How Taylor Larson mixes Luke Holland’s trademark snare

The snare drum. It’s the backbone of so many metal tracks, the crack that cuts through, the thud that hits you in the chest. As producer Taylor Larson puts it, a bad snare can ruin a whole mix, but a great snare can make even a rough recording shine. In a Nail The Mix session, Taylor broke down exactly how he mixed Luke Holland’s killer snare drum for Jason Richardson’s incredibly technical music.

If you’ve ever wanted to get inside the head of a pro mixer dialing in a world-class snare, this is for you. We’re diving deep into Taylor’s chain, from initial gating to those final saturation touches. You can grab the full Jason Richardson session multitracks and watch Taylor mix the entire song here.

The Foundation: Aggressive Gating and Punch

Before any fancy EQ or saturation, getting control of the snare hit is paramount, especially with a dynamic player like Luke Holland.

Taylor’s “Amazing Gate of All Time”

Taylor kicks off his snare chain with a gate he swears by – the BDSP (Brain Dead Simple Panner & Gater). He’s used these settings for ages, and they’re a cornerstone of his snare sound. While he jokingly tells people to “steal these settings,” the key takeaway is finding a gate that works for you and learning its character. For this specific gate, the settings provide a very manageable snare, cleaning up bleed effectively. (You can practically screenshot the settings from the video, they’re that crucial to his sound!)

Adding Snap with a Transient Designer

Next up, a Transient Designer (like the SPL Transient Designer or similar plugins). Taylor uses this to make the drummer “hit harder” by adding a little bit of attack. For Luke’s snare, it’s about enhancing that initial snap. He mentions not really boosting sustain much here; it’s all about that front-end impact. He even recalls wishing he had one during an all-analog session at Blackbird for Jason’s live broadcast – that’s how vital it is to his workflow.

Sculpting the Core Tone: EQ Strategies

With the dynamics under control, it’s time to shape the tone. Taylor employs a multi-stage EQ approach. For more foundational knowledge on EQ, check out our EQ Strategies for Mixing Modern Metal guide.

Initial Shaping with a PuigTec-Style EQ

Taylor often reaches for a PuigTec EQP-1A/MEQ-5 style plugin (like the Waves JJP PuigTec EQs). For this snare, he’s adding a bit around 200Hz for body and a good amount around 1.5kHz for attack. A crucial point he makes: don’t get hung up on the dB values on these analog-modeled EQs. An “8dB boost” might not actually be 8dB. It’s all about the feel and what it does to the sound. He even notes that clipping this particular plugin can sometimes sound good!

The Main EQ Moves: Thud, Crack, and Lushness

Following the gate (which he usually sets with a preset and only tweaks the threshold), Taylor uses an API 550A/B style EQ for his primary tonal shaping. His philosophy is key here:

• Snare Top = Thud and Power
• Snare Bottom = Sizzle and Snap

With this in mind, on the snare top, he’ll boost low-end, typically around 100-200Hz, to find what works best for that particular snare’s fatness. For the mid-range, around the 3kHz area, his approach varies:

• For Jason Richardson’s music, he wanted more crack, so he’d boost here.
• For other projects like Get Scared or I See Stars, he might scoop 3kHz for a wetter, more lush snare sound that hits you in the chest without as much crack.
  Sometimes, a little boost around 1kHz is added if the snare needs it.

Surgical Strikes: Taming Unwanted Rings

Even well-recorded snares can have odd ringing frequencies. Taylor tackles these with a notch EQ, like the FabFilter Pro-Q. He’ll sweep around to find the offending frequency (in this case, it was around 300Hz), boost it to confirm, then attenuate it. He’s careful not to lose too much body, especially if the ring is in a lower frequency range. He also gives a shout-out to FabFilter’s feature allowing you to solo a band and sweep, which is incredibly useful.

Character and Glue: Saturation and Emulation

Once the fundamental tone is there, Taylor adds character and vibe using emulations.

Roughing it Up with Tape Emulation

The Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machines (VTM) often finds its way onto his snares. He feels it adds back some of the character he already aims for during tracking. It’s great for roughing up clean audio and getting it closer to the sound of hitting analog tape. For this track, he notes it added a tiny bit of lows, upper mids, and air that he felt was lacking.

SSL Console Vibe for Mid-Range Focus

Following the tape, Taylor uses the Slate Digital Virtual Console Collection (VCC), specifically the 4KG (SSL G Series) emulation. Why SSL for snare? He finds the Neve emulation great for low-end, but for snares, the SSL’s mid-range character fits better in the mix, especially with other low-end elements already happening. He drives it a bit to get that console saturation.

Building Depth and Space: Layered Reverbs

Reverb is crucial to Taylor’s snare sound, especially after aggressive gating, as it helps rebuild body and sustain.

The Main Reverb: Rebuilding Body

His main snare reverb, which he calls “Revive” (likely a preset in a plugin like ValhallaRoom or Valhalla VintageVerb), is so important that he includes it with his drum samples.

• Settings: It’s a tight, boomy, up-close room sound.
• Application: This goes on both the top and bottom snare mics, adding back the “everything” that aggressive gating can remove.

Adding Sizzle: The “Cheesy” AMS RMX16 Effect

For an extra layer of character, Taylor was using a UAD AMS RMX16 emulation. He loves this unit so much he wants a real one! He describes its sound as having a “cheesy, grainy” quality due to its 80s converters – a sound that might not have been cool back then but is very vibey now.

• Application: This is used more as an effect, subtly blended in for a bit of high-end sizzle. He EQs it by filtering out some mud and adding a little high EQ.

Power from Below: Processing the Snare Bottom

Taylor is a big fan of the snare bottom mic – he uses tons of it, wanting it to sound like the “snare wires are falling on your face.”

Transient Shaping for the Underside

Again, a Transient Designer comes into play, with settings similar to the top snare, perhaps with a bit more sustain to bring out the character of the snares.

Drastic EQ for Punch and Clarity (and Phase Forgiveness!)

The Sonnox Oxford EQ gets a workout on the snare bottom with some pretty drastic moves:

• Filtering out most of the low-end.
• Boosting in the low-mid area for punch.
• Cutting out “nasty stuff.”
• Adding air on top.
  An interesting side effect of such heavy EQing on the bottom snare, Taylor notes, is that phase relationship with the top snare becomes less critical. You can flip the phase, and the difference is often minimal because so much of the conflicting low-frequency information has been removed.

The “Splat Factor”: Bomb Factory BF76

A surprising but effective choice is the Bomb Factory BF76 (an 1176 emulation). Taylor describes its effect on the bottom snare as “splat and weird” and admits it doesn’t sound good on much else, but for this specific application, it just works. He hits it pretty hard. This is a great example of knowing your tools and their unique quirks! Learn more about how compression can shape your drums on our Metal Compression Secrets page.

Bright Distortion with an EMI Console Emulator

To further enhance the bottom snare, Taylor uses the Waves NLS (Non-Linear Summer) plugin, specifically the EMI console emulation. He loves this on kick and bottom snare. The more you drive it, the more lows and highs it adds, literally making the snare bottom brighter and more distorted – exactly what he’s looking for. For Jason’s mix, he cranked the drive all the way up.

Subtle Enhancements: Samples and Ghost Notes

Even with meticulously processed live drums, sometimes a little extra is needed.

Tasteful Sample Layering

Taylor admits he’s “anti-samples” but still uses them – sue him! He uses Slate Trigger with what he calls “corny Alesis 80s drum samples” blended with other unknown stuff. The key is subtlety: it’s not there to replace the real snare but to add a touch more sizzle and depth. You barely hear it, but it contributes to the overall texture. This is a great way to use samples even if you prefer a natural sound.

Bringing Out the Ghost Notes

For a player like Luke Holland, capturing every nuance is vital. Taylor processes Luke’s ghost notes with pretty much the exact same chain as the main snare, perhaps tweaking a few parameters to help them sit right. This helps make up for any detail lost in the hard gating of the main snare and ensures clarity, blending well with the overheads.

Final Polish: Bus Processing Insights

While not detailed extensively in this snare-focused breakdown, Taylor briefly touches on his drum bus. He’ll often check the kick and snare by themselves, seeing how they hit the bus compressor (likely an SSL G-Comp style). For busy music like Jason Richardson’s, he aims for light compression (1-2dB of gain reduction) to let the inherent punch shine.

He also mentions using a hardware distortion box on the bus. This distortion acts as a form of compression as well – the more signal you feed into it, the more it saturates and limits, bringing up the overall perceived level and adding character.

Want to See It All in Action?

Reading about Taylor Larson’s snare chain is one thing, but seeing him apply these techniques, tweak settings in real-time, and make decisions based on what he’s hearing is another level. On Nail The Mix, you can get the original multitracks from this Jason Richardson session and watch Taylor mix the entire song from start to finish, explaining every move.

If you’re serious about elevating your metal mixes and learning from the pros who are shaping the sound of modern metal, Nail The Mix is where it’s at. You don’t just get theory; you get practical, actionable insights from producers working on massive records. Ready to move beyond presets and truly Unlock Your Sound? Give these snare techniques a try and hear the difference!