Snare Techniques

[silentscience@ho]

Hey
Just thought I'd start an all purpose snare thread. Post techniques, tricks, samples ...anything regarding techno snare production....

[CircusofMind]

What about sharing your techniques?

Personally, I am a big fan of layering sounds to get my snares crunchy and punchy. I usually put a HPF clap over a LPF bass tone. Perhaps a couple very slightly off-time high frequency crackle sounds so give grit. I will make a few versions of these layers (shifted in time slightly or relative volume).

I compress the snare individually to give it snap and impact. Then I EQ the lower frequencies out (to separate from bass).

Viola.

It usually has to be adjusted later when the rest of the track and its context are introduced.

[silentscience@ho]

I usually take an 808 snare + clap sample, and layer that with a small hi-endy type sound from reaktor....EQ each to taste.....I also double compress most of my snares for hugeness, but I am slowly getting bored with this technique......also sometimes I just use white noise and chop it to 1/8 notes, shrink the audio until it is just a quick blast of noise...then run the noise out to a sidechained reverb and EQ the reverb with HPF....

most snares I also EQ out around 4K cause I find it annoying.

Peace

[Reptil]

I enjoy using phasers on snares. (not synced to the tempo) Just a bit, to make it more alive.

[rasp]

This may sound weird but I'll often push my snares back 16 to 20 ms behind the beat. Its almost a flam with the kick but it leaves room for the snare to breath when you compress. Try it sometime.

[cosmos]

Originally Posted by DivineChemical

I like layering distorted acoustic snares with metallic found sounds. Really makes them have an impact in a mix.

+1

i love layering snares, add fine amount of distortion and usually cut anything below 150, sometimes short plate reverb with fairly high pre delay works wonders. Phaser/delay/flanger/auto panning , depends on the track ..

[msl]

Originally Posted by DivineChemical

I like layering distorted acoustic snares with metallic found sounds. Really makes them have an impact in a mix.

this is my fav trick too, any kind of industrial distorted sound mixed down low underneath the snare to give it body and tone. I also like Stillwell's Vibe eq on snares.

[backplay]

Layer, Tune, Massey Tapehead and the Api 2500 to make it snappy... Simple as that!

[Johnny Wrong]

Originally Posted by rasp

This may sound weird but I'll often push my snares back 16 to 20 ms behind the beat. Its almost a flam with the kick but it leaves room for the snare to breath when you compress. Try it sometime.

Not weird at all.

I like to do the opposite though, push them forward a little so that the attack slips through the compressor on the drum bus just before the kick hits, nice...........

[James Meeker]

Put a compressor with a sidechain on the kick triggered by the snare, that way when they hit together the kick is ducked a db or two so it doesn't sound congested. Ultimately, it allows you to get more mileage out of both the kick and snare, since they won't be fighting as much.

[pac0r]

I like to layer snares quite a bit... in fact all drums....

One thing that works well for me is a house snare with another layer on top highpassed at like 5k... then put a delay on it mix 100% and delay one side by 30 ms or so... this gives it more dimension (kind of like 2 hard panned guitars and one delayed by 20 ms or something... that effect.. xcept on the highpassed layer :P)

I just purchased the e2transienter... man what a nice plugin that is!!

Ive always loved snares that have heaps of midrange knock to them.. but could never make it sound the way i want to... the e2transienter makes this a breeze...

check it out... Eiosis, Your Talent Deserves This

Also if you make 4 to the floor music ie.. house or something... use the kick as a sidechain trigger and compress the snare... everytime the kick hits the snare gets ducked a little... this makes the snare follow the envelope of the kick giving it a more glued and coherent sound... kind of like a kit ya dig!

[huima]

Great topic.
I layer my snares with delayed handclaps quite often.

Haven't done electronic music that long so it's always good read about new techniques.

[tstu102]

mic the bottom

[rasp]

Originally Posted by Johnny Wrong

Not weird at all.

I like to do the opposite though, push them forward a little so that the attack slips through the compressor on the drum bus just before the kick hits, nice...........

I do something similar, sometimes I'll take a percussive sound and reverse it to use just before the attack as well to give it a bit ov snap. Its kind ov like holding a ruler at one end and lifting the other; you get that whoosh ov air just before the crack against the surface. The trick is making it subtle.

[Mantik]

- sending it over to trigger a gate behind a white noise.
- layering it with a reverse of it (the reverse is starting sooner or later to taste)
- different rythm layered sounds on every second snare for example
- putting shuffled or straight deadnotes around
- layering with other sounds, but comes with the rythm-design automaticly very often.
- reverbs: maybe gated or a kick-sidechained reverb, maybe 1-2 very short reverbs to give it a nice release.
- saturation, distortion
- lowcut as hell sometimes works wonders and offcourse a little peak around 5-10k