How to get your snare to cut through the mix

We picked the brains of two of rocks’ best mix engineers - Matt Wallace (Faith No More, Maroon 5) and Dave Fortman (Otep, Watership Down) - to get the inside word on how they carve out room for the snare to sit in the mix.

Producer and mixer, Matt Wallace, is widely known for his work with Faith No More, Maroon 5, The Replacements, and Train.

Getting a snare to ‘cut through a mix’ is a multi-layered process that takes the entire mix into question. But here are some things to consider:

1. Not to be too obvious; sometimes, it’s just a matter of the snare drum being too quiet. So bringing up the volume will help.

2. Sometimes, an instrument obscures the snare drum, usually an instrument with midrange to upper range frequency content that’s panned to the center. Ideally, either turn that instrument down and/or pan it off to the left or right.

3. ‘Carve’ a ’space’ for the snare drum by reducing the mid or upper-mid frequency content of an instrument that’s panned to the center of the mix. Generally, this would be a guitar or bass guitar. Rarely, one has to consider the equalization of the lead vocal and snare drum to see if either one gets in the way of the other.

4. Sometimes, I find the fundamental frequency or frequencies of the lead vocal and ‘carve’ some of those frequencies out of the snare drum. I then add frequencies below and above the vocal frequency area.

5. Using side chain bus compression on a snare drum can help level it out and also give it more apparent volume without getting in the way of the vocals.

6. Importantly, the arrangement of a song, specifically where instruments land rhythmically, can significantly impact the ability to hear specific instruments.

Dave Fortman is a producer and mixer with credits with numerous high-profile rock and hard rock acts including Slipknot, Godsmack, and Simple Plan.

My snare treatment usually starts with me listening to the whole kit and adjusting levels, EQ, and compression of the snare against the other elements of the kit. If you're listening to the snare alone and trying to get it sounding great, then you are mixing something that no one will ever hear!

I'll throw up the rest of the mix next and figure out how punchy and bright I want the snare to be based on the overall tones. That's phase two of getting to the end result of the snare punching through clearly.

As the mix gets more dialed in, I adjust as I go on EQ and compression.

Some key things that I always try to remember are:

1. To compare the uncompressed version while in the mix because sometimes just the way the drum is hit can make it sound compressed, and that may be enough. Sometimes that can sound better, especially if it starts to seem clippy or thin. I started noticing that when I was mixing Evanescence's Fallen, and I realized that Josh Freese hitting a Tama Bell Brass sounds like it's heavily compressed already.

2. Check other commercial mixes for where the snare is sitting in the mix.

3. If I've dipped out frequencies in the midrange, I try to put them back in to make sure I'm not losing any punch from that EQ and dipping it even further in reduction to see if that adds any crispness. Double-checking earlier moves when the mix was at a different stage.

I'm usually dialing the snare in the entire mix. If I get in a rotten wrestling match with a particular snare, I start reducing some of the masking frequencies from other instruments. That usually tackles it if nothing else is working.

For specifics on settings, I shoot for extra punch in the lows between 100-200k on average and 4 to 8k for top-end on medium bandwidth.

My go-to compressor is the Empirical Labs Distressor plugin from UAD. I like slow attack, fast release, and I vary on which ratios I use.