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[Rich Orde]

I like to have a lot of snare drum in the mix, not enough to compete with the vocals but to me, the strong back beat drives the music. 

Anyways, the drummer for the band I mix uses an SM-57.  The sound quality is decent, but I find that the amount of snare I mix has a tendency to eat up a lot of head room in the system.  I can mix an electronic snare very loud without having this problem but the mic'ed up snare is different.

I have done plenty of adjusting on the channel EQ and HPF, but it gets to a point where it loses all its punch when you roll too many lows off it.

Are there any recommendations for a good mic that will help with this, or is it one of those "it is what it is" situations?

 

[Scott Holtzman]

I like to have a lot of snare drum in the mix, not enough to compete with the vocals but to me, the strong back beat drives the music. 

Anyways, the drummer for the band I mix uses an SM-57.  The sound quality is decent, but I find that the amount of snare I mix has a tendency to eat up a lot of head room in the system.  I can mix an electronic snare very loud without having this problem but the mic'ed up snare is different.

I have done plenty of adjusting on the channel EQ and HPF, but it gets to a point where it loses all its punch when you roll too many lows off it.

Are there any recommendations for a good mic that will help with this, or is it one of those "it is what it is" situations?

Try a compressor and boxing in the EQ (see this months LSI for a great article).

[Caleb Dueck]

Try a compressor and boxing in the EQ (see this months LSI for a great article).

Agreed, sounds like more of a compression issue than anything.

Try a good condenser mic as well.  The 57 has been around forever but it isn't the best option.

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[Robert Piascik]

And, of course, the drum needs to sound good in the first place

[Stephen Kirby]

Strangely enough my favorite snare mic is a GLS knockoff of a Beta 57.  Has a thickness to it without sounding tubby.  Doesn't have the sizzle of the Shure Betas either.  Kind of sits where the wood of a snare is.  If the snare is deep or tuned low you might have to high pass it aggressively but it will still have body.  Better pattern than a 57 as well for when you want to throw some reverb on the snare without picking up too much hi-hat.  Same thickness works well on guitar amps.  Not the best isolation for hand held use but fine on a drum riser.

[Douglas R. Allen]

A compressor will help and another thing I do is on my gate I'll increase the attack time to let some of that peak not quite make it through. At least on single notes... Should you have a M32/X32 mixer they have a effect called (wave designer) It can increase or decrease the first attack. You can "soften" the snare some with it.  A little goes a long way.

[Jay Barracato]

A compressor will help and another thing I do is on my gate I'll increase the attack time to let some of that peak not quite make it through. At least on single notes... Should you have a M32/X32 mixer they have a effect called (wave designer) It can increase or decrease the first attack. You can "soften" the snare some with it.  A little goes a long way.

I like to have a lot of snare drum in the mix, not enough to compete with the vocals but to me, the strong back beat drives the music. 

Anyways, the drummer for the band I mix uses an SM-57.  The sound quality is decent, but I find that the amount of snare I mix has a tendency to eat up a lot of head room in the system.  I can mix an electronic snare very loud without having this problem but the mic'ed up snare is different.

I have done plenty of adjusting on the channel EQ and HPF, but it gets to a point where it loses all its punch when you roll too many lows off it.

Are there any recommendations for a good mic that will help with this, or is it one of those "it is what it is" situations?

Some distance helps smooth out the loud strikes from the more subtle hits. My typical mic position is not over the head but about 3 inches out from the side of the drum and pointed at about 1/3 of the height from the top. I think this gives more of the sound of the whole drum, wood and snares included.

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[Matthias McCready]

I like to have a lot of snare drum in the mix, not enough to compete with the vocals but to me, the strong backbeat drives the music. 

Are there any recommendations for a good mic that will help with this, or is it one of those "it is what it is" situations?

I love snare drum, and I unashamedly almost always run it louder than the vocals. In the end, it is a quick transient hit, so although it is much louder it will not seem to be. For me, it is the center of a mix (genre, skilled drummer, and quality well-tuned snare drum dependant of course).

While many mics would work you should be able to find a workable solution with a 57. Make sure it is positioned correctly... sometimes I have drummers who move the mic, I always notice as the snare stops cutting through. Sometimes a mic needs to be properly positioned rather than EQ'ed.

For EQ I focus on finding the weight (should smack you in the chest) and the crack, I chop everything else.

For compression try a nice slow attack (this lets the initial transient through), the amount of compression can be dependant on what you are going for. Don't forget some makeup gain. I have been enjoying parallel compression a lot lately.

[Aisle 6]

A 57 on top is a solid fallback and I often use this, although I do love the Audio Technica ATm650 for rock as it has nice weight without too much proximity. One surprise for me was trying the Telefunken M81 on snare. Holy shit, it is incredible. I purchased it as it suited a vocalist I was touring with, but I tried it on snare on a different tour and it was incredible.

I also try to get a little air between the snare and the top mic to get a little more tone rather than too much thickness from proximity. Not much, but just enough. As always, placement is everything.

I get a bit lazy with snare under and usually tour with a Sennheiser E904 underneath as it clips on nicely. It also adds a little more natural thickness from the bottom as well. A lot of people forget how much of the lows can be combined from the snare under. It is not just snap.

[Simon_Barrett]

I have enjoyed reading this as I have always just used a 57, with others suggesting the beta 56a because of its right-angle-ness. I have just started engineering for a function band recently who use a 57 and whose console (presonus studiolive 16:4:2 (urgh) ) has a desperation for repair so are having to use a small analogue with no compression/gates and that’s limiting! But it’s fine.


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