Favorite snare drum compressor?

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:57 pm

Anyone feel like sharing their faveorite compressor for the ever painful snare drum? I'm at a point in my mixing career that I'm tired of the built in compressor in Adobe Audition. And I'm also no longer satisfied by my mixes, i don't really know why but I just don't like how they sound, mainly in the drum department. edit: THe snare especially just doesn't have that Punch and thwack to it, it's just kind of there, regardless of how much I change the attack so yeah that's my position, depressed audio engineer!!

So I'm looking into purchasing a plugin to handle getting a real hard thwack from a snare - other than playing hard of course;)

So let me hear it from you guys what's your fave? Also some helpful settings taht you always rely on would be useful for me to get out of this rut too!
Thanks guys I appreciate all your input and help you've given me over the year I've been a member here
-Ashton

P.S. here is an example of a song with great "thwack" and i WANT IT!
http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=audio&file=02___21_sample.mp3

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 5:32 pm

I feel your pain! Honestly, my snare started sounding like I wanted it to once I ran it through an ART Pro VLA compressor on the way in, and using an AT2020 to mic the snare. I never could get happy with an SM57 (only option at the moment), so I put up the 2020 in desperation. Its worked out well.

I positioned it aiming at the shell, about 2 inches or so away from it. For now, its a mediocre pair of overheads, a Sennheiser MD421 or MXL 2001 on the kick, and the 2020 on snare. I run the kick and snare through the VLA up-front. I found I have to do very little EQ or anything once in the box. I'll be experimenting more soon, as we are about to start writing the next round of songs.

As for software compression, I use all freeware, so all I can recommend there would be Blockfish (Digital Fishphones or what-have-you). Its about the only software compressor I've used on drums. Hope this was in some way helpful! Andy

Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:50 am

waves C1 is my go to "in the box" compressor for the snare

Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 3:01 pm

Before you buy something, Multoc, make sure to try DigitalFishPhones' Blockfish compressor. It's part of a free 3-effect suite, and in good hands it can really breathe some guts into a snare or kick.

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:19 pm

I get that sound you like with a SM 57 or Sennheiser MD421 on snare drum. No stinking condensers except on the bottom. Sometimes I'll use an 1176 followed by a KEPEX I, sometimes, no compressor nor downward expander. Sometimes I'll just highly compress the overheads while adding the snare drum without dynamics processing.

It's called good engineering technique. Something you are slowly learning. You didn't expect to be George Massenburg yesterday did you?

Not Lesley Ann Jones but
Remy Ann David

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:20 pm

For studio applications I use an sm57 top and a AT2020 at bottom no compression it all and it sounds sweet. Live I use an sm57 and an I5 bottom with a little compression (ACP88) and sounds good.

Zoro
www.produccionestecate.com

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:32 pm

My favorite compressor on the snare is a bit unusual, but here goes:
I take my trusty old Leedy (I know, it's an old rust bucket, but it's paid for) snare drum, and have it fitted with a 1/2" NPT fitting on the little "air hole" on the side of the drum. Then I take my Grizzly 3.0HP/6.3 gallon oil-lubricated air compressor with self-regulating valve and pressure gauge, which is ALWAYS at hand in my control room (where else would I put a 110-dB generating power tool?), and connect it to the drum via a 30-ft. high-pressure air hose with another 1/2" NPT fitting. I run the hose from the CR out to the Leedy and give the drum a good blast right before we hit "Record". Voila!!! Every drummer is blown away (pun intended!) and says the stick return is awesome! That Grizzly ROCKS, baby!

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:41 pm

LOL- you should patent that idea!

As for plugs I use the puncher at times, and waves R.comp

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:51 pm

I have a serious question as a newbie to this whole digital recording thing.

I am no expert even with analog recording but there are things I know.

Why don't all the engineers I read about here and other forums use any compression on their drum tracks while recording them?

No gates....no EQ, nothing. They say it's all about mics and placement. I can understand that but under real world situations those things have too many variables and it's still no guarantee a good sound in the mix.

I was reading about Andy Johns and he uses the UA stuff like the 1176 as compressors and preamps, he uses the compressor as a pre amp and that's how he got that huge Bonham sound.

http://www.uaudio.com/webzine/2003/april/index8.html

It seems to me if you get a tighter cleaner sound going in the less problems you have once you have made the recording. I'm not talking about a lot of processing, just enough to eliminate some unpleasant problems. A little gate to eliminate unwanted bleed, a little compression to tighten it up and limit peaks so there is no overdriving of the pre and a little parametric EQ to help with problem frequencies. All this before it gets recorded.

It makes more sense to me getting a good sound first and fixing it much less later.

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:57 pm

simple answer:
Options.

You have more options later if you keep the tracks raw. You can't undo many processes, so the less you do, the more you can later.

Also nowadays you should have a lot of headroom, and low enough noise floor to be able to capture a snare with out having it peak out.

But its a level of comfort thing in the end, if you are comfy commiting to it, then go for it.

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:48 pm

bigdaddybluesman wrote:

I have a serious question as a newbie to this whole digital recording thing.....Why don't all the engineers I read about here and other forums use any compression on their drum tracks while recording them?....

I think this is partially a generational thing. You probably are not reading enough posts by people who (a) grew up recording to tape (b) own really good analog compressors/limiters (c) know how to use these things well. (Read Remy's posts for someone who fits this description.) [EDIT: Last night I through a stray DOESN'T in there that made the sentence men the OPPOSITE of what I meant. Sorry.] If you started with 24 bit digital, you could always get the full dynamics of a drum hit recorded without compression so you didn't need to learn the skills (or buy the equipment) that was necessary to survive with tape or 16 bit digital. You can do everything after the fact if you record the

So why bother learning those skills and buy the equipment if it's not a necessity? Well, as you say, most people don't. But I guess you can gain in speed if you are laying down a "ready for prime time" track right at the get go. And since time is money...

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:58 pm

The 'BEST' compressor I know of for snare drum is a drummer who can really tune the thing and who has impecible attack. No need for gates ( I own several).....dont need to limit overages going in (I can do that too)....It makes tracking much much easier.

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:04 pm

I'm kind of talking about taking off the rough edges.

Not really processing it to the point that you can't go back and you're stuck with it.

I AM A DINOSAUR!!!!!! I admit it..... Rolling Eyes

Call me a Bluesrockosaures

I've heard some semi professional recordings on the Internet and they had major short comings. Especially with the drums and vocals.

So I figure due to the lack of really high end equipment one could make up for it by getting the best possible clean sound. Wouldn't that make it easier to get a clean final mix?

I have read so much about mic and preamps, some say high end is bull some say the mic is most important some say the pre is more important. Some say cheap pres work fine......That I don't buy at all.

When I listen to my favorite recordings all done before 1980 I notice that considering the equipment they used it's a very warm clean recording. You would think with all this digital stuff even an amateur would be able to make recordings that blow them away....they don't.

So maybe that philosophy of fixing it after the raw recording might be flawed. It might be that everybody does it because everybody does it.

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:42 pm

You have to get the sound you want as much as you can at the source first, and process second. Way to many people these days do half ass to poor recording and then expect to process it into something that can never really be achieved.

The mic, mic pre, eq and compressor are meant to ENHANCE the source recording, not be the magic or used to try and make a magic recording. The real magic happens by the musician and his instrument way before it is recorded.

Oh, and most pro's will tell you that the absolute BEST compressor is your fingers on a fader. That's old school and how we used to do it before compressors were popular or even widely available. And some of us still do it this way.

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 12:28 am

AudioGaff wrote:

Oh, and most pro's will tell you that the absolute BEST compressor is your fingers on a fader.

Unless a compressor's impartations are part of the desired sound. My fingers don't react quickly (nor consistently) enough to drop a fader 6 dBs 30 ms after hearing a sound.

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