Weak sounding snare and weak sounding guitars

Posted on

Member Since: Dec 29, 2004



Hey all,

Just had some general questions about recording certain instruments. I'm VERY happy with the drum sound I'm getting using overheads and close miking. I'm compressing the entire kit as a whole, lightly, with a ratio of about 4:1, 5-10 dB of gain reduction, an attack of about 50ms and a release of about 300ms. i noticed this boosts the sound without squashing the drums.

One thing I have noticed, however, is that at times in the mix, the snare sounds weak. If I'm playing a fast 4/4 beat with lots of single snare hits over the hi-hats, it sounds really punchy, but as soon as I do rudiments, rolls, or do a flam (one stick hits the snare, and the other stick hits RIGHT after, for those who aren't drummers) it sounds thin and weak. Any ideas on how I can improve this?

Secondly, my guitars, especially distorted guitars, sound very thin. I'm miking the amp directly with a trusty Shure SM57, but the sound still sounds weak. I notice on professional recordings, it sounds so powerful, almost like five guitars playing EXACTLY the same thing, if you get my meaning. Is this effect achieved by having a REALLY strong punchy bass guitar track behind the guitars, or is it common to do mulitple rhythm guitar tracks and use EQ and panning to separate them?

Any ideas on how I could improve my sound would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot guys!

Cheers,

Justin

[ Back to Top ]


Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Jan 31, 2005 02:13 pm

it sounds as tho the drum issue is more a matter of technique on the instrument than the recording.

For guitars, I often (as in almost always) have guitars, rhythm and leads, doubletracked., or more than one track from multiple source, such as one track miked with an SM57 and one track on the same amp, but a condensor a few feet back from the amp...

crazy canuck
Member
Since: Nov 25, 2004


Jan 31, 2005 02:57 pm

For your guitar issue, try pointing the SM 57 directly at the center of the speaker cone (very close to the grill), then angle it slightly away from the center. The more you angle the mic away from center, the thicker she gets...you also sacrifice midrange/high detail but as dB already stated, this could be captured by a condensor at the same time...

Hold 'Em Czar
Member
Since: Dec 30, 2004


Jan 31, 2005 03:02 pm

i'd mess with the attack time of the drum track and see if that lets some more transients through.

Related Forum Topics:



If you would like to participate in the forum discussions, feel free to register for your free membership.