In this tip we show you how to add weight to snare drums when EQ isn’t enough.

In the video below you’ll hear how you can add extra oomph to a snare drum which lacks bottom end without using third party plugins, VI’s or using drum samples.

Pitch Shift, But With An Important Difference

Fundamentally this effect is achieved by pitch shifting a duplicate track. You might try this using an AAX plugin. Of the stock Pro Tools plugins the most suitable is Pitch II. However you’ll probably find that the timing isn’t tight enough, resulting in ‘flamming’ - where the transients are slightly off with each other.

The solution is to render the effect using an AudioSuite version of the Pitch II plugin, which results in tighter timing. Additional processing can be introduced to this downtuned track but one which is very worth considering is a gate because in the case of real drums there sill be spill present which will also be pitch-shifted. Because it is a supplementary track you can be more heavy-handed with this gating in simple drum parts because it is intended to be used tucked in behind the original track creating a blend of the two sounds.

Thanks to Steve DeMott for the tip.

Photo by Hernán Santarelli