SNARESSNARESSNARES

[James HE]

Ok here is a problem I've been thinking about and maybe you guys will have some tips and tricks for me. The problem is rattling snares- I record a lot of stuff live and it's a major problem. I have a compressor/gate (dbx226XL) but when I crank the gate up enough to cut out (most of) the offending rattling snares, I lose all the ghost notes that the drummer is playing. I got to hear those! In my opinion those little subtle hits and bounces are just as important as the THWACK of a hard hit. Is this a losing battle? or is there some kind of mic placement or treatment to help out? I usually set up a 57 about three inches above the head angled down slightly to center and about 1 in. inside the plane of the rim. I'm thinking I'm going to have to move the mic further in and hope it dosen't get hit! (or should I go lower?) I plan to do some experiments but any thing will help out.

 

[DALtune]

Perhaps the problem is with the drum itself. One of the major causes of the rattle in snares is unequal tension in the snares. If the snares to the outside of the strainer are tighter then the inside, certain frequencies will cause those snares to rattle when the snare side head vibrates.

I would check the tension in the strainer (have the bass player sustain a note that causes the offending rattle and have the drummer feel which snares are vibrating). Adjust this on the snare assembly. If that does not work, decreasing the tension on snare side head could help (this changes the sound, though). Re-pulling the snares can help, or replacing the whole thing. I use a Rythm Tech Active Snare system.

Good luck.

 

[S8-N]

Try damping the snare head with some rolled up toilet paper attached to the edge with duct tape... Fix the problem at the snare... not in the mix.

 

[sonusman]

James, you could also try this.

Go to Radio Shack (yuk!) and buy one of their little $2 pieze speakers they use for door buzzers.

Wire a 1/4" TS connector to the Black and Red leads, black ground, red hot.

Plug this into the Key input, or the sidechain input on the gate.

Apply the pieze unit to the edge of the snare drum away from a place that the drummer might actually hit using some two sided tape.

Vola! You now have a trigger for the noise gate.

Now the threshold is dependent upon the input from the piezo to open the gate as opposed to the mic's level.

This works extremely well. I used this on all the snares and toms on the Heavy Brothers CD I recorded a couple years ago. You can't beat the hell out of every other drum and the snare gate will not open. But just tap the snare really quiet like, and BAM!!! the gate opens.

Ed

 

[James HE]

tHANKS sONUSMAN!!!

Not only did you just give me a great tip, but you completly made me understand what a SiDeChAiN insert is and does! Way cool!