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[drumtracks]

I have heard songs where thin snares sound great and ones where more full bodied snares sound great on the same type of music.  

Wood and metal sound different so that throws another factor in as well.  I think the answer is probably in the ear and unfortunately we all have our own with our own current preferences.  

I have found the solution that works best for me is to ask myself what I hear in my minds eye before I start to record drums.  What is my first reaction to this song concerning drums or snares before I choose one? (thin and crisp, thick, more tonal, verby, dry...etc  Once that has been identified, pick up the snare which has the closest sound charteristics as you originally percieved fitting with this song.  

Tune it as close to that pitch as possible and lay down a couple of strokes...is it in the ballpark?

David

[John Ivan]

About tuning. I don't really tune to pitches right off the bat. I tune the drum to it's sweet spot. There seems to be a couple of places the drum likes to go before it starts to choke. If that pitch ends up being a bummer, there are only a couple choices. Sometimes a head swap will work out some new tones but sometimes I swap the drum. I don't always like it if the kit ISN'T creating tension in the mix. If I tune the kit so the toms ring like 1-3-5 ,It's harder to get them to jump out in the mix. The tones are short enough so that some pitches out of the scale can be cool. Snares are a different story. They are being hit on two and four a lot so in the scale can be cool. But I still don't want, say,, the 5 to be hitting me all the time either. I find that for jazz,the snare tuning is even more important because it's almost always wide open and implying a pitch or,a closely grouped set of pitches. It sure is a lot of fun to mess with. Getting drums is one of my favorite things to do.

[drumtracks]

When you record a snare do you usually throw a mic on the bottom head as well?  If so how close are you micing the bottom snare side?  

David

[John Ivan]

drumtracks wrote on Tue, 25 May 2004 02:34

When you record a snare do you usually throw a mic on the bottom head as well?  If so how close are you micing the bottom snare side?   David

I put one up but it doesn't always make the mix. I use a clip on AT-??? cheap condenser for this. It just ended up sounding good. When I'm doing R&R where the guy is hitting hard,I try to get the top mic off the drum a few more inches and this helps get more of the whole drum. Fletcher mentioned {I think} pointing a mic at the side of the drum. I too have had good luck with this. A LDC can work great in this app. I don't really worry about hat leaking in. Who cares?