No wire sound on Snare

[WarDrums]

Im trying to get a good sound out my snare drum but its a fairly deep and when I place the mic pointed towards the rim like many people do, I get more of tom like sound because it doesnt pick up the snare wire. Its the Pearl Joey Jordinson signature snare btw. Any suggestions?

 

[gdavi1]

Try loosening up the snares on the throw off.

You can then:
Mic top and bottom of the snare.
or
Try backing the mic off a little and angle it down. Almost mic the shell.
or
Boost the 3-5khz region of your snare track to help bring out the wire sound.

I suggest fixing it with mic technique first. Then eq if you need it.

 

[stainlessbrown]

use a second mic on the bottom of the snare- and flip the phase from the top mic

 

[philbagg]

use a second mic on the bottom of the snare- and flip the phase from the top mic

Why flip the phase? Surely that's situation-dependent. If the two mics are already in phase, then flipping one out of phase isn't going to do it many favours.

 

[moresound]

If you can, on that bottom mic, make it a SDC and experiment. I like to face it straight up about 4 to 6 in. but like I said experiment.

 

[Greg_L]

It's your tuning, head choice, mic placement, or all three. Plenty of people do just fine with one snare mic. Throwing mics at it won't fix the problem of a poorly prepared drum.

If it's a deep snare, like 6 inches or more, put a wider snare set on it - like a 30-strand.

 

[RAMI]

Why flip the phase? Surely that's situation-dependent.

It's almost impossible that they'd be in phase. One mic is pointing up and the other is pointing down. That situation causes the polarity of the mics to be opposite from each other.


But like Greg said, you should be able to get a great snare sound with one mic. I've never heard the need to mic the bottom of my snare.

 

[grimtraveller]

Any suggestions?

Read this and then listen to the drummers.

 

[Todzilla]

It's almost impossible that they'd be in phase. One mic is pointing up and the other is pointing down. That situation causes the polarity of the mics to be opposite from each other.


But like Greg said, you should be able to get a great snare sound with one mic. I've never heard the need to mic the bottom of my snare.

Yep, when the top head gets hit, it bends inward. The bottom head sympathetically bends outward. They're not strictly speaking out of phase, but the signals they record will have mirror image wave forms.

Try it and see, when you flip the phase, the snare sound is deeper and richer. Same phase and it loses bottom end.

 

[Chibi Nappa]

It's your tuning, head choice, mic placement, or all three. Plenty of people do just fine with one snare mic.

All true.

To add to that:
Much of my wire sound comes from my overhead mics. If you hit your cymbals too hard in comparison to your drums, you won't be able to have the overhead mics as loud as they should be in the mix. If the natural mix in your overheads is correct (meaning, you're playing the drums correctly), you can put plenty of overhead sound in the mix and along with it, plenty of that snare wire.

 

[Farview]

Why flip the phase? Surely that's situation-dependent. If the two mics are already in phase, then flipping one out of phase isn't going to do it many favours.

If one mic is facing down at the top head and the other is facing up at the bottom head, they will be out of phase. Think about it, the top head (when you hit it) will be traveling away from the top mic, but travelling toward the bottom mic.