heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

hardware, software, tips and tricks
Forum rules
By using this "Production" sub-forum, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agreed with our terms of use for this site. Click HERE to read them. If you do not agree to our terms of use, you must exit this site immediately. We do not accept any responsibility for the content, submissions, information or links contained herein. Users posting content here, do so completely at their own risk.

Quick Link to Feedback Forum
User avatar
Recessive Trait
Posts: 768
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:11 pm

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by Recessive Trait » Wed Mar 31, 2010 6:47 pm

first of all, you need quality samples, not that meanbeat stuff. head over to loopmasters and sort yourself out with a quality sample pack.

once you have some good sounds, you can proceed with this tutorial:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electron ... orial.html

User avatar
alphacat
Posts: 6016
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:52 pm

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by alphacat » Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:16 pm

It's hard to get a big snare sound from drum machine hits (tho that shouldn't stop anyone from trying...)

All the aforementioned advice about layering, etc is a good start:

begin with a very ringy/metallic acoustic snare sample (one of the reasons the Amen break's snares are so delicious) and try timestretching it subtly, a little longer to let certain tones really ring out, or shorter to squish all of that energy into an even shorter burst;

begin adding small amounts of distortion, overdrive, filtering, bitcrushing to dirty it up without losing attack and tone;

layer over another one or two snares (or more, if you can get them to play nice in the mix w/ each other) or other percussive sounds like claps, rimshots, sidestick, cymbals, even kicks to give the snare more "ooomph." When selecting other sounds to layer with, think about what you're trying to get them to do - like if the original sample loses definition when processed, add something to give it more snap/attack on the front end like a short clap, or if the snare has a lot of tone but not much sizzle, add a timestretched 606 snare or something under it to give it that extra air.

:t:

User avatar
djake
Posts: 4314
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:03 am
Location: I found my way out of the mine

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by djake » Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:54 pm

paradigm x wrote:if you searched this forum for meanbeat youd find this

http://www.paradigmx.com/samples/meanbeat.rar
big up :D

User avatar
magma
Posts: 18810
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 9:27 am
Location: Parts Unknown

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by magma » Thu Apr 01, 2010 8:48 am

Addictive Drums has some ridiculous snares.... try the Squeezy kit!
Meus equus tuo altior est

"Let me eat when I'm hungry, let me drink when I'm dry.
Give me dollars when I'm hard up, religion when I die."
nowaysj wrote:I wholeheartedly believe that Michael Brown's mother and father killed him.

User avatar
juxta
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:28 pm

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by juxta » Thu Apr 01, 2010 1:59 pm

JFK wrote:
Echoi wrote:
JFK wrote:Have you tried the Meanbeat sample packs?
beat me to it, rumour has it thats what he uses most of the time, or addictive drums
I cant stop using the Meanbeat stuff....... I think I might have some kind of psychological addiciton to them.



:z:

User avatar
FSTZ
Posts: 7706
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:07 am
Location: Cookingham

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by FSTZ » Thu Apr 01, 2010 2:07 pm

Recessive Trait wrote:first of all, you need quality samples, not that meanbeat stuff. head over to loopmasters and sort yourself out with a quality sample pack.

once you have some good sounds, you can proceed with this tutorial:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electron ... orial.html
DJ RX wrote:1. First of all pick up a snare sample to your sampler that works as a "ground sound" for your snare.

2. Make sure the snare sample is beginning down right from the attack, some samples have some extra bits before the actual sample and you need the get rid of the extra bits in order to achieve tight sound. Adjust ADSR to make it sound right.

4. Tune it in the right pitch so it sound good in your track

5. Now take a second snare sample with a different timbre and qualities you want to sum up with the first sample. Once again check that the sample starts from the attack. Make the necessary adjustments with ADSR.

6. Next go to the pitch and carefully pitch the 2nd sample up and down few cents at a time and listen how they lock into each other. As these two samples play together they comb filter each other.

In some pitches the freqs are summed up, in others they are canceled. Think of this operation as sort of EQ:n the sound. While changing the 2nd snare pitch you´ll soon hit the sweet spots, which can be found in different pitches. What you want is the beefy bottom end and nice timbre in the upper freqs. Find and pick a sweet spot of your choice.

7. Next play both samples on their own and analyze what kind properties each sample bring to the summed sound. Carefully mix them together.

8. Depending on the samples, you can repeat these steps as many times as possible, I usually use 2 - 6 different samples summed together depending what kind of character I´m looking for the snare. Mix the samples together. Remember that you can use different ADSR settings to extract different attributes from each sample you use.

9. Next step is to find a high attack sample, It can be a gunshot sample, ch, ride or any other sample that has high attack in it.

10. Once again check that the sample starts from the attack, in order to make the snare sound tight.

11. Go to ADSR envelope and put Attack to 0, Decay to a very low value, Sustain to 0 or very low value and Release to a low value in order to avoid click and pops

12. Set the Decay value in such way that you´ll only segregate the attack from the sample. Only few ms are needed from the sample.

13. Add it to the summed snare sound, change the pitch and find a sweet spot. Mix the attack and the whole lot together.

14. Next go to the effects section, this is an optional part so exclude this one if you think you do not need to make the sound extra fat. Find LFO and put it in a high rate. Go to mod matrix and modulate subtle the pitch of a sample. Adjust the LFO rate and pitch amount to find the right spot. The modulation should not be heard but the sample should sound fatter. Repeat this in all snare layers but not with the attack layer.

If the sound doesn´t sound good anymore, remove some of the modulation from the layers or make modulation more subtle.

15. Off to the channel strip, EQ first. Cut the low freqs out and boost the 180-220 area. This is the are where the fundamental freq is. Multiply fundamential freq by two and remove dBs from that frequency.

Scan though the upper freqs by boosting an band +12dB and sweep trough the eq area. When you find freqs that are heavily boosted by the sweep take few dBs out of that freq. The 330Hz, 500Hz and 1000Hz are freqs you should especially be very careful with.

16. I presume in this tutorial that you know how to use compressors, as going into details would take too long. Compress the sound with VERY moderate settings. Use moderate attack and release rates, compress only few dBs. At this point we only want to make very subtle compression to tame the sound.

17. Use distortion plug or a saturation plug to subtle saturation, DO NOT over kill the sound.

18. Create another Bus channel, put a Chorus or Flanger into insert and mix it in. EQ and compress the channel if needed. Mix some Chorus or Flanger in. The effect should be ALMOST inaudible, the focus is to gain some debt and extra weight into the original sound.

19. Create another Bus channel, put an EQ, reverb and compressor into insert and mix it into the original channel same way as you did the Chorus / Flanger channel. Again the effect should be ALMOST inaudible, the focus is to gain some debt and extra weight into the original sound.

20. Create yet another bus channel and direct the original sample channel into it. Use heavy compression on the channel. At this point we are parallel compressing (also called NY compressing) the sound. Crank down the threshold and set the attack and release to exaggerate the attack.

21. Repeat the steps 18 and 19 with parallel channel using the same busses.

22. Create another Bus channel (SUM channel) and direct the original channel, parallel channel and the FX channels to that Bus SUM channel. Mix all tracks together.

23. EQ, compress and sature the summed sound suitable for your needs.

24. Bounce the outcome. You´re all done!

25. After doing few of these, sum them up the same manner

So there it is, there´s additional techniques that I didn´t want to include into this tutorial, feel free to bring them up in this thread.

man... that is a bit much

I have been layering snares for years and never once but that much work into it.

by the time I get done with all that mucking about I'll need a serious nap

deffo a creativity killer

User avatar
Recessive Trait
Posts: 768
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:11 pm

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by Recessive Trait » Thu Apr 01, 2010 2:11 pm

i agree. what i should have said was, if you still can't get a good snare sound once you have good quality samples, then proceed... never actually used that whole process, just bits and pieces.

User avatar
FSTZ
Posts: 7706
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:07 am
Location: Cookingham

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by FSTZ » Thu Apr 01, 2010 2:14 pm

my technique is this:

find a few snares that sound good together

send them to a group bus

sidechain them off the bass so they cut through the mix

yellowhighlighter
Posts: 600
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:05 am

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by yellowhighlighter » Thu Apr 01, 2010 4:42 pm

thanks for the tips guys and for the link to the meanbeat sample pack.

i'm thinking i might get either superior drummer or addictive drums atm. both look really dope. anybody got any experience with either?

User avatar
Recessive Trait
Posts: 768
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:11 pm

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by Recessive Trait » Fri Apr 02, 2010 2:33 am

yellowhighlighter wrote:thanks for the tips guys and for the link to the meanbeat sample pack.

i'm thinking i might get either superior drummer or addictive drums atm. both look really dope. anybody got any experience with either?
are they loopmasters? if so, you really can't go wrong. 100% satisfied with all my purchases from them, especially the packs with real drums.

darkdubz
Posts: 174
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:10 pm

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by darkdubz » Fri Apr 02, 2010 2:39 am

yea loopmasters pretty much just rock, some really good tips on this thread, and on the forum in general, think im gana like dis place

User avatar
Sharmaji
Posts: 5179
Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:03 pm
Location: Brooklyn NYC
Contact:

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by Sharmaji » Fri Apr 02, 2010 4:10 am

make everything else smaller.
twitter.com/sharmabeats
twitter.com/SubSwara
subswara.com
myspace.com/davesharma
Low Motion Records, Soul Motive, TKG, Daly City, Mercury UK

Dropkick_Kid
Posts: 167
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2009 1:09 am
Location: Transylvania

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by Dropkick_Kid » Fri Apr 02, 2010 4:41 am

Dunno if anyones mentioned this but, for heavier snares i came across some advice of having a slightly less heavy snare, clap just kicking in before the main one, like 1/4 of a note on the bar, instead of quantizing it to a grid kind of hard to explain and can't find where I saw it for link to full explanation sorry.
Bass is love.

deadly_habit
Posts: 22980
Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:41 am
Location: MURRICA

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by deadly_habit » Fri Apr 02, 2010 4:48 am

if you guys are so after all done for you snag superior drummer aka ez drummer and dfh (drumkits from hell expansion) tomas haake (drummer from meshuggah did a pack both analog and digital) for em. and since hes spent ages programming and playing live in one of the heaviest technical metal bands i think that should help.

any of you taking time to build muscles or learn how to play a drum line or tune to perfection?

User avatar
narcissus
Posts: 1654
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:28 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by narcissus » Fri Apr 02, 2010 5:39 am

@ op
good snares in 3 steps:

1. download and/or buy lots and LOTS of drum samples
2. listen to them all and grab ones you like
3. layer

i guarantee that w/ a little time, effort, and this method, you will get the snare sound you want. if you want heavy, use big, roomy drum sounds. but you might find the tunes you're writing don't want huge snares at all, but something a little snappier or crisper or what have you. just because heavy works for somebody else doesn't mean it'll work the best for you

yellowhighlighter
Posts: 600
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:05 am

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by yellowhighlighter » Fri Apr 02, 2010 6:58 am

i've been using reason and redrum all night and have gotten some pretty nice drum sounds by layering accoustic drums with synth sounds. thanks for all the tips in the thread guys.
narcissus wrote:@ op
good snares in 3 steps:

1. download and/or buy lots and LOTS of drum samples
2. listen to them all and grab ones you like
3. layer

i guarantee that w/ a little time, effort, and this method, you will get the snare sound you want. if you want heavy, use big, roomy drum sounds. but you might find the tunes you're writing don't want huge snares at all, but something a little snappier or crisper or what have you. just because heavy works for somebody else doesn't mean it'll work the best for you
i've actually been deleting a lot of my drum library lately. before i would just download ANYTHING and it has led to me having a harddrive full of substandard samples that i'm really never going to use. i have close to 150 gigs of samples (i'm sure that is tiny compared to some people's libraries) but in reality i don't need that much. i was rocking a couple of megabytes on the MPC and i thought it was fine.

i also agree with the heavier snares working for a particular song/pattern. i think the current value sounding snare works really well with the sort of patterns he makes. obviously the sound is only part of the effect, how it's arranged is also part of it. but i'm just interested in how he makes some of his sounds because after listening to a lot of his production lately i really love the quality of all of it, and it's not the sort of thing i'd normally like at all.

User avatar
Bullshit
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:01 am
Location: London

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by Bullshit » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:44 pm

1.) Layer up snares, modify ADSR so they all punch through at the same time.
2.) Stick Ohmicide on main output & bounce/export.
3.) Remove Ohmicide off master.
4.) Import the bounce & layer up with original snares.
5.) Compress samples together.
6.) Rinse & repeat.
7.) :twisted:

User avatar
danoldboy
Posts: 672
Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2008 8:59 am
Location: London

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by danoldboy » Wed Apr 07, 2010 3:24 pm

For any Reaper users looking to add beef to their snares try inserting the included thunderkick fx on your snare track and dial in the amount of oomph desired (sorry for vague technical's - at work)

lycophyton
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:34 pm

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by lycophyton » Wed Apr 07, 2010 3:56 pm

If you are going for the clangy-metallic type sound that Current Value is sometimes known for, you may enjoy this pack of ringy snares I put together for a friend...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/58002/Ringers.zip

If you want to use these to layer over an existing snare, to give it the ringy sound, what I do is pick out the ringy snare, set that sample's start later in the wave (so it only plays the trail) then layer that trail over your existing snare. Then what I do is shift the ringy layer forward in time, so it merges with the trail of the previous snare only, and leaves the initial "Snap" or "impulse" of the original snare in tact. This is a way of "layering in time" which can also be accomplished by using the sample delay plugin like the one built into logic (which simply delays a channel's audio by small increments of time (samples), or by doing it by hand (if you are accustomed to working with audio tracks). The reason for all of this is basically to take only the components of the layer that you want, in this case just the ringing trail. Use some saturation or reverb on these ringy snares to further emphasize the metallic "PING!".

Wow. That was a pretty long walk, hopefully it makes sense.

User avatar
skwiggo
Posts: 792
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2010 9:13 pm
Location: Fife, Scotland
Contact:

Re: heavy snares (current value, limewax, scorn...)

Post by skwiggo » Wed Apr 07, 2010 4:27 pm

Like Dr Zitbag said if you turn snap off your grid and layer a clap under your snare with the clap a bit forward so it sounds before the snare you can create some cool effects, I do that a lot.

Also overdrive effects brings out high frequencies if you want a snappy snare.

I've also layered low pitched woodblocks under snares before to give them oomph. And like Sharmaji said short decayed 909 snares are cool under stuff. :)

Locked

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests