Hard Hitting Snare

wudup....im trying to figure out how to make a snare hit harder....kinda like m phazes, khrysis, or young cee do. a good example is supastitions "put a nickel on the needle". that snare is just raw and hits hard. im thinking it has to do with effects. ..unfortunatley, im not too great with them...anyone know what im talking about who could point me in the right direction to research? thanks

EQ & Compression

Make a snare that sounds like..........er..........YOU.

Be creative people, its a good way to DEVELOP new ideas and practices.

was bumpin a black milk cd in my car the other day.. The volume was high
then this sic beat came on so i notched it up just that little bit more
The snare hit and i went deaf !!
I too was thinking about how he got em to hit so hard though i did think it was down to eq and compression

was

EQ and COMPRESSION??? come on u guys are wayy too general ... I have little idea on how other producers do it , but I can give u a few little tips on sharpening ur snare the way I do ....

FIRSTLY - sample selection!

sample selection is a skill , select a snare that already has a certain snappy sound to it, selecting a bland dry thin snare will yield pretty bland dry results

I usually select anything from 1 or 2 to 4 or 6 snare samples with an intent to layer them together , this is just to create a full sounding snare for a final result, I most probably wont layer them ALL together , layering is somewhat of an art aswell , I'll pick 2 or 3 maybe 4 samples that work well together to give me the snare sound that I want
now my next step isnt compression sometimes its not even EQ , its sound levels....

I'll leave my nicest snare at 100
then go through whats left in the layers and adjust their volumes to fill and shape
the desired sound, sometimes the layering can cause clipping , so once I get their levels generally sorted I'll adjust them in relation to the full snare

eg. if I take the full snare level and drop it from 100 to 80 then I'll adjust the remaining layers by the same difference

then u should have a good idea at this point as to what kind of EQing u need specific to each layer , for instance if have 3 snares I'll play on the strengths of each individual sample... if one was full in the lower frequencies I'll smooth off the majority of the high end frequencies , then if I have a snare which is full in the high end I'll COMPLETELY cut off the low end frequencies, then I'd run a bandpass on the remaining snare to leave sum of the middle chunk of the snare...

all the above steps are only what I usually take to "shape" the sound , but is pretty vital for me to create the resulting "snap" which I then create by doing a couple things

COMPRESSION:

u can use the MPC's compressor to compress all layers the same ... or u could compress each layer individually with different compressor settings, I generally run them all thru the same settings though

compressor specifics are more of a personal taste .... different ppl will tell u different things but I usually let the MPC compressor run at 4:1 or 3:1 with enough gain to bring the volume back up to a respectable level, be sure to loosen up the attack on the compressor so it lets the initial attack of the snare samples sneak thru before the compressor starts to act... this is where the entire snap of the snare is really defined..


the are other techniques and variations on this snare shaping method , I have more tips which I consider advanced ( in comparison to the above ) but **** I aint giving all this shit away ... on a side note I have a little advice... dont focus too much on creating a hard hitting snare... some ppl get so tied up and busy doing this that their entire creative energy is put on their drum sounds and compression politics when u should really be putting it into other areas , like learning to play an instrument , learning song arranging techniques , learning variations on drum programming patterns etc etc , hard hitting snares arent on my top 10 "Must Have" list on beatmaking..... anyway hope I could help, if u already knew this shit then I'll excuse myself

Just like Dirty J describes it. That's the best way to make dope ass hard hitting exclusive snares. I also layer my kicks. I'm using this technique since a few weeks, but my drums sound so much more alive, it really adds something to your production.

I also use different attackpoints on every snare sometimes. It can give a lil' stutter or swing to it, depents on how u use it.

parallel comp helps making the snare bigger.

"EQ and COMPRESSION??? come on u guys are wayy too general"

Thank-you! I don't even answer these questions anymore when I see these replies. To all of you that always think the answer is with additional hardware, if you can't get your drums to smack with a plain MPC2000 with no effects, 8 outs, or any of that other stuff, then this music schyt ain't for you. Watch a Kev Brown video, and notice all he does is sample and create. It's not hard when you know how. Keep practicing, and you will know also.

Dirty J, what you said makes a lot of sense. i have some reading to do. thanks man! and yeah i know not to focus on too much on 1 peice of a beat, but after a few years, i have researched and learned a lot of techniques..i can play guitar, bass, and a little piano...enough to get by. my drumming is where i want it to be...im to the point where i need to learn how to shape my sounds and make them punch harder, cleaner, or even dirtier... basically just mold my sound.....thanks everyone.....much appreciated..

no probs ... and YES u can also use this technique on ur kick drum , I find it best to har EQ bassdrums though cause u'll find the sound will distort pretty easily in the low end of any mix if u dont get it rght, one thing I dont do though is layer my hi hat... I cant see th benefits of doing that ... instead throw in a variation of 2 or 3 hats and run them in a basic progression through ur sequence, u can use ONE hi hat based sample for this and then just notch it up or down in the "tune" field to give sum movement to the sound itself thoughout the pattern, also another note


dont always try to make a hard snare or hard kickdrum , not every single beat needs it , go back to some of that old school shit and u'll hear alot of them using just the one drum sound... depends what ur looking for

Just find a snappy ass snare... run it thru a mixer wit a 3 band eq... and raise the level of the mid-band EQ (usually 2500hz, that is where your going to get all your snap) and maybe raise the hi band eq knob (12.5khz) a little as well..... this is all i do and it really helps.... **** compression...

Not only you need to layer your snares, you need to layer everything man. Usually I layer three snares representing the three EQ fields. The same goes for my kicks. But not also that, I actually layer my hihats too, usually just a couple. That way I'm 100% that my drumkit is original, snappy, hard hittting and if you layer underneath it some vinyl rumble, then also dirty as hell! Just layer, layer, layer and keep focus on the volumes of each layer. Nothing should play on the same volume or you will end up clipping everything.

ill email you a snare sample that hits. just pm me your email addy

The snare from BIG BEAT by Billy Squier is one of my favorites.

when kev brown lays his snares in <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iHOXXsu4ehc&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iHOXXsu4ehc&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> this video he lays his snares on one and three? how do you guys usually do it?