the polarity of this trackto make sure it's in phase with the original snare track. Mix in a little of the re-recorded snare to give a little more "crack" to the original snare.
 
i know that there have been times people insisted on using a drum machine, instead of a readily available drummer at the studio i used to work at....

using the roland stuff or the alesis sr-16 is a lifesaver, but it still lacks that crack sometimes....

so sometimes we would run the snare track out to a yamaha ns-10 (very "middy") on top of a tom (or under..or next to..whatever sounded best) covered the tom or whatever we were using with some guitar strings for extra rattle...then we would surround the set-up with some wood gobos...this worked wonders for livening up the monotonous, quantized sound of the snare drum, while eliminating the need for any additional reverb ( since the gobos were very reflective).....we usually miked this with a variety of mikes to beef up the track...
 
I re-amp or record drum parts through a PA speaker just like trackrat mentioned, in fact I use a Peavey SP-3 cabinet. It's only when using drum machines but I assume it might work with real drums as well.

I also run the snare through a Sansamp PSA-1 amp simulator just to dirty it up.

Compressors can add character and size to a snare drum sound, just as long as the attack transient isn't destroyed. Just experiment with the attack and release times to get the desired effect.
 
Yes, yes, this is all good stuff. While experimenting with this idea on a recent mix, i had the snare track (thru an aux send) going to an old MXR distortion plus pedal. It was so cool i ended up creating a whole nother song around just this sound. One cool thing was at certain points I would send some of the overheads thru the pedal too....changed the sound alot, brought out more ring from the snare and made it even more apocalyptic than it already was. I also had some drum tracks that were a little too dry, rather than use fake reverb, I ran the tracks thru my stereo speakers out in the "big room" (approx 30x20 i guess), stuck a mic in omni a good ways away and presto! I was surprised how well it worked, but it really sounded nice. Had to eq a bunch of low end horribleness out of the room mic, but that was it.....
 
I like the speaker on the snare trick. Good thing for a bad sounding snare sometimes. I like putting keyboards through my guitar amp, especially string sounds.

Once, back when I was four tracking, I'd take a mono signal (usually the drums), split it, reverse the phase on one side, then pan the two left and right, sort of like doing a Mid/side techniqe but not. sometimes it worked wonders, sometimes it didn't. It would sound so wierd in mono!

-jhe
 
Diff,drum tricks

I've been trying to figure out some
different things to try for drums &
symbel sounds,this all sounds interesting will give it a try when
I'm fooling around with the 8 track.
Glad I ran across this theard. as a matter of fact I'm glad I found HR.Com. Its a great site,a fine bunch
of guys & ladys too.And it sure has
pulled me out of the ruts many times
now that I've become disabled,
Best to all Rusty Coggs.
 
Hey, someone mentioned running the drums or the guitar through a PA and micing that up. Has anyone ever tried that with a bass track? Our bass track was recorded direct through a tube preamp, but sounds really, really dead. Perhaps that would bring back some life to it?
 
Asi9,

Sure, why not? I think anytime you add a speaker, mic, and room to the equation you're gonna add some life. One thing you could try is the Sgt Pepper bass technique: they would record McCartney's bass as an overdub, with the amp all by itself out in the middle of Abbey Road. Figure 8 mic between 4 and 8 feet away, healthy amounts of compression. Sounds kinda nuts to me, but who's arguing with the results? So anyway, my point is if you've already got the bass performance on tape, you're now free to just worry about the sound, and tailor that to the tune....

good luck
scraggs
 
It's common practice to record bass parts direct with just the straight unadulterated signal. Usually with a transparent direct box or preamp. Then you have the choice of re-amping and experimenting with various tube EQ's, compressors, etc.
 
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Anyone ever tried having a subject that tells you what the thread is about?
 
the old bait and switch trick....how many times have I clicked on "See Britney Spears Naked" only to be fooled and......uh....nevermind.........
 
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