Snare Drum Saturation By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

In this weeks post, I want to talk about Saturation and although it is something I use on a variety of sources including the mix buss, I want to focus specifically on saturation on the snare drum.

The important thing to remember when using saturation is that it is best used sparingly, too much can destroy the character of a sound rather than enhance it, but of course this all depends on what you are trying to achieve.

I use saturation on a snare drum to soften the peaks and add a little character to the sound.

My favourite plugins for saturation are PSP Micro/Vintage Warmer and FabFilter Saturn, but most of the time I tend to use the PSP Micro Warmer for single instruments.

Depending on the source, I run the plugin in mono mode, set the drive control between +4 and +8dB and reduce the output volume to compensate for the boost in volume. I sometimes use the low and high controls to reduce or boost depending on what i'm going for, but more often than not, I leave them at 0.

I tend to place the saturation plugin at the end of the snare signal chain and occasionally a final EQ to shape the sound further depending on how aggressively i have used the saturation.

Saturating the snare drum not only adds more sonic character to the sound, but it also allows you more head-room on your drum buss and your main mix buss because it flattens out the peaks in the same way that traditional tape saturation did. Along with good gain staging, saturating the peak-heavy sounds in your mix means that when you get to the limiting stage, you will be able to achieve a louder mix without it reacting only to heavy transients such as the kick and snare. 

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