Mike Senior's Expert Tracking & Mixing Tips

Depending on how it's set up, compression can do radically different things to the sound of a snare drum. In this episode, Mike Senior explores three ways in which a compressor can help bring your snare tracks to life.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction
00:38 - Inconsistent snare hits
05:24 - Sustaining snare hits
08:16 - Enhancing attack
12:30 - Summary

If you'd like to listen more critically to the audio examples, you can download a high-resolution 24-bit/44.1kHz WAV of this whole episode from the podcast support page for this show https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/three-ways-compress-snare-mike-senior-podcast

Credits

This month's episode features recordings from The Purple Hat Mob's 'Access Denied' and Dunning Kruger's 'Japan Song'. If you'd like to try mixing these projects for yourself, you can download the full raw multitracks for them here:

http://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#PurpleHatMob

http://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#DunningKruger

These projects were also featured in Sound On Sound in the February 2020 'Mix Rescue' column, and in the October 2012 and February 2013 'Session Notes' columns, which can be found in the magazine's article archives here:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-overcoming-room

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-0

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-writing-recording-cello-overdubs

For more general advice about compressing all kinds of drums, check out this Sound On Sound cover feature from February 2017 called 'Drum Compression: Fashion The Sound You Want':

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/compression-fashion-drum-sound-you-want

Mike Senior Biog

Mike Senior is a professional audio engineer, regular SOS contributor, and author of the best-selling books Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio & Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. He runs the Cambridge-MT educational resources site (including the web's largest free multitrack download library) and hosts two monthly independent podcasts, Project Studio Tea Break and the Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast.

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts