Transient shaping tools like the Transient Shaper available in Neutron are dynamic processors that allow mixing engineers to shape the attack and sustain of snares to exact preferences. If you feel your Snare lacks a bit of weight there are ways aside from EQ that can solve this, just hit duplicate track and reach for your Pitch Shifter. Balance them together and set the outputs of both channels to a shared buss – in this case, Bus 1. By adjusting the Attack and Sustain knobs on Smack Attack, you can quickly modify individual drum tracks, or your entire drum buss. If you have any comments, questions or anything you would like to add, then please let us know via the comment box below. Below, Iâve included an audio clip that first contains an unprocessed snare drum, followed by a stereo slapback delay with a delay time of 34 ms, and then a second slapback delay with a delay time of almost 68 ms. Oops! To recreate this sound yourself, I recommend using a lush reverb like the SP2016 Reverb by Eventide, in combination with a gate like the FabFilter Pro-G. For a gated reverb like the one you heard in âThe Louvre,â try using a bright, crispy reverb preset. By applying âglueâ compression to your drum buss, youâre able to subtly provide your drums with a cohesive sense of space. Something went wrong while submitting the form. If youâre trying to achieve a live drum sound, it may be worth your time to experiment with slapback delay. The base layer of the sample was recorded through API op-amps. This article was originally published on Home Studio Review. Another drum replacement option is XLN Audioâs Addictive Trigger plugin. Whether you want to create larger-than-life drums with gated reverb, produce space with slapback delay, mould the dynamics of your drums with compressors and transient shapers, or replace drums altogether, you now have a solid set of drum processing techniques that you can refer to. Hip-hop drums can benefit substantially from slapback delay because this processing technique keeps the drums dry, forward in the mix, and aggressive. What happens if youâre trying to tame the punch and snap of a dynamic recording, such as the snare track produced by a jazz drummer? Slapback delay plays out as a barely noticeable echo, and can provide your drums with a clear sense of space. The gate attenuates the reverberant signal when its level falls below the gate’s threshold; most often, the gate completely mutes the recording. Snare drum processing . You can achieve a similar sustain level using a combination of downwards compression and upwards compression. So its paramount that we get it to sound as good as its potential. Attack times of between anything from 1-6ms can work, depending on whether you are trying to achieve more punch, or more sustain. Compression can add punch and sustain to the Snare and get it sounding consistent. This gate will also help clean up any reverb that you place on the snare. The attack knob on a transient shaper dictates how much punch transients have, as opposed to the attack knob on a compressor that tells the compressor how long to wait before applying compression. It is a context for learning fundamentals of computer programming within the context of the electronic arts. Thanks for subscribing! In many situations, youâll be sent stems from a client and asked to do your best with them. Compressors and transient shapers are both dynamics processing tools, but there are differences between transient shapers and compressors. Watch out, as adding too much will cause your tracks to clip. Use subtractive EQ to reduce/remove what you don't want to hear. Drums - Processing - Snare Drum Video Created by JOEL CAMERON - Transcribed by TOM BOWSER. You should place the reverb directly on your snare track, as opposed to an aux track, since it plays such a large role in the formation of the sound. Reprinted by permission. Processing is an electronic sketchbook for developing ideas. Check your inbox to get started. This short series of quick tips is designed to give you a good overview of the audio processing techniques involved in creating a professional sounding drum beat for use in house, electro and breaks in Cubase. Transient Designers really can add this back in. There are probably 101 different way to mix your Snare drum, so it can seem like a hard task. This drum processing technique involves applying reverb to a recording, like your snare track, cranking up the decay time and the Dry/Wet knob, and then applying a gate to the output signal. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. But there are a few things we can do to give your snare the sound it deserves. SSL bus compressors are known to deliver smaller amounts of compression with faster attack/release times, whereas slower attack/release times apply more gain reduction. To combat this just cut the front off the track and manually re-align them. On the flip side, a poorly tuned and recorded Snare will never sound great. If you aim for a gain reduction value of between 4-10 dB, however anything up to 15 dB gain reduction can work in certain situations, but this is to taste. I find that using a transient shaper like Smack Attack provides faster results in certain situations than a compressor. With a transient shaper, you can apply consistent transient processing to a signal, regardless of how dynamic it is. In Part 2 we will look at the snare drum/clap sound. It has a naturally bright and snappy character, and is modelled after the master buss compressor found in the SSL 4000 G console. It allows you to split the transient and tonal elements of a drum recording, process them separately, and then bring them back together again. REMINDER: Verify and monitor EQ changes while the track is in the mix. Start with a fat, ‘dooshy’ 70s kind of snare, then create another track and set up a higher, ‘clappier’ sample. I like how this sounds, but if youâre aiming for a more organic vibe, you may want to avoid using delay times that relate to note values. Reverb and Snare drums go hand in hand, in most genres. 12m 9s Background vocal processing techniques . Remember to work … Fine tuning. My recommendation is to use parallel compression when processing a single audio track like a lead vocal, and to use parallel transient shaping when processing transient grouped elements like drums.