Classic Snare

Nakatira said:
So is it fair to assume that they used Condensors on the snares in those days to capture that crispy sound?
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saads said:
I don't think the sounds you hear on a record are due to just the mics. They do a lot of stuff to that snare after it's recorded. I doubt the snare sounded exactly like that when it was being recorded.
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I don't want to pick on you two guys but this seems to be a common home recording problem. The task at hand is to record a snare sound similar to 70's rock.

We have so much gear at our disposal that we over think everything before even considering the really obvious answer. Switch out mics? I dunno. Maybe it'll color it this way or that. Hit it with processing gobbledy-gook after the fact? I dunno. Maybe that will also color it somehow.

How 'bout just use a big heavy beefy low-tuned snare drum similar to the ones they recorded back then? If you want to record a drum that sounds like a 70's snare, record a 70's snare.
 
Chibi Nappa said:
I don't want to pick on you two guys but this seems to be a common home recording problem. The task at hand is to record a snare sound similar to 70's rock.

We have so much gear at our disposal that we over think everything before even considering the really obvious answer. Switch out mics? I dunno. Maybe it'll color it this way or that. Hit it with processing gobbledy-gook after the fact? I dunno. Maybe that will also color it somehow.

How 'bout just use a big heavy beefy low-tuned snare drum similar to the ones they recorded back then? If you want to record a drum that sounds like a 70's snare, record a 70's snare.
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True, but i'm not suggesting doing lots of processing. All i'm saying is the snare probably didn't sound exactly like that.
 
I use a Sennheiser e609 on my snare and I just down tune it and I get pretty much the exact same sound without needing to worry about a paper disc. That is a pretty awesome trick though and he has an awesome overall sound on that kit. Another peice to the puzzle is the size of your snare. I am using a 14x7 yamaha oak custom and naturally it is a lot more deep than say a 14x5.5 metal snare. I like the e609 for recording though becasue it's shape makes it easy to place over the drum and it catches a solid mid and high signal without sounding harsh.
 
I'm not sure if anyone has posted this yet, but some of Ringo's really awesome dampened drum sounds resulted from placing towels over the drum surfaces. Really thumpy, thick sounds. Great stuff.
 
Nakatira said:
I'm on a everlasting journey to make all the stuff I record sound as 70's as possible.

I'm listeing to the snare sound on some of the Beatles records (Abby Road) and Pink Floyd (Dark side of the moon), and they all got this crisp high end on the snare, that sound beautiful IMO.

I cant say I've heard it in many recordings in these later years.

Most people probbably use a Dynamic (sm57 or simular) today, I read somewhere that Roger taylor (Queen) Used condensors Neumann U87 to be exact) on his whole kit for Night at the Opera 75.

So is it fair to assume that they used Condensors on the snares in those days to capture that crispy sound?
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A lot of the crisp high end you don’t hear is due to tape saturation which only occurs on the analog level, which is especially noticeable on recordings from that time period. Saturation adds/exaggerates/fills the tone of the snare as it softly clips. The combination of the proper tuning of the snare, the mic used(sm57 came out in 65 bu5 footage of ringo recording shows an 87 a few inches away at a 45 angle) and placement in combination with the tape saturation is what gives you that crisp “chirp” around 4.9khz and that nice crisp top end especially around 7-8.5ish khz. The 87 also sounds like it picks up less in the 1-3khz range than a 57. Pink Floyd and ringo usually used tea towels to mute the ring unless appropriate for the song, and Floyd always has that low resonance in the snare around 80-90h and even more bottom end.

It should be noted that you can bring back saturation with plugins for various tape saturation sounds and mix into them.

Also, the reason the saturation sounds so good is, our ears function in a similar way to the tape in that it pleasantly distorts really loud instruments when they’re close by, thus increasing the proximity effect and “chirpy” crispness of the snare and the rest of the kit. Digital recordings without the saturation sound lame and limp to us because our ears already have built in saturation when the signal is too loud
 
Toms I've great success with AKG C-3000's. Cheaper than a 57 used and with the right preamp, phenomenal.20240303_114931.jpg
 
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