The Way hanibal mixed animal style

[Lammy]

please tell me how to record a snare bottom the right way. We're learning with every recording session and trying to get it better every time.

I'm not Marconi... but:
Mike Senior has written a great post on snare tracking http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/k...techniques

The take home lessons from the article, and from studio experience are:
- snare bottom may or may not be tracked at all - your choice
- sm57 always cheap, and good for snare bottom - medium distance, 5-10 cm, depending on the genre and the drummers' hit energy
- far MORE important for the whole snare sound is to experiment with a large dia mic at some distance to the TOP SIDE of the snare, to capture the fullness of the snare sound

If I remember well, from the tracks you've published of the "Way of Life" the snare bottom track was a little too weak in preamp gain. Gain adjustment is also key.

I never went into gating the snare bottom during tracking, as Mike mentions.

Then there's perfect snare tuning.
Then there's the drummer - your job!
But this is beyond snare bottom mic-ing.
cheers