Snare in overheads

  • Thread starter Thread starter sixer2007
  • Start date Start date
I just time align by hand/ear/eye. No plugins are needed. Once you've done it a couple of times you get fast.

Move the overhead track next to the track you want to align to it, zoom way in on the timeline and magnify the waveforms. Solo the tracks and find a distinct hit on the close mic. You should be able to see the offset. If there is a polarity mismatch that should be visible as well. If there are punches or edits you may want to group or consolidate the track so it all moves together. Then manually slide the close mic track to match the overhead. If at all possible do this while the two tracks are playing so you can hear the results immediately. Fine tune by ear, trying it with them hard panned apart and both panned center. Adjustments will be in the 2-5ms range.

Repeat with any other drum tracks bleeding into the overheads.

If you used a spaced pair of overheads then any drum not centered between them won't match up with both so you have to choose which overhead to line it up to. In your case match the snare to the overhead with the most snare bleed.

In general this tightens/fattens the tone. It may change it a lot or a little. You might like it or hate it, or not care either way. Base your decision on how it sounds, not on how it looks. Be prepared to undo your way back to where you were should the results not make you happy.
 
Thanks Boulder, that's about what I got from another post i read about it over on gearslutz. I only downloaded those tracks to mix so I have not much of a clue how they were recorded in the first place, but I assume it was a spaced pair. Also, I just realized that the OH track has both R/L on the same Stereo Track :confused:. I can see that the Snare is a bit earlier than the OHs, so I can still line them up. But, Issue.... On a stereo track, would the top or bottom string be the right side?
It's a good thing i just learned about the dual panner option! <---- Life saver.

Thanks again!
 
Normally the top waveform is left and the bottom is right.
 
Just chalk it up to experience and let it go.

There's always going to be a "problem" with a mix. At some point you have to get something else done.
 
Yeah, I thought Right=bottom/top=Left. I'll give it a try and see what happens.


Supercreep said:
Just chalk it up to experience and let it go.

There's always going to be a "problem" with a mix. At some point you have to get something else done.
Click to expand...

I know there will always be a problem, But i'm not working on any sort of deadline so I might as well do some tweaking and see what I can learn from it. This could be useful in the future too, who knows.
 
It takes me a couple of minutes to time align the drums in a song and a few seconds to undo it if needed. That doesn't really cut into my productivity. I've seen people spend way more time trying to eq something that can't be fixed with eq because it's a phase problem between tracks.

Those who haven't spent some time experimenting with time alignment don't really have any basis for an opinion on the subject.
 
Anyone mind if I ask a somewhat unrelated question to this?

How do you get that great tom sound in your tracks? That "I can hear each hit of the tom so perfectly" sound...? I figure it has a ton to do with the recording room... For my tracks, no matter if i record them or just mix em, the toms always sound a bit, idk, thin sounding I guess. I can add some low freq and get a bit of thump in there, But it never sounds like 95% of recordings i hear on here and in pro records.
I like to add a bit of verb to them, which helps a bunch, but still that thin sound.... Any thoughts?
 
Do your toms sound good on their own? Good sounding toms is a good place to start.......
 
Supercreep said:
Those who assume I am among that group would be sorely mistaken.
Click to expand...

I have no idea who has what experience. It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, but some comments characterizing time alignment as some sort of voodoo magic trick suggest to me a lack of experience in this technique.

The paragraph you omitted from the quote was offered as an alternative to your suggestion to move on, but you are right. At some point you have to accept things as un-fixable.
 
Brain science is common sense to a neurologist too. Just saying...

Any thoughts on the real question here?
 
sixer2007 said:
Brain science is common sense to a neurologist too. Just saying...

Any thoughts on the real question here?
Click to expand...

Dude, everything with recording drums is simple concepts coupled with difficult execution. There are no magic tricks, settings, or techniques. Every player, drum, and room is different. Focus on the fundamentals: room, performance, tuning, and mic placement, and the rest takes care of itself. If your toms sound bad when recorded, you gotta start at the source. Are they being played well? Struck properly? Do the toms sound good? Good heads? Good tuning? Are the close mics in a good spot to capture attack and body without drowning in bleed? Are the overheads set up properly with care and attention to detail? Does the room sound like boxy and reflective shit? If all of that is good, then you're like 95% there. In the mix you can adjust levels, EQ, compress, gate, and massage as needed to get the sound you want. It's gotta start out good though. You said your toms sound thin in the recording. You screwed up the basics somewhere.
 
The trick I would use in this case is to high pass EQ the overheads It sometimes works for me.
 
Asked but not answered (I think) if you know, how did the snare get hotter in the (right was it?) O/H?

How much hotter (peak) are the snare hits in the right vs the left?

Now zoom in on the O/H tracks, are the snare hits on the right leading the ones on the left?
If they are if I rember right, takes several db in level to compensate for Haas pan. That begins at 6" in or less in mic placement difference (half ms or so) to put that into play.
 
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