Snare Drum

I experiment often when recording snare drums. If you want to EQ the snare drum mic, use a very clean equalizer that can handle very high peak levels without distorting. Since a lot of the snare drum is heard in the overhead mics, I take the time to make sure the drummer is using the right snare drum for the song. Thinking that you will just re-trigger a snare sample replacement later, because the snare drum and the sound you're getting sucks, is the wrong attitude! Tuning is super important to me and almost like a guitar, the snare drum must be tightened after each take. You must start with a good (new?) head and make sure, like all drums, the lugs are all equally tensioned shows the typical snare drum mic position. I was lucky with this drummer; he had a space between the two toms enabling me to sneak in a brand new Shure SM57. The only other place to get a mic in is from the hi-hat side... not ideal because the drummer will probably hit it.