How to Add Weight, Thwack and Air to Your Snare Drum

Got a simple EQ trick for you today.

I didn’t have time to throw a video together but I still think it’s a nice tip to use when you want some extra punch from your snare drum.

Here’s the screenshot of an EQ setting I used on a snare the other day:

A couple things you’ll see here that I did here:

Added weight in the low-mids – I boosted lightly in two areas, the 180 Hz area and the 220 Hz area. Two small boosts in close frequency areas gave me a better result than simply boosting 220 Hz more. It added thickness and weight to the snare, a sound I particularly like for hard hitting drums.
Crack in the high-mids – A slight boost in the 1.5 kHz area brought out the snap of the snare and accented the undersnare sound as well (I had routed both the over and under-snare to this particular EQ).
Air in the highs – This is actually my favorite go-to trick when I need to open up the snare a little bit. A shelving boost at 10 kHz can really add some air and high-end sheen to the snare. Something you should definitely try out the next time you need your snare to sound open and big.

Keep these frequency areas in mind the next time you’re dealing with a snare track.

To me, a good snare sound is the one that combines a thick “thwack!” with a nice and open “crack!”

I hope that makes sense to you! Haha.

For all my best EQ tricks on the rest of the drum-kit, check out EQ Strategies – The Ultimate Guide to EQ.

It has a complete overview of the frequencies you should keep in mind whenever you’re mixing kick drums, snare, toms or overheads.

Click the link below to get started:

www.EQstrategies.net

Want More Help?

For more mixing tips like these, sign up for my free EQ Course here. Learn over 70 tips to cleaner mixes.

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