usually a “ring” isnt in one frequency…it’s a complex combination of frequencies. so you may need to eq out 2-3 different places. if you find a resonance, and eq it out, but still hear a ring, then repeat the process till all rings are gone. Then, give the snare a little boost in the mids to fatten it up, add a hint of distortion, send it to an aux with a plate verb…whatever it takes.

If you’ve never recorded outside your own home studio, you’ve likely found yourself wondering: How does the solo’d snare drum mic sound in a pro studio?

the mic picks up what you point it at. Your ears sit a good what.. 2-3 feet above the snare itself. When you hit a snare you hear a snare mic 3 feet below you and the rest of what you hear (a good portion) is how the room reflects the snare sound. When you have a mic an inch away from the snare itself..it’s picking up what your ears would hear an inch away from the same space. The snare sound you’re used to is compiled of the sounds from the top head, the bottom head, the walls, the ceilings…. and so on and so on

Tips for a fat, warm snare drum sound:

One thing that will help is a real consistent drummer. Grab some big sticks….. 2B Rock…. whatever. Tune the drum pretty loose with a little bit of muffling. If you’ve got a dynamic mic that is a little bottom heavy, try it out. I’ll use a ATM63HE, got the snap of a 57, with less honk and more balls. Light compression going in…. thats that….

And finally, some advice on reducing snare drum bleed on the kick mic …

The drummer is hitting the snare really hard and the kick really quiet. Tell him to stop. Moving the mic back will help because it puts the shell of the kick between the mic and the snare. You might also be using too much compression on the kick.

… and reducing other stuff bleed in the snare mic:

Is whoever that’s playing the snare hitting it properly? They should be attacking the shit outta the snare, make that hooker pop. On the flip side tell whoever it is to settle down on the cymbals, no need to mash them. It may be their thing and thats fine, just tell them to tone down their thing just a bit for the good of the recording. Playing properly will cure most of your micing problems.

I was certain the space would yield a better drum sound. Still, I thought it would be interesting to hear how big a difference the room actually makes. So I took lots of measurements, and recreated the drum and mic configuration when I got home.

First, though, here’s a rough mix from one of the drum tracks I recorded at the cottage:

I used a standard arrangement: Recordman overheads; kick, snare, and floor tom close-miked; and my T4 as a room mic, in omni mode about 15 feet from the kit, up high. My home studio doesn’t have anything near 14-foot ceilings, but it’s spacious enough that I could get all the microphones, including the T4, the same distance from the kit that I had them in the cottage.

Here’s the same piece recorded after I got home:

Again, this is the same drum kit, tuned the same way, recorded through the same microphones, played by the same drummer. Literally the only thing that changed is the room in which the drums sit.

The difference, predictably, is most obvious in the solo’d room mic. Here’s how the drums sounded through the room mic in the cottage:

And here’s how they sound through the same microphone, at the same distance, in my home studio:

The clearest differences are the snare drum, which sounds much bigger in the larger room, and kick drum, which sounds like a different drum altogether in each recording.

The end result? The drums sound a little more natural in the high-ceiling, all-wood room. So the space matters, obviously.

I have a fairly large home studio, and it’s well acoustically treated, so I wasn’t expecting a night-and-day comparison – and this isn’t. But while either of these mixes would make a serviceable drum track, depending on the mix, I prefer the stuff I recorded in Muskoka, as it’s a bit more open and natural-sounding.

Perhaps the real lesson here, though, is that every recording decision affects the final product. Just as small tweaks can improve a mix, big changes, like traveling 2 hours north of the city with your drum kit and recording gear, also add up!

Previously: Better drum mixes with a drum reference track, Parallel compression for fatter drum tones

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Amateur recordings often sound “amateur.” But what differentiates these hometracked opuses from professional recordings? It’s not just fidelity or sonic quality: Many competent engineers produce lo-fi or distorted mixes on purpose, when it suits the song. Rather, amateur recordings tend to share some key traits, telltale signs that the mixing and recording are the work of a novice.

You can learn to recognize and address these traits in your own recordings, and produce more polished, professional mixes:

• Too much bass: Nothing says amateur mix like a boomy, overpowering bottom-end. Novice engineers often monitor and mix through headphones or small speakers which under-represent low frequencies. It’s natural to compensate by boosting the bass instruments, but this in turn yields muddy, indistinct mixes. If you find your mixes sound boomy on other systems, try checking everything you do against a commercial reference CD to better gauge the appropriate bass levels.
• Poor drum levels: For great drum tracks, everything in the recording chain matters: The room, the drums, the microphones (and of course the drummer.) So before recording a band, professional engineers spend days or weeks tweaking each element in the chain for the best drum sound, and to ensure that no single drum overpowers or vanishes in the mix. In fact, drums are arguably the hardest instrument to record. A large kit can require 10 or more microphones, so it’s little wonder the drums in amateur recordings often come up short.
  
  But even if we don’t have a $50,000 mic collection to capture big studio sound, we amateurs can still at least get good levels. If you have difficulty getting your drums mixed right, try this: Listen to a modern recording that’s sonically similar to the track you’re mixing, and slowly lower the volume. Notice, as the level approaches 0, which elements of the mix are the last to disappear. In contemporary music, it’s usually the kick drum, snare drum, and lead vocal. Now, try to replicate this in your own mixes.
• Clashing instruments: This is an issue with arrangement as much as production. A song’s parts can lack distinction because the individual instruments don’t have their own space within the song’s arrangement. It’s a tell-tale sign of an amateur mix because many of us write as we record, progressively adding new layers to a song, rather than arranging ahead of time and recording only what’s needed. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, per se, but it clearly separates the amateurs from the pros: A professional producer refines the arrangement before setting foot in the studio.
  
  If you find your instrumentation lacks distinction, consider revising the arrangement to add some space. Let your tracks breathe.
• Uneven vocals: The biggest difference between superstar singers and us wannabes isn’t pitch or tone or vibrato. (Let’s face it: Some of the best selling artists are terrible singers, at least in the classical sense.) Rather, what separates good from great, most often, is dynamics. A great singer knows how to control the volume of her voice, and more importantly, when to change her volume. And this has as much to do with the singer’s skill in front of a microphone as it does with her voice. When we hear uneven vocals, we hear a bad bar band with the singer mumbling 2 feet back from the microphone, or half-swallowing the mic and screaming. In other words, an amateur.
  
  Recording vocals more evenly isn’t hard. First and foremost, the singer must practice! Before you hit record, ensure the singer knows every change in the song, and even when it’s best to inhale throughout the song for optimum breath control.
  
  And take note of this simple reminder:    near … far … near … far
• Overused reverb: When used to add ambience or depth, reverb is best applied sparingly. Beginners often miss this, opting for the “some is good, more is better” approach (which is understandable: Remember how lush and important your voice sounded the first time you heard it through a “Carnegie Hall” reverb preset?) But in modern commercial recordings, reverb, unless it’s used as an obvious effect, is usually inaudible, adding texture to the sound without actually being perceptible. Best advice: Raise the reverb level until it’s just present, then back off a notch. And resist the urge to soak your vocals in deep chamber and hall reverb effects.
• Cheap reverb: Even an untrained ear can hear the difference between a $3000 Lexicon unit and the free reverb built into your multitrack recorder. Cheap reverbs sound, basically, cheap. Especially on lead vocals. If you don’t have access to a decent plugin (though SIR, considered one of the best, is free,) consider avoiding reverb altogether. Or at least, per the point above, avoid obvious reverb.
• “Fake” drums: More specifically, obviously programmed drums attempting to pass as live drums. This isn’t an issue in electronic and dance music, where listeners expect to hear steady quantized beats from drum machines. But pop and rock music have dynamic rhythm requirements, and listeners are conditioned to expect a more natural, nuanced sound from the drum track.
  
  The ride cymbal and snare drum are the most obvious amateur giveaways. A snare drum’s tone depends on where, and how hard, the stick hits the head, and this goes double for the ride cymbal, especially near the bell. So when a drum track features 32 bars of 8th notes using the same ride cymbal sample at the same volume, listeners always sense something’s not right.
  
  If you don’t have access to a drummer and drum kit, you can still create believable programmed drum tracks with a little effort. This article from Sound On Sound has some great tips on humanizing for more realistic drum beats.
• Muddy, indistinct vocals: If a song has lyrics, listeners should be able to hear those lyrics. That might sound obvious, but it’s an important point lost on many novice recordists. Several things contribute to indistinct vocals:
  
  The proximity effect on a directional microphone. Most vocal mics boost the low frequencies of close-miked sound sources, so back off the mic a few inches for a clearer sound.
  
  Singing without a pop filter. Plosives produce a blast of air that sounds careless and lazy. If you don’t have a pop screen, you can easily make your own.
  
  Poor or inappropriate EQ. Novices often attempt to clean up a vocal track by boosting high frequencies, hoping to add definition. However, this usually has the opposite effect, increasing sibilance and giving the vocal a sharp, edgy sound without improving the clarity. It’s far more effective to clean a track with a low-frequency cut, and you can safely remove everything below 100Hz from vocals. In fact, your microphone might even feature a low-frequency roll off switch for this purpose.
  
  Your mix sells the vocal performance. So make sure the lyrics can be heard.
• Too much bad room sound: Unless you have a well-treated space, or record in a very large room, your room probably doesn’t flatter your recordings. (See The Portable Vocal Booth for details.) However, a bad room doesn’t automatically equal bad recordings. Many classic albums were recorded in less-than-perfect environments by engineers wise enough to limit the room’s presence on the recording.
  
  
  Strive to minimize the room sound in your recordings by close-miking whenever possible, and choosing microphones with polar patterns that reduce the capture of extra room noise.
• Timing problems: Professional musicians practice a song for weeks or months before recording it. But as noted above, many amateurs write while they record, essentially eliminating practice from the process. Additionally, whether through impatience or inexperience, beginners tend to approach recording with a “fix it in the mix” mentality, which naturally leads to sloppy takes. You don’t need to aim for perfection to sound like a pro. But you do need your “keeper” takes to be free of obvious timing errors. A single snare drum hit lagging by a 16th of a beat is enough to make your whole track sound amateur.
  
  Worded another way: Good bands are tight, so when you don’t sound tight people assume you’re not good. Spend some more time practicing your new song before hitting record, and you’ll capture better performances. And sound more professional as a result.

See Also: 5 Ways To Improve Your Recordings Today, Record Better Vocals

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Harmonic distortion, in particular, is of interest to recording engineers. Aural exciters, such as the industry-standard Aphex 204, use harmonic distortion to alter the sound of recorded tracks in (hopefully) pleasing ways.

Technically, these devices create harmonic distortion by generating new partials from an audio signal, and adding those partials back to the original sound. When applied to mid and high frequencies, this adds presence and brightness to a signal. And while an equalizer can sometimes achieve the same result, EQ’s can only boost frequencies that are present in the original signal. Exciters add completely new frequencies, and often, when an EQ boost results in a harsh sound, an exciter can be used instead for a more pleasing boost in presence.

Since the principles employed by harmonic exciters are based on simple physics, simulating the effect is relatively straightforward:

The trick to applying distortion is to apply it only to specific frequency bands. To do so the sound must first be split up in different frequency bands by using crossover filters. It hardly pays to apply distortion to the frequency band above 2.5 kHz if the sound is already quite bright. But when used with care it can freshen up a dull sound, e.g. aural exciters are based on adding subtle distortions to the very high ranges of the sound spectrum. Subtle distortion in the range between 500 Hz and 2.5 kHz can greatly enhance the presence of a sound in a mix and can be an important method to improve the overall sound.

To illustrate one appropach, I recorded a short guitar line and a few hits on a snare drum, and mixed the results with and without some subtle midrange distortion.

I used the free VST plugin Cyanide (available for both Mac and Windows) to add distortion. I like Cyanide because it has great presets and a simple UI. However, this effect should work with any distortion plugin, perhaps one bundled with your DAW. (Logic comes with a Clip Distortion, the perfect tool for this job.)

I use Sonar, though all DAWs and many hardware recorders support the required features. Here’s a screenshot of my session. I used a single audio track, fed to the master output bus, with an effects send to Cyanide.

Here’s the original guitar riff, with the effects send muted (i.e. no distortion added:)

Here’s the same track with a little distortion sub-mixed to the output bus, as shown in the screenshot:

The increase in brightness is subtle, though clear. And while I could have raised the level on the effect send to make the presence boost more pronounced, it’s very easy to overdo it with this technique.

Here’s a second example featuring a snare drum. As noted in the links above, harmonic distortion works differently on chordal and monophonic inputs. Snare drums are particularly well-suited as they’re only slightly musical, yet have energy across most of the audible spectrum. This gives the distortion plugin lots to “work with.”

First, the original snare drum track:

Now, here’s the same track with distortion added as above:

Much snappier!

Finally, some tips on using distortion to simulate an aural exciter and brighten your mixes:

• The effect works best on monophonic sources. Distortion acting on sources with rich harmonies usually produces subharmonics, below the fundamental pitches in the source material.
• Don’t overdo it. Too much distortion, and your tracks will sound … distorted! So use your ears, and when in doubt, err on the side of adding too little.
• Certain types of distortion work better with certain materials. For example, hard clipping works great with drums, but not so well on clean acoustic guitar tones.

And, of course, Experiment! Though you should be doing that anyway …

Keep in mind that, if the mic’s specifications are +/- 2dB, that means that there’s a possibility you will find two mics that are 4dB apart at some point in their frequency response. If that doesn’t worry you, or you can’t hear that big a difference, I’m afraid you’re in the wrong line of work…

A practical concern for anyone looking to make some money with their recording talent: How much do you charge for an ad jingle?

Go for $3000 min. for the creative fee and then you have to figure out what is required for players & union-non buy-out, non, etc…Sometimes, it’s a lot easier, especially for a local ad, to just say $5000 all-in. But, again, it depends.

More on the never-ending quest for the perfect snare drum sound.

pull the mic back away from the rim 2-3″ and point it so that it is looking at the “impact zone”. Orient your snare wires so that they are all in line with the way the mic is pointing. The angle of the mic will be about 10 degrees with respect to the head of the drum when it’s in this position. This position, while it doesn’t isolate as much hi-hat, ends up sounding more like a snare drum and less like a timbale.

And some insight on capturing a more open sound

Can’t repeat this enough, there are 4 critical aspects for music like this; vocal sound, snare tone and the bass/kick relationship. The 4th element is the snare to kick relationship, the “pump”. If these 4 are done well it “sells the ear” that the mix is pro sounding and the listener will move on to things like the lyrics or maybe head bobbing to the music.