Recording - January 2016 - 18

white noise loop for the entire length of the song. Finally, set the gate to its fastest
attack and adjust the hold and release times so that they sustain as long as you'd
like. Lower the threshold until you get a signal consistent with the snare hits, with no
chattering or other artifacts.
Raising or lowering the level of the white noise track in relation to the original
snare will now make it sound like you've miked the snares underneath, at lower volumes, while cranking it up brings more of that '80s-style aggression. You can also
experiment with 'spiking' certain frequencies for different timbres, too. This can be
applied to kick drums as well, using a simple sine wave instead.
Re-amping the snare drum is another decidedly old-school fix. It involves using the
original bad-sounding snare track to actually "hit" a newer, better-sounding snare by
sending its impulse to a speaker suspended over the top of it (as shown in Figure 2 on
the previous page). The new snare is recorded to a fresh track. There are more elaborate setups, but I find running the bad track through a small, fairly clean-sounding amp
and just balancing it face down the rim works great. Miking the drum from the side
and/or bottom produces good results, and you can even add a room mic for more
sonic consistency. If looking for more of the ring or body to add in, you can disengage
the snares and record the drum that way.

More aggressive tones are easily reached through the use of guitar amps. You
can either feed them the snare's signal and then mic the amp, or apply plug-in simulations of them to a copy of the track. Experimenting with cabinets, distortions, and
even effects pedals can lead to a treasure trove of creative results.
Sometimes, a snare that sounds fine earlier in a song might be getting lost in the
choruses, and raising its level is introducing too much mud into the mix. An excellent
fix for this is the Motown Exciting Compressor technique. Make a duplicate snare
track and add a lot of high-end EQ to it, such as a +6 dB shelf boost that starts at
3.5 kHz. Now add a limiter to the track with a ratio of 10:1 and really crush that
track's dynamic range. You can now bring that bright and limited copy up underneath the old snare when it sounds like it needs help, adding excitement so it can
better cut through and hold focus throughout the song. This method was originally
developed for vocals, but it works great in this application and for a host of others.
Kicking around the replacements
The job of anchoring the drum sound (and often, the entire arrangement) falls
squarely on the shoulders of the kick (or bass) drum. It's our musical True North-we
are at once guided and propelled though the tune by its primary, even primitive,
pulse. We build the track atop its very footings and foundation. Its deep, authoritative
low frequencies can be molded into pillowy sub-fodder (at 70-80 Hz) or aggressive
'punch' at 240-500 Hz. Start by cutting or boosting these frequencies to taste.
In order to keep the kick drum from wandering in and out of the mix, copious
amounts of compression can applied to it. Start by setting the compressor to a ratio
of 6:1. The threshold will be about right if you're averaging about 3 to 5 dB of
attenuation. Fast attack and release times are most often recommended, but careful
18

RECORDING January 2016

attention should be paid when setting
the attack, as this can drastically affect
the drum's character. For example, slowing the compressor's attack will allow
more of the click, thwack, and other
transient information through before it
clamps down on the volume, resulting in
a punchier sound overall. Conversely,
faster attacks can subdue harshness and
smooth out erratic velocities.
Nowadays, it's become a bit easier to
salvage the sound of a poorly captured
kick drum than in the past. In those
cases where it's particularly troublesome,
I don't even mess around. I go straight
for a sample replacement plugin like
Slate Digital's Trigger, Pro Tools' Beat
Detective/Sound Replacer combination
or my personal favorite, WaveMachine
Labs Drumagog (shown in Figure 3).
The concept is a simple one: Use the
original, less desirable-sounding drum to
trigger a better one. Many of these programs use velocity and randomization to
select from multisampled versions of a
drum, so that each drum hit is slightly
varied and unique, like the original. The
result is a very natural and believable
sound. You can use these new hits
instead of the original, or blend both signals in the mix. There are several reasons for electing the latter. For instance,
bleed from other parts of the kit can be
a part of the drums' overall 'sound',
even if it's just a touch of it you need.
On a recent session, I found that a kick
drum that was otherwise well-recorded
using a vintage Neumann U47 lacked
the extended lows the arrangement called
for. Although it would rarely be found in
an Americana tune, I selected a Roland
808 drum machine-styled bass drum and
'tuned' it to the song's root pitch. By subtly adding that sound underneath the mix,
the track took on a deeper and more
authoritative heft overall.
Whose tom?
Toms are also excellent candidates for
replacement, both in terms of subduing
unwanted bleed and in getting a much
more controlled tone with a longer, cleaner decay. A poorly tuned kit can be dramatically improved by selecting appropriate replacements and then tuning them to
the song's key. If your song is in A, for
example, and you have three toms, you
might tune them in roots and fifths: high
tom to A, mid tom to E, and floor tom to
A. These need to be tastefully blended
back in, of course, as the overheads may
still hold some tom information even

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