Guide to Mixing Snare Drums in Post Production

The snare drum, to many engineers, is the second hardest instrument to place correctly in the post production process. It needs to sit right in between the foreground and background, solidifying a groove for the song while still being in the background. There's a few post production techniques you can utilize to make this less of a chore, and we'll go over them. Before we begin, let me stress that you need to have an extremely good recording of the snare in the first place. You can't turn chicken into beef, so while miracles can be made, you're better off working on something that has potential.

Now, the first mistake many engineers make is they'll boost the snare drum's volume. This is just about the worst thing you can do. Boosting something's volume is one of the last things you should do make an instrument stand out. Save it as a last resort, always.

Solo the snare drum track so you can hear it by itself. Put it on a loop and listen to it carefully. EQ it until you get your desired tone. Make sure it's not too extreme. We're not done EQing this yet, but you should always start with your ideal tone. Now, turn on the full mix again. How does it sound? Chances are, it's frequencies are clashing with others that are already in the mix.

From here, you'll probably want to loop a section of the song and once again listen careful. Make very careful EQing decisions to the snare, forcing it into the background little by little until you get the desired mix. Only cut a few db at a time, if that. Remember, even the smallest cut can make a huge difference even if you don't hear it immediately.

As for individual effects, you'll want to keep it at a minimum. Compression works very well, and Limiting does as well. Limiting in particular can produce some really cool effects with the parameters set to their maximum value. Individual reverb on the snare is a no-no. You'll almost never want to do it. Instead, rely on the overall reverb on the mix to provide a nice sheen to the snare. In fact, the snare is a good test to see if an overall mix has too much reverb. It should be a nice, solid pop without too much echo.

That concludes our guide to mixing the snare in post production. Good luck!