Arts >> Music >> Digital Music

How to Achieve a Nashville Snare Drum Sound

Occasionally I'll come across a recording technique that I must pass on to the rest of the world. The following happens to be one of them.



It's a pretty neat technique that I would never have dreamed of doing, but it's quite effective.



And incidentally, it was shown to me by a Nashville drummer who frequents my studio.



I'll show you how to execute this technique very quickly and easily.

Things You'll Need

  • Snare drum
  • Loose leaf, printer or any typical paper
  • Drummer
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Once the drummer has set up and the engineer has placed all the mics, take a single sheet of paper and place it on top of the snare drum.



      It can be any type of paper. I usually grab a sheet from the computer printer. I'm sure you could even get away with tearing out a page from a magazine.

      You will probably have to apply gaffing tape for the paper to adhere to the drum.

    • 2

      Return to the control room and have the drummer whack the drum with a stick.



      Listen for the differences between the paper on and off the snare drum.

    • 3

      The sound derived is pretty much what you'd expect. It will give more of a smack to the snare sound and really embellishes the the snare strainer sound.



      In a recording situation, these simple little tricks make the difference between a run-of-the-mill sort of sound and one truly unique to the recording.

    • 4

      This technique works very well at accentuating the nuances of a snare roll-very similar to how you'd expect a marching snare to sound.

Digital Music

Related Categories