Punchy snare drum question.

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furiousfive
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2006/04/26 15:21:53 (permalink)

Punchy snare drum question.

I'm not sure how to phrase my question, so I may meander here. I'd like to figure out how to attain the heavily compressed snare drum sound that is common in many electronic genres. Sisters of Mercy ("Dominion"), Leftfield ("Africa Shox," "Dusted"), The Prodigy ("Poison") and Nine Inch Nails ("Sunspots" at the refrain) come to mind as examples.

Typically the 909's snare drum isn't spectacular by itself, but with processing it can sound huge, and seems like a combination of reverb, EQ, and compression--where the reverb uses predelay and is compressed. Is there a baseline for the settings one needs? Or a guide published somewhere, either online or in book form?

Any hints are greatly appreciated!
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    TheFingers
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    RE: Punchy snare drum question. 2006/04/28 01:30:38 (permalink)
    I don't listen to any of those bands, but it sounds like you're on the right track and just need to sit down and play with your own suggestions. The one thing I will recommend is the use of parallel compression, aka NY compression, LA drums. Place a compressor on a bus and siphon some signal from whatever track you want, using a send from the track, to that bus, mix to taste. I label my bus "pcomp" and use UAD-1 LA2A.

    1973 "A" neck.

    I'd rather be playing Bass:
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    furiousfive
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    RE: Punchy snare drum question. 2006/04/28 13:51:26 (permalink)
    Thanks for the response. I worked with parallel compression last night and had some good results--I'll have to experiment and practice a lot before I'm confident with the technique though.

    Again, appreciate the response.
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    ooblecaboodle
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    RE: Punchy snare drum question. 2006/05/06 12:17:43 (permalink)
    try layering drum samples too. For example, if you have a snare with a nice click, which has a crap 'body', try layering it with a thicker sounding snare.

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    TheFingers
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    RE: Punchy snare drum question. 2006/05/06 12:24:42 (permalink)
    try layering drum samples too. For example, if you have a snare with a nice click, which has a crap 'body', try layering it with a thicker sounding snare.

    That sounds like a fine idea!

    1973 "A" neck.

    I'd rather be playing Bass:
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