Sometimes the best way to make your drums sound better in the mix is to make them sound worse. I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out for a second. One thing I find myself doing a lot with drums is to take one moment of the song and strip down the drum sound completely. I try to make them sound less polished and more amateur. Then when the regular processing comes back in, it sounds that much fuller.
Graham, I love the snare sound, both the full blown one and the stripped down rimshot one, are you using any kind of drum replacement on this one? or did you just get a really fat snare sound? – how?
No replacement on the rimshot. I do have a sample at about 30% under the real snare when it comes back in. I like samples for consistency on the snare, but honestly most of that snare sound you hear is the compressed snare mic and the overheads. Get it right in the overheads and your life is a LOT easier!
Using Slate Digitals’ TRIGGER plugin for any samples, BTW. My review is here: http://therecordingrevolution.com/2012/04/11/slate-digital-trigger-plugin-review-video/
Yes, I get you, lately i’ve been using a mono OH right above the snare to gate with the snare, great results withh that, but at least by compressing the snare mic, I feel it gets lots of snap and obviously some ring to it, but that fatness is what I’m looking for, it’s like no matter how well tuned the snare is for that kind of tone, I seem to get a focused snappy snare but not that fat, gotta keep tryin.
Great Idea, I’ll have to try it on a mix I’m working on at the minute. I have used a reverb in the past to make the drums sound like they’re in the next room ( for lack of a better expression) but this could work a little better. I’ll give it a go. Great to see you still making the effort to put out videos even in the middle of a move. Much appreciated!!
Thanks
James – http://www.facebook.com/mkaiaudio
You are quite welcome!