Thursday, November 19, 2009

Snare Drum Samples: Under the Microscope

By John Gellei

Snare drums are an essential component in a lot of genres; from dance to hip hop and RnB and all types of metal and rock, snares really have an impact beyond just a monotonous sound. The usage of snare drum samples is dependent on the exact style of music, as well as the tempo of the songs they are featured in.

In urban styles of music ranging from the RnB genre to gangster rap and soul, snare drum samples use is quite varied, but a lot of songs display it on beats 2 and 4 in the music bar placement. The kick usually sits on the first beat or third and this is because it has more of a downbeat impact, while the snare subtly modifies the groove.

The amount of different snare types is staggering, but two of the types seem to be head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to popularity and identification. I'm talking about the live and real snares played by people in a recording setting, which are then sampled for use as drum samples in other applications. The second type is the raspy type of snares generated by electronic synthesizers and drum machines. They're not always so unrealistic, though; some of the machines today can make great-sounding emulations!

When speaking effects, there are a few different ways to use them to alter snare drum samples. In fact, sometimes you would not want to alter snare drums but rather alter the rest of the samples to better match your snares - if the tone of it is so good, why not make the rest match, right? The reverb effect is use a lot in snares; it adds space and sounds just magical on many snares. You can definitely get some surreal effects, like applying a reverb IR file for, say, the Opera House in Sydney and have your snare sounding like it was played there.

In dance music, the snare drum samples are often combined with the kick drums and 'teamed up' for beats 2 and 4 from the bar, with the kick hitting consistently from beats 1 through 4. This technique is used simply to relieve the ear of the persistent bass kick on every beat, and also serves other uses, especially if the snare and kick do not share the same groove template. This sort of an affect can result in a dynamic drum samples groove that is very pleasing to the ear and we can actually spot this in many club hits playing today. The technique has been popular for over 10 years now!

One of the recommendations often offered by professional producers who have made it is to experiment with the snare drum samples. The rules are not set in stone. The interplay between kick and snare can be as nice and friendly as you want, or as bad and as unpredictable as you can imagine.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment