Making a snare sample from scratch

In the video I walk you through how i made my own snare sample. This is a very brief presentation of one of the many ways you could approach it. Therefore you can supplement it with some more information under:

What's the deal with samples?

Samples have been used for long time in music production. It was very prominent during the 1980's although its origins goes further back into history. In recent times, 21'st century, it has grown to become one of the most well established ways you could make your drums shine. There are no rules or instructions other than; you could use it however you find useful. Some ways include:

• Augment drum sounds

• Replace drum sounds

• Use to trigger reverbs or effects

• Use to trigger gates (avoids mistriggering from bleed)

• Adding ambience

You can think of a sample as a "snapshot" of a drum. We capture the sound, the short burst of soundwaves containing the drums inherent characteristics, and if you want the realism of a real snare in a real room you would include multiple mics to recreate a snares rich nature. You could record:

• Top mic

• Bottom mic

• Room mic

• Overhead mic

• Side mic

• Hallway mic (outside of the tracking room, pop open the door)

• Trash mic (distort/compress a mic on the floor)

Blend layers, eq it, compress etc.. and bounce it as a wave file for you to trigger from a sample plugin or manually paste it. In that case, get yourself some spare parts of ctrl, c + v because you will be hitting those a couple times :)

In the 80's as an example, the way they could use samples was through trigger pads from electronic drums such as Roland or Simmons. By hitting these, preexisting samples would be played from the drum module and you could record it to tape. Some digital delay units could also capture an incoming signal, freeze it and play it every time a new signal would trigger it from the input. One example of this is the AMS DMX 1580S, this had a "lock in" switch where you could capture a sound, including buttons to nudge the start and end of the clip so it would align with the other drum hits. Some engineers could record many of their favourite kicks, snares and toms to a DAT (digital analog tape) and feed those samples to the respective devices for triggering.

In the recent era of the 21'st century this same approach could be done through the use of plugins like Steven Slate Drums or Drumagog, where you upload a file and it will trigger it. These plugins have more functions and control than previous methods. The age of the DAW (digital audio workstation) has also given more opportunities in the creation of samples. By using the tab to transient function on Pro Tools you could even add samples manually if you do not have a plugin.

Quick Tips

• Have a decent snare and appropriate tuning, a no-brainer.

• Dampen snare with tape, gel etc if too much "ring"

• Record multiple hits ( because the same snare + mics + room all sound different when you hit it multiple times, it is slight nuances that changes )

• Group your tracks when recording to have control, and create new playlists for every series of takes if you move mics etc.. (Pro Tools tip)

• Tab to transient (Tab key) and hit (A) to trim the start of the clip to the exact transient, then exactly bounce clip from start to end of the clip to ensure it triggers right

• To put a sample on a track from a "triggering track" take the snare track (the trigger) and create a new one above. Put the selection cursor on the snare clip and hit tab to transient so your cursor starts at the first snare hit, then hit ( shift ) and ( P ), now the selection moves up the the track above, when you now hit (V) you will paste the sample on your new track, then hit (Tab) to go to the next transient and hit (V). But first remember to select your sample and hit (C). This is a Pro Tool tip.

• Put your samples in a folder, stay organized and tidy. You might make more in the future so it is good to keep a library

• Hit the phase button on a track to check whether it is phase coherent or not with the snare you are blending with. (most low end = most phase coherent)

  
  

  Final thoughts

  
  

  So, there you have it—how to craft your own snare sample. Just remember: there are no rules—only questionable choices and the undo button.

  If it sounds good, it is good. If it doesn't, well... blame the drummer.

  Now go forth, sample-maker. May your transients be tight, your phase aligned, and your snare never sound like a wet cardboard box... unless you're going for that.

  And yes—label your files...