In this the fourth and final free video tutorial in this series, Producer Mike Exeter explains and demonstrates his approach to recording Snare Drum for a metal track using a total of 3 microphones, a Shure SM57 and a Warm Audio WA-84 on top and a single WA-84 on the bottom. By flipping the bottom mic out of phase and then blending the 3 signals Mike can produce a fat-sounding snare tone without reaching for any EQ.

Why Three Microphones?

To capture all the sonic elements of the snare drum Mike uses a combination of three mics. The Shure SM57, which is commonly regarded as the first choice for recording snare drum, is used to capture the body of the drum tone along with some of the papery tone of the stick hitting the head. A Warm Audio WA-84 is then clipped to the SM57 using a custom made clip from Wilkinson Audio, which captures more of the high and low-end information. The third mic is another WA-84 under the Snare drum pointing at the snare wire. This mic is flipped out of phase. All three mics are then routed to the desk and into Pro Tools for blending to create the ultimate rock snare drum tone.

Take a listen and let us know what you think.

Apologies that the quality of the sound on the conversation on this video is not up to our usual standard. We had an equipment failure on the day and had to resort to the camera mic but we felt the content was worth running nonetheless.

We hope you have enjoyed this series and if there are any other styles of music or recording you would like us to explore please do leave a note in the comments section below.