Adding A Second Snare

Adding A Second Snare

Usually when making beats you have a kick, snare, and hats. Throw in some percussion. Adding a second snare helps add variety and can round out your beat.

Take a listen to drum beat on Jay-Z's Public Service Announcement produced by Just Blaze. You'll hear a fairly standard pattern but then a second snare thrown in that helps add a bit of variety.

 

Adding In A Second Snare - Breaking It Down

 Let's take a look at the waveform. I added markers to indicate where the second snare comes in. Given Just Blaze's production you can obviously hear the main snares.

The blue markers are where the second snare appears. The red markers is where you might expect it to appear but you don't hear them there. Later in the post I explain the importance of the red markers.

 

 

Second Snare - How To Add It In

If you take a listen to the above, there's a few

1. Compliment the main snare. The second snare is not the same but sounds like it might come from the same drum kit. It's not wildly different. Almost sounds like the rim of the snare (could possibly be). Or it might be the same snare with significantly less/different effects applied to it.

 

2. Don't always use it. The reason why I added the red marker is to show where you might expect the second snare to come in - but it doesn't The reason is the second snare is added in - almost randomly - to mix it up and add variety. THat's a good thing when it comes to drums.

Mix It Up and Have Fun

The above points are general guidelines. Mix it up and have fun. Throw in a second snare, maybe even a third. The point is to add in some extra sounds here and there and to add variety, and keep the music interesting.

Cole

 

Related Posts

Back to blog