snare tips

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tsl92802

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Quick question for engineers that are better than I am. I'm a drummer and one of my biggest concerns are recording snares. I usually try gating the snare to really get at it with the EQ and such, as many engineers do. However, is there any effective way of gating the snare when ghost notes are played on the snare...almost Chad Sexton, of 311, style. I'm aware that adjustnig the threshold will allow the gate to open at lower volumes...but I find with that, that the hi-hat leakage can pump from compression or picks up the EQ from the snare and makes it sound terrible. Hope I'm not being to confusing...any thoughts ideas are more than welcome.
 
You need to have a "Hold"/"Range" parameter on your gate to gain the type of control your looking for.
 
My opinion is that you should spend less energy on gating to use EQ and more on getting the proper sound to begin with via:

1. The right drum to begin with
2. The proper tuning
3. The proper heads
4. The proper room
5. The proper playing technique
6. The proper mic
7. The best mic position

The hihat can usually be effectively isolated through a combination of mic and mic position. I've also seen strategically placed pieces of cardboard that can work. I have always been of the opinion that drums are one cohesive instrument and as such, bleed is probably the best friend you could ever hope to have.

If you can't achieve the sound you are looking for if these are all satisfied (yes the room can be an issue) then something totally else wrong somewhere. As always, my opinion...

:)
 
But gateing is done a lot more then most people realize.
depending on the project.
there are many times that I like the sound of the overheads and room mics for the decay of the toms and snare but I want just hit of the toms and snare.
Not everyone has a perfect room with perfect acoustics and even if you did there is a place for gateing at times.
 
i love the acoustics of my room, and i'm not a big fan of gating really...the biggest problem is recording other drummers who don't know enough (no matter how many times i tell them) that they need new heads to record, or that they have a 100 dollar musicians freind steel piccalo, and they wonder why it doesnt sound like a 6.5 deep maple dw snare, or something to that affect. i'm a big believer that crap in = crap out...but when all you have to work with is crap, is when situations like this come up where u have to use hardware/software to try and "fix" it. i appriciate the replies so far, and if anyone else has any insight or opinions it would be great.
-nick
 
Gotcha and I feel your pain which is why I have become more "selective" in my recording experiences...

This is also why you see more people moving toward having a "studio" kit that is maintained and ready to go for those type of situations.
 
I gate all tom mics always. As a rule.
I gate the sanre whenever I can. You can really hear the overheads clean up when you get the toms gated right.
 
I usually gate everything but the overheads. But thats because I dont even compress the overhead track. If you are wanting perfection, and have the money, follow letterq's advice and go to a studio to lay down your drum tracks. As far as ghost notes, you just have to play with the gate threshold and mic placement. Good luck!
 
The only "money" this will cost you is new heads and some time...anyone with enough patience can do it!

:)
 
im am a rookie at recording,what is gateing and what does it do?
 
im am a rookie at recording,what is gateing and what does it do?
 
http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Articles/Expansion/

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tutorial/effects2/1.asp


There are tons of articles on this. In a simple manner - and in relation to what being discussed - gating is basically a method to keep or reject sounds with certain characteristics (e.g volume). So if you want to record a guitar but hear the guitarist breathing, you can use the noise gate to reject the quiet breathing but keep the guitar. Think of it as muting certain things in the recording but not others.
 
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