Stuck with a tinny snare

[charlie morgan]

Im stuck with a tinny snare with abit of hi hats in the recording, Ive tried gating the hi hats of buts its just taking the snare out, + what ever I do to the snare it just sounds worse, has anybody got any tips to sort this out?
thank you

 

[Wapiti]

Are you talking about a live recording? Having some things bleed into other tracks isn't necessarily a bad thing, it can add lots of depth to the track, it could send a little weird if they are playing solo in different parts of the track but that all comes down to creative control on arrangement. As for fixing the recording itself, shit in = shit out. Don't try and take out the hh, re-record or make the bleed recording work to your favour

 

[bandcoach]

doing this in reason, charlie?

which version are you currently using (If greater than 6.5 then there is a simpler way to do what I want to suggest)?

 

[charlie morgan]

doing this in reason, charlie?
which version are you currently using (If greater than 6.5 then there is a simpler way to do what I want to suggest)?

Nope, in cubase 7.5

 

[bandcoach]

ok so send the snare to a new fx channel and load an eq and a compressor into it (sequential inserts)

use the eq to add some oomph around 200Hz (you''l need to tweak this value to taste) boost +3 - +6db (you'll need to tweak to taste as well)

now with the compressor threshold around -40dBFS, fast attack, moderate release, moderate knee, compression ratio 10:1, makeup gain the same as the eq

Use the fx channel fader to colour the snare sound

the above is parallel compression, sometimes called New York compression but should in fact be called New Zealand compression as the first guy known to do it (by Bob Katz) was a New Zealander

 

[DarkRed]

Im stuck with a tinny snare with abit of hi hats in the recording, Ive tried gating the hi hats of buts its just taking the snare out, + what ever I do to the snare it just sounds worse, has anybody got any tips to sort this out?
thank you

Dynamic sound sources like kick, snare, bass, vocals that need to be fat in the mix and that are located in the same space in the stereo field you can send to a parallel track and split. Various splits on the various elements you can then balance and then side chain. The sum of both can in turn go into a multi stage compression chain for each such element. But ensure they stay in phase. If what comes out on the other side is not big enough you can expand the frequencies around 200 Hz and compress the frequencies around 400 Hz. If you don't have enough "snap" you can roll off high/high mid frequencies a little above the "gun shot" area, sweep the frequencies to find the optimal cutoff point. If it is a little hard sounding at this point you can compress the 1 to 2 kHz area a little as well as ensure that the bass kick vocals are not too much "in the way". When you do all of this it is paramount that you are aware of what the pre/post fader settings are at each fx stage and set these according to your needs.

Tiny snares generally come from poor gain staging.

 

[jBam]

Good advice above...

Particularly agree with boosting low freqs of the snare. I'd suggest using a freq analyser to visually see the snare fundamental and then boost that; OR use you ears (peak a tight q eq band and sweep around the lows to find the resonant freq - the adjust to taste.

Also: don't forget u can use a side chain to seperate the snare out from the high hats... The snRe likely has more low freq than the hh... If so: duplicate track; boost the snare fundamental; cut all the highs; and send this track to trigger the side chain of a gate... This may work or may not... Depends on the recording; but the principal is in place and in theory works.

Finally: as mentioned; minimal bleed is desirable... Choose ur mic carefully and choose an appropriate directional pattern. If this experience continues to be a pain; then work on getting the recording right next time... Good luck