How to get crispy snares, and that "woosh" effect in your ears if you turn your speakers loud

I’m just wondering what freq range does this woosh effect to your ears, you know, when you turn your speakers a bit louder and get that ringing effect in your ears, not like tinnitus but not saying it wouldn’t fatigue your ears after repeated exposure to those sounds. While I was listening to some tunes including my own, on a normal volume, on my shitty PC budget speaker setup, I noticed that a few tunes got my ears a bit tingling, as I explained before. It’s almost the same if I go to a night out, preferably dubstep because of the loudness generally and my ears don’t exactly bleed but I would describe it as a nice sensation. On that note is it not good to make your snares as much high-end forward? As in like really loud 16-20k 808 high-hats.

Tune I would reccomend for explaining the snare sound is this one, I quite like it.

Sorry for the long post, I’m a bit tipsy and just wondering about this. :slight_smile:

err not sure why youd wantt a harsh frequency that gives you fatigue lool but id say its the 1khz-3khz range maybe
i prefer sorta mid rangey ones but its hard to get a snappy snare w/o it being harsh tbh
the one in that tune sounds like a clap/snare/rim layered and the reverb is the woosh

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I was just wondering as to what gives it that fatigue-ish characteristic, again, I’m a bit tipsy, even more tipsier than when I made the first post lol. Anyways tnx for the answer, love your tunes man!

On the other hand I am just suprised that my speakers could make so much volume that I could feel like I was in a proper soundsystem night setting, to a degree anyways. :smiley:

Possibly the sub creating that feeling in your ears?

Also snares shouldn’t be going up to 16Khz+. 16K and upwards is approaching the upper limits of human frequency range so you wouldn’t really be able to hear it that well. I’d say generally like 200-500 for snares, but a) I don’t often check where my snares are hitting unless it clashes in the mix and b) finding a snare sample that fits your tune is more essential than making sure it fits within a specific frequency range.

Take this with a grain of salt because my production knowledge is quite limited and I’m basing this off what I’ve picked up and what works for me

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Yeah man definitely makes sense what you’re saying, gotta make space for those hats or shakers as well. And lately I’ve been finding to be quite fiddly with snare selection. I generally boost a bit in the 200-300 range depending where the prominent freq’s of the snare are, then just lowering the 500 range a bit and lowering the freq spikes as well a bit.

EDIT: @kaili yeah the tune I posted, the snare woosh definitely peaks around 3k. I don’t know why I find it so exciting to hear that freq just banging on my ears but I wish I went to a night out with my uni friends but that didn’t happen today because they all had different plans lol. OK I’m gonna stop for now and read all other snare threads on here and learn new stuff! :blush:

I usually find a snare and lower the top end and then get a clap/hi-hat/ride etc… to go on top of it. But once again depends entirely on the tune you’re building so there’s no hard and fast rule, but it’s nice to have some sort of starting point to work with and go from there

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It’s when you get those snares with super high highs and they’re decay very quickly so it’s kind of just a snap. A lot of the time they tend to have very weak base freq. (Like it’s main freq normally around 2-3 hundred is not very dominant)
I think the main thing is the decay. It should be super sharp

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Yeah, tat’s what I tend to do usually. Just went with a super fast decay rim and a metallic sounding thingy and just got the two harmonically more or less correct and then played with them a bit. Will post a tuna next week, got a new beat, but if I can send that beat from a bit before that would be nice.

I feel that it isn’t too hard of a science to get snares sounding good but lately I find it a bit harder as I just find tunes that get them spot on and some tunes just have like WTF sounding snares haha.

Thanks for the tips again people!

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I think it’s the transient power of the snare that causes that feeling in your ears. Use lots of snappy samples layered perfectly on top so that the peaks line up perfectly. Eq boost the high mods like everyone said and maybe compress with a long attack and long ish release but not too much gain reduction.

I recon that’d do it

When making my snares I usually use the same approach for each tune I find like a nice mid range snare with plenty of body, then ill find a 808 trappy style snare to add some pop and ‘crisp-ness’ and then like a stacked clap or like a 909 clap to add texture and then blend them together and processing to taste

that’s just me tho

good question !

I’d say plate verb mixed in on a bus

Valhalla vintage reverb is great for this

Right now I’m using PSP easyverb.

Actually

shouldn’t be going up to 16Khz+. 16K and upwards is approaching the upper limits of human frequency range so you wouldn’t really be able to hear it that well.

In one way you are correct - - like If you where chasing loudness for the full mixdown. But i you where to add something to a sound so it could cut through more or to ‘insist on itself more’ that could be a good shout. Nothing like a cymbal on top of a break in a snare that does this.

But good points otherwise … . no need to take up unnecessary freqs (UNLESS you ‘artificially’ change the tail/decay)

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Just looked it up as I havent tried it. But it seems it should be able to do plate. The plate reverb kind of makes a percussive sound ‘sing’
like the tail of the thing was cut into micro bits that then loop one after each other (it can actually be done by cutting up tiny tiny bits and then looping them!)

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Yeah, it has several cool options, a Spring, Plate, and some bigger spaces as well. I like it because it has a neat little damping dial. Don’t want to try out too much plugins for now, this is OK for me now.

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definitely

BTW while we’re at it, what was done to produce a snare like this? I don’t want to copy other artists but I’d like to know if someone has a good idea.

I think it’s a distorted tail of a snare and then just glided a bit to a lower note.

ha! I think maybe he used to post here?

cant listen right now mate. But I will later !

Yeah no probs.

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we can do this and see if he responds !

@zygos

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