Addictive Drums 2: How to simulate that "hollow" snare effect?

[Dave G]

In Addictive Drums 2, I'm looking for a method to create that "hollow" snare drum effect in the likes of the rock and ska style of some bands. For reference, here are a few examples of popular songs with the drum track isolated:

Blink 182
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRIWzM-GoT8

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfRB0Vqqkd0

No Doubt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS7Z1eDIzAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAFTpbmp-dg

Red Hot Chili Peppers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpr82ebF1gA

Stone Temple Pilots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BhFbKxF1Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhWf_5dSfL0

Per the above examples, you probably get the idea. I know that a few of my AD2 kits already have presets with that "hollow" style. Unfortunately, they don't quite match exactly the effect I'm looking for.

Can anyone give me any pointers on how to tweak the snare drum using AD2's variety of mixing functions to make it sound more like those examples above?

Thanks in advance!

Edited Monday at 03:01 AM by Dave G

[Chaps]

Well, I haven't done much to tweak AD2 drum sounds but on the snare I have adjusted the Snare Buzz and Top/Bottom  mix to find a sound I like. The drums I heard in your examples sound pretty unaffected and dry so I would first make sure there was no Send to an FX bus and then fiddle with the Snare Buzz and Top/Bottom settings to see if they gave me more of the sound I was looking for. In the image below I've outlined the editable settings I have found to have the most profound affect on a piece's overall sound and might be fun to play with even if most don't prove useful. You can also browse and audition kit pieces on the XLN website. The drum sound you want may not be one that you already have.

Addictive Drums 2 Kit Pieces

 

[Amberwolf]

Well, a snare is a pretty adjustable drum in reality.  It has a play membrane and a resonant menbrane each of which is adjustable tension, and then it has the adjustable-tension set of wires on the bottom.   

Changing any of those changes the sound, sometimes quite dramatically.   

Also depends on where you hit the snare, and how, for what kind of sound you get out..

Unless AD2 can "adust" those (which probably means it's using different starting samples) It's likely that you'll need to start with a sample that is of a snare already adjusted to the basic way you want it to sound. Then you can "mic" or eq it or reverb it differently to change it up, in AD2.

Can you mix and match different samples from different kits it has, to build yourself a custom one that has that sound in it? 

 

(I did that with SessionDrummer3 starting from the MisFitKit as it already had a mix of different types of stuff, and have built a couple versions for different things, though sometimes I use some of the other "preset" kits, or occasionally jsut build a whole new one.  ) 

 

I'd guess I have a few hundred or more different snare samples I use to replace some hits in different projects.  

 

 

Also, I don't know if any of these help, but I did a quick search for how to recreate the blink 182 snare sound, and the titles suggest some useful results (but I did not view any of them):

https://www.google.com/search?q=blink+182+snare+sound&oq=blink+182+snare+sound&aqs=chrome..69i57.3477j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&sei=T4myZ-OULeGuur8Pz7yNgA8

 

 

Edited Monday at 01:07 AM by Amberwolf

[Chaps]

6 minutes ago, Amberwolf said:

Can you mix and match different samples from different kits it has, to build yourself a custom one that has that sound in it?

You can layer up to four snares in AD2 by using snares in the Flexi locations. The Flexi snares can be triggered by hits on the original Snare. I do it all the time.

[Sock Monkey]

That’s not so much a dry sound . That is when you tune a snare really tight. It works best with shorter snares. As well as I would say steel or fiber not plywood. Like my Ludwig Vista lite can do that sound. 
I have about 6 snares in Addictive Drums and they can’t do that. They are all deep and pretty low tuned. There’s no option to actually tighten the skin. That’s definitely a different sound than raising the pitch. That sound your after has that ring you get from a very tight tuning. 
You would be better off looking at samples. 
And yes Session Drums can play any sample. 
I lost them with a hard drive failure a few years ago but I had sampled my kit and it was spooky to hear my kit played by my Daw. Cool I need to do that again now Session drums are back in Sonar. 

[Dave G]

On 2/16/2025 at 6:31 PM, Chaps said:

Well, I haven't done much to tweak AD2 drum sounds but on the snare I have adjusted the Snare Buzz and Top/Bottom  mix to find a sound I like. The drums I heard in your examples sound pretty unaffected and dry so I would first make sure there was no Send to an FX bus and then fiddle with the Snare Buzz and Top/Bottom settings to see if they gave me more of the sound I was looking for. In the image below I've outlined the editable settings I have found to have the most profound affect on a piece's overall sound and might be fun to play with even if most don't prove useful. You can also browse and audition kit pieces on the XLN website. The drum sound you want may not be one that you already have.

Addictive Drums 2 Kit Pieces

 

Thank you for the screenshot, this is very helpful! I didn't realize that, until now, clicking the button for each drum piece opens up a wealth of customizable functions for that drum piece.

I tried adjusting some of these functions to achieve the effect I wanted, notably the Snare Buzz vs. Top-Bottom. I haven't gotten there yet. It'll take some more time and research. But this information is helpful.

[Dave G]

Thank you for all the responses! I appreciate the assistance on this from all who chimed in.

As stated, AD2 already has several rock/pop kits which offer this snare sound to a point, but I guess I can start at any one of those kits, experiment and go from there...

(If I could only figure out how to quote multiple users in one reply so I can answer everyone at once. LOL)