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Working on a tune, and I'm trying to step my snare game up.

I've got a sample I'm using, sounds good to me, not sure how much processing has already been done on it.

Here the issue, unless I have it at an incredibly low volume, it clips like FUCK, and I can't figure out how to get it loud with it peaking so hot in the mix. I've tried about sa million compression settings and it still doesn't help.

Downloaded a transient shaper because I hear they're good for snares, I got flux bittersweet. Is there any sort of manual or guidelines to using this? No matter what settings I throw on it, it creates a god awful click at the beginning of the snare that gets me clipping at like +46db or something ridiculous, otherwise other settings I can't tell a difference in the snare.

So, main question here, how can I use this transient shaper? There isn't any sort of manual with it as to what the settings do, can someone explain or give an example of settings that would work well on a snare?

Thanks...

Mess up with velocity values.

Just a thought...why don't you just mix the rest of the tune around the snare then bring up the volume with a limiter. You aren't tracking any instruments so noise floor shouldn't be an issue.

Sounds like someone has already processed the fuck out of that sample, I'm no expert but I'm not sure more processing is going to make anything better.

I agree with above poster. Could also be an issue with frequency masking. Try EQuing out parts of other tracks too see if you can fit in some more snare?

I don't know if this is good practise but you could try mixing really quiet and then turning up your monitors. That way you will never run out of headroom. It's easy to just normalise a track after.

Sidechain it to dip an EQ on your synths.

Volume is volume, I don't see why this is a problem.

Not sure what DAW you're using, but if I had this in Ableton's drum rack and had to turn the volume down to like -30 dB for example in order to get it to peak at like -6 dB in the mixer, then why is that a problem? If it clips when it's at anything but an incredibly low volume, then just put it at an "incredibly low volume". It's just a number. As long as it's peaking at wherever you want it to peak at, then that's all that matters.

If you've got two snares, one programmed at -30 dB and the other at -12 dB, but both of them are peaking at -6 dB in the mixer, then they will both sound like they are at the same volume. It's not like one will be louder than the other just because it's input volume is higher.

yeah either turn everything else down so that it doesnt clip, but then if it is peaking alot higher than anything else, check if anything else is hitting at the same point that is causing a built up spike.

Also try maybe cutting the highest peak of the transient off, or fade it in with an envelope or summat.

turn everything down. I mix with my snare and kick hitting at -16, then my bass a little lower than that, then mix everything around that. Once done, put a limiter on the master and turn the gain up until it hits 0db.

dubunked wrote:Volume is volume, I don't see why this is a problem.

Not sure what DAW you're using, but if I had this in Ableton's drum rack and had to turn the volume down to like -30 dB for example in order to get it to peak at like -6 dB in the mixer, then why is that a problem? If it clips when it's at anything but an incredibly low volume, then just put it at an "incredibly low volume". It's just a number. As long as it's peaking at wherever you want it to peak at, then that's all that matters.

If you've got two snares, one programmed at -30 dB and the other at -12 dB, but both of them are peaking at -6 dB in the mixer, then they will both sound like they are at the same volume. It's not like one will be louder than the other just because it's input volume is higher.

This ^

Sinergy wrote: Downloaded a transient shaper because I hear they're good for snares, I got flux bittersweet. Is there any sort of manual or guidelines to using this? No matter what settings I throw on it, it creates a god awful click at the beginning of the snare that gets me clipping at like +46db or something ridiculous, otherwise other settings I can't tell a difference in the snare.

Yeah I was using bittersweet the other day and it was giving me a lot of popping sounds too, and then I have no idea what happened but the entire track jumped like 40 db in volume, scared the shit out of me. So yeah I'm not going to use that plugin again, to be honest I don't think it does anything that you couldn't do with compression and eq anyway.

or maybe it's just a bad sample?

Sidechain the other elements to the snare, and turn it down a few db's. If it doesn't have a short body, the sidechaining will be very obvious, so I'd make it pretty short if I were you. If you up the snare I could try processing it a bit for you if you want, but this sounds more like a mixdown problem than a sample prob

If you're clipping and it's not loud enough bro, you need another sample

compress it

DefeaterDub wrote:If you're clipping and it's not loud enough bro, you need another sample

I'm pretty sure by loudness he means presence. For presence you need to eq it and bring up the high end and then lower the volume so it's not too loud compared to everything else