Jinjer’s Snare Attack: Amp Sims & Distortion with Max Morton

Ever found your snare sounding a bit… wimpy? All crack, no sustain? You’re not alone. When you want to beef up a snare in a dense metal mix like Jinjer’s, reverb isn’t always the answer. Sometimes, you need something with more grit, more character, without washing everything out. Enter Max Morton, the wizard behind Jinjer’s powerful sound, who showed us a killer technique using parallel distortion – and even an amp sim – to give a snare some serious cojones. Let’s dive into how he does it, and how you can try it on your own tracks. You can even see him break down the entire Jinjer mix over at Nail The Mix.

Why Distort a Snare? Beyond Reverb for Energy and Sustain

So, your main snare track is spiky. It cuts through, especially with well-dialed overheads and room mics, but it’s short. It doesn’t have that satisfying thwack and sustain that really drives a heavy groove. Plus, your snare mic might be picking up a load of bright, dirty cymbal bleed. What to do?

Max Morton’s approach is to reach for parallel distortion. Instead of just cranking a reverb and potentially muddying things up or pushing the snare too far back, distortion can add sustain, energy, and a perceived “fatness” in a much more controlled and often cleaner way. It’s about adding harmonic content and controlled aggression.

Max Morton’s Parallel Distortion Setup for Jinjer’s Snare

Max has a go-to method for this, and it’s something you can easily replicate in your DAW.

Duplicating the Snare: The “Snare Distortion” Track

First things first, Max duplicates the main snare track. He names this new track “Snare Distortion” – simple and effective. This new track is where all the sonic mangling will happen, leaving your original snare track intact to blend with.

Enter Decapitator: The Go-To for Controlled Grit

For this task, Max often turns to the trusty Soundtoys Decapitator. This isn’t about subtle warmth; he kicks it into “Punish” mode for some serious attitude.

The Critical Pre-Distortion High-Pass

This is a crucial move, especially in metal mixing. Before the signal hits Decapitator, Max applies a high-pass filter. Think of it like this: you don’t want a flubby, undefined distortion. By cutting the lows before hitting Decapitator, Max ensures the distortion focuses on the frequencies that give the snare its crack and body, not just rumble. This technique is gold not just for snares, but also for parallel distortion on bass, kicks, toms, and even extreme vocals or synths to bring out their aggressive edge. Mastering EQ strategies like this is fundamental for mixing modern metal.

Taming the Fizz: The Post-Distortion High-Cut

After the Decapitator has done its dirty work, the signal can be pretty bright and aggressive. This is where it gets interesting. Max cranks up a steep high-cut filter, essentially mimicking the sound of a guitar cabinet. This tames any harsh fizz from the heavy distortion and gives the parallel track a focused, almost ‘miked amp’ character, but without the complexity of a full amp sim. It shapes the distorted tone to sit better in the mix, adding sustain without excessive top-end harshness.

Amp Sim on Snare? The “Just For Fun” Experiment

Dialing in the Nembrini Audio Nalex Nolly Lead 50

“Just for fun,” as Max put it, he instantiated the Nembrini Audio Nalex Nolly Lead 50 on the parallel snare track. The initial thought? It could be cool, but it also might be “too much.”

Decapitator vs. Amp Sim: Why Simpler Can Be Better

While the amp sim approach sounded “also cool,” Max leaned towards Decapitator for this specific snare application. Amp sims are designed to replicate guitar amps and cabinets, meaning they often come with built-in cabinet emulation that introduces specific resonant peaks (Max mentioned typical guitar cab spikes around 3.5kHz, 5kHz, 6.2kHz, and so on). They can also introduce a bit more latency.

For beefing up a snare, this level of “guitar-ness” and complex harmonic content might not be what you’re after. The goal here was to add sustain, a bigger tail, and some satisfying dirt – not to make the snare sound like a distorted guitar. Decapitator, while capable of extreme sounds, offered a more direct and controllable way to achieve this, especially with its pre- and post-distortion filtering capabilities. It still gives that “sustainy,” “bigger tail,” and “dirt” without the overly complex harmonic signature of a full guitar rig.

Taming the Beast: Managing Bleed on a Distorted Snare

Now, if you’re cranking a distortion plugin on a snare track, you’re gonna hear that hi-hat and cymbal bleed like never before. Distortion doesn’t discriminate; it amplifies everything. So, what’s the deal with managing it?

Is the Bleed a Problem? Context is Key

First, Max listens in context with the rest of the kit. With the overheads and room mics blasting, sometimes that extra sizzle and energy from the bleed on the distorted snare actually sounds okay, or even beneficial, blending into the overall kit sound and adding to the excitement. He found that in the Jinjer mix, the existing bleed, even when amplified, wasn’t immediately noticeable as a problem when the full kit was playing.

Gating and Expanding: Your Bleed Control Toolkit

But what if that bleed is just too much and makes everything sound messy or overly compressed? That’s when tools like a gate or an expander (Max mentions something like a drumleveler) come into play. The trick isn’t to obliterate the bleed entirely, which can make the snare sound unnatural and choppy. Instead, Max often sets a modest gate range, say around -9dB or -10dB, and adjusts the recovery time (making it a bit longer) to smoothly attenuate the bleed between snare hits. This way, you reduce the offensive part of the bleed without losing the natural decay of the snare itself. This kind of dynamic control is essential, and you can explore more advanced metal compression secrets beyond just making things loud to master these tools.

Embracing the Bleed: Max Morton’s Philosophy

Max’s philosophy here is golden: don’t be terrified of bleed. It’s a part of the natural sound of a drum kit. If you try to surgically remove every last bit, your mix can end up sounding sterile, disconnected, and lacking energy. He suggests that if you accept that bleed is there, you can actually use it to help sculpt your tone. A bit of controlled bleed, especially on a processed parallel track, can contribute to a more natural, cohesive, and fuller drum mix. Don’t let the fear of bleed prevent you from making bold processing choices!

The Result: A Snare with Sustain, Smack, and Character

By blending this heavily distorted and shaped parallel track back in with the clean snare, Max achieves that desired “smack” and “smash.” You get the initial transient from the clean snare, followed by this beefy, distorted sustain and “lo-fi push” that adds incredible energy and size without resorting to washy reverbs. The snare now has a much bigger tail and a more aggressive character that can stand up in a dense Jinjer-style metal mix.

This is just one tiny piece of the puzzle Max Morton put together for Jinjer’s hard-hitting sound. Imagine watching him craft the entire mix, from brutal guitars to thundering drums and searing vocals, explaining every plugin, every EQ move, every decision. That’s exactly what you get with Nail The Mix. You can grab the multitracks for this Jinjer session and follow along as Max builds the mix from the ground up. If you’re serious about taking your metal productions to the next level and want to unlock your sound beyond presets, seeing pros like Max in action is invaluable. Check out Nail The Mix to access a vault of knowledge from the best in the biz.