Screaming (Snares) In Stereo ...

M

Matthew Walsh

New member
Hey, gang, I got a quick question for you. First of all, everytime I get into a bind and come here for help, I walk away with some invaluable stuff ... thanks! Secondly, I have what I would consider an idiot question for you: snare processing. Should I send it to the same stereo reverb bus that I send the toms, hats and overhead to, OR should I process it with its own mono 'verb, to keep it "centered" and mono? I've mixed it both ways, and there doesn't seem to much of a difference, except that sending the snare to the stereo 'verb seems to open it up a little bit and give it more of a stereo sound. Is that what I want? Assume that I'm not going for a specific sound, other than the "correct" way to process a kit. What's the right way to do this?
 
The right thing to do is what sounds good to you! You could off-centre the snare slightly left/right in the mix to mimic more closely the snare's position in the kit, but really, go with what you like.

As far as reverbs, again it's a personal choice, but very generally, snare has it's own layered (ie, more than 1) reverb effect being applied.

Be creative, try and match snare 'verb settings from a commercial recording you like and see how they came up with it.

Good luck...
Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound
 
Well, I always position the snare down the center, which works for me. My question was more of a reverb thing: do people generally process them in stereo or mono reverb? The rest of the kit (except for kick, which I leave dry) is processed in a stereo bussed 'verb, which also works for me. Should I try and keep it with the rest of the kit, or should I process the snare in mono?
 
Yeah I use a reverb on the snare that is the same as the kit but only the drums have that reverb (chamber/room. I also use verb on the OHs which I lift in a chorus raising the verb on the snare, pushing it back in the mix.
cheers
john
 
Well, I record my kit from a drum machine, and I split 'em up into mono kick, mono snare, mono hats, stereo toms and stereo overhead (crash & ride), plus, I'll record a special mono track if I have tambourines, side stick, cowbells, etc. I've been adding a pinch of 9000 Hz (.5 percent) to the crash and hats, as well as rolling off some of the low end below 80 Hz (as per Ed Rei), which doesn't do too badly, and I've never had a problem with hats, rides or crash overriding the snare. In fact, whether I process the snare in mono or stereo 'verb, it stays picked out -- I just didn't know if it was "natural" or not to have a stereo 'verb on a snare (and not mono-to-stereo, mind you; it's a mono signal being sent to a stereo bus, which means it keeps its mono position but is playing in a stereo field).

I've been sending the entire kit, except for the kick, to the same stereo bus with some room 'verb, to keep it uniform and keep it sounding like it's playing from the same locale. When I processed the snare in a mono 'verb, it was the same style 'verb as the stereo one, same mix, same feedback. And it doesn't really stand out as being all that different, except that you notice the snare's 'verb is only coming straight from center ... and when the whole kit is playing, it didn't really seem to matter, only when you get one of those hair band snare breaks where the snare kicks in, then the rest of the song goes. I guess that explains this post in the first place -- I could go either way, but I wanted to figure out the "right" way.

Bear in mind, until you guys set me straight, I was outputting everything from the drum machine IN STEREO, which meant stereo snare tracks, stereo kick tracks, etc. Sounded worse than you could imagine! Chorus on the overheads, you say? I never thought of that, but the more I think about it ...
 
I also record my drum tracks from a drum machine/sampler. All of the tracks are recorded in mono (1 channel) except for toms and a few other occassional exceptions. I also use the same reverb for all of the drums to simulate that they are all in the same room (except for the kick drum, which I keep pretty dry). However, I do vary the amount of reverb to each drum track depending on how it fits into the mix. For example, crash cymbals will get the same reverb effect as the snare, but I'll add more reverb to get them to ring longer and be more transparent (a lot of compression when recording cymbals also helps to make them ring longer!) But I'll use less reverb on the snare so it doesn't get lost.
 
One of these days, I'm gonna pull a Sonusman and unleash a three-page long "Idiot's Guide To Home Recording". Seriously! I'm telling you, there are stupid basic facts that you'd think would be covered in any home recording text that are breezed right over and only get discovered through ulcer-inducing trial and error -- or a home recording BBS. We aren't all born recording engineers, and, at least in my case, I became one ONLY because I lack the ten or fifteen grand to record in a studio and have stuff professionally mastered. This "education on the fly" approach is great, if you have stock in Maalox.

Well, gang, I took your advice and went with the stereo 'verb. Sounds great!

To answer the last post, when I first started recording drum machines, I was adding more 'verb to the hats and overhead (actually, when I first started recording my drum machine, I was clueless enough to record the whole drum track on one stereo track) and felt that it was pushing the hats and overhead back in the mix (for my taste, anyhow). In my case, I EQ every track accordingly, leaving the 80 Hz low end on the kick, giving an eensy boost around 6000 Hz on the snare and a little hi-end to the hats and overhead. At one time, I wasn't happy unless I could hear the big "HISSSSSSSS" at the end of the hats or unless the crash socked right along with the kick, and I even tried compressing 'em. The further I got, however, I realized that most recording engineers are right and that those things have a way of coming out without anybody's help. Oh, yeah, and my drum machine's a Boss DR-660, which sounds great when you're letting a buddy listen to a MIDI composition you just did, but is frighteningly off when it comes to trying to find realistic drum sounds.
 
Wally, that's the same conclusion I ultimately reached. It just seemed that, by processing the snare with its own mono 'verb, I was getting a more concentrated punch (it's coming right down the middle and ONLY right down the middle), but the snare sounded a little disjointed, like it was pasted over the rest of the kit. By bussing it to where the rest of the kit is being processed, it made it a little more uniform, and you're right -- lots more depth and realism.
 
..."This "education on the fly" approach is great, if you have stock in Maalox."...

And stock in a CDR manufacturer! I can't even think of how many CDR's I burnt on my first project!
 
Holy God, that, too. Remember the good old days, when you could just dub off a rough mix onto an analog cassette, hate it, rewind and record your next demo over it? I must've blown through a few hundred CD-Rs so far on this project, and usually on one five-minute mix that I absolutely hated ...
 
I sometimes make the reverb send on the snare track pre fader, sort of makes the verb a little out of control, it will seemingly come from nowhere on some hits, it can really give the kit an intresting character.

-jhe
 
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