16-04-2017, 08:12 PM
It's been a while since I worked on this one. I always try a lot of fancy dynamic/gate tricks but I feel like it always winds up as a compromise and I'm never happy.
I do think I and a lot of others wound up replacing or at least blending. Blending at least has some of the original ghost hits but impact of the replacement.
One thing I've tried on other songs is placing a really fast, clean compressor/limiter on, in this case, the overheads, and keying it with the snare. So on the harder snare hits it limits the overheads but the compressor is set so fast that it only really works on the snare hit. Now, one caveat, this probably doesn't work well on a washy track like overheads but does work on, say snare leakage on a kick track.
Did this one have a bottom snare mic? That usually works well for ghost notes. Bottom snare are somewhat naturally compressed.
Often what I have after trying a lot its to take a step back and take a lot of the processing off realize I was doing something that contributed to the problem.
Or, don't worry about it so much. It's a pretty busy song. Sometimes not every nuance comes through. Maybe wait until a certain section (like the bridge) for the drummer to get his due when things calm down. Or bring the overheads way down. People can deal with quieter overheads than lack of snare.
I'm just guessing on a Sunday though.
I do think I and a lot of others wound up replacing or at least blending. Blending at least has some of the original ghost hits but impact of the replacement.
One thing I've tried on other songs is placing a really fast, clean compressor/limiter on, in this case, the overheads, and keying it with the snare. So on the harder snare hits it limits the overheads but the compressor is set so fast that it only really works on the snare hit. Now, one caveat, this probably doesn't work well on a washy track like overheads but does work on, say snare leakage on a kick track.
Did this one have a bottom snare mic? That usually works well for ghost notes. Bottom snare are somewhat naturally compressed.
Often what I have after trying a lot its to take a step back and take a lot of the processing off realize I was doing something that contributed to the problem.
Or, don't worry about it so much. It's a pretty busy song. Sometimes not every nuance comes through. Maybe wait until a certain section (like the bridge) for the drummer to get his due when things calm down. Or bring the overheads way down. People can deal with quieter overheads than lack of snare.
I'm just guessing on a Sunday though.
It doesn't have to sound good. People just need to think it sounds good.