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Originally Posted by Musiclab  First off listen to records, even old records have a certain amount of the transients shaved off the snare, so a certain amount of that is a "record" sound. They way to alleviate losing your snare is to use 2 buss compression in the mix, and start the mix with the compressor on and mix into the compressor  |
I'd have to disagree with this advice, in my opinion it's a lazy approach to mixing & what you end up doing is over compressing the final mix because you keep pushing things up to attempt getting it through the compressor. This now gives you a louder more squashed snare (& mix) with no life or transients left in it. By the time it gets to the mastering engineer it's too late, the life has already been sucked right out of it. I've seen this all too many times. It's best to get your mix sounding just right without buss compression or limiting & then let a reputable mastering engineer get the right balance & levels using the best processors designed for this job - transparency. Now if you want to use a certain buss compressor for artistic reasons such as it's colour or sound then this is different. But if you want to keep your snares don't use traditional buss compression!
I would say a large portion of getting the snare right is finding the right tone to begin with. Set your mics up so that you are getting the body of the snare drum sound not just hot levels with a whimpy thin sound. You want to be able to hear the snare sustain with enough attack on the front to give you cut on the front end & enough body on the back end so it sits in the mix when everything else is in there. Short plate reverbs with the right pre delay can help the body sustain a little more if it's used in moderation. The best way is to use a combination of close mics & room mics. Don't EQ it in the same range as the vocals or guitars & don't be afraid to leave some low mid meat in there.
As for the mastering side of things, limiters can do more harm then good when it comes to drum transients. To get it just right you need to use high quality processors & don't rely on only one to get the final level. Using a few stages incrementally to lift the overall level is key in getting a more transparent result.
One of the tools I use to get me part the way there in mastering is tape compression (the most transient friendly compressor around!) & one of the reasons why drums sound so good through tape. Tape compresses the transients in a musical way & brings up the body of the drum sounds without squashing the life out of them, something that digital processors have trouble emulating. There is very few compressors or tape emulation boxes that can do this anywhere near as well as the real thing.
Disclaimer... Now there are tape machines & then there are mastering quality tape machines, they all sound different as does the various tape formulas & widths. The machines need to be serviced, calibrated & aligned properly in order to sound their best. Sure it's a lot of money & effort but the sound is very rewarding...
This is one reason why you pay a good amount of money for quality mastering, it's not cheap to buy & maintain the best gear & how do you put a price on experience?
Matt