The way to keep the snare popping involves running the mix through a large number of high quality analog outboard devices. Think about it. What do all great mastering houses use? They carefully hit each unit just right to soak the transformers and tubes just right, this enables them to use very little compression and limiting.
Unfortunatley, there is no cheap way to acheive this result other than sending your stuff to a good mastering place. Good luck
