An ongoing video series for drummers, audio engineers, and anyone who is responsible for achieving great drum sounds at the source. Sounds Like a Drum offers in-depth tutorials on tuning in ways most have never learned, tips and tricks for a memorable sound, and hacks that you might never have thought of.
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I've seen the following story in multiple ways from three or four drummers here on RU-vid and reading (Modern Drummer and online forums): Producer: "That snare sound isn't what I'm looking for. Please try you [insert model] snare." Drummer: "You mean the one that sounds like [insert Producer's sound description]." Drummer changes heads and/or tunes it the only snare he/she has with them differently, including using the famous droping the tuning on a lug or two technique. Producer from Control Room after above changes: "That's the sound. Thanks for working with me and using that snare." Paraphrasing, of course, but that's the interaction and actions by the drummer I've heard about or read about.
Perfect example of asking for a prescription rather than a desired outcome. It's our job to interpret that and provide a solution that matches their expectations (regardless of their prescription).
Excellent information. Considering some comments here you might consider doing the same presentation with a steel hoop to show how inconsistent they are. Another suggestion is to show the effect of the effect the bearing edge has on your presentation. A lot of tuning information is available by listening to the overtones created at the different lugs.
It seems a little funny to me that you have this very large drum, 20 or 22 inches, that is deadened to the point where it doesn't even sound like a drum anymore, to get a sound that you could probably get out of a thick piece of card board. Card board would be way easier to move around and much cheaper! I use a full reso head, nothing inside the drum, and lay a pillow against the front of the reso head so I can deaden or not deaden as I like without taking heads off. I mike the batter head, add a snare mic and overheads, and I'm done. The kick drum mic picks up the snare and hi-hat, and the snare mic picks up the hi-hat and kick drum, which inevitable. For home recording it sounds great, and with a little mixing you get a pretty good stereo image. I've thought about building a product with a piece of cardboard mounted on a wood frame attached to a foot pedal. Great for recording the dead slap sound so many drummers are looking for. Probably wouldn't look so cool on stage.
The real mounting difference is this: if the tom is on the bass drum, each time you hit one the other will also sound. Likewise if you put a tom and a cymbal on the same stand. (This, btw, is why I hate drum racks.) Your optimal mounting is having each item on a separate stand. In a large kit that of course is un-doable, but if you’re playing on a small bop kit with only a few cymbals it’s worth doing.
Now do the same video with only a phone camera, no processing, no fancy mics. I'll bet you will hear a difference. I have 4 snares and not a single one sounds as similar in my ears. The processing has stripped the character. Anyone who believes this video probably only owns one snare or hasnt developed their ears to tell the difference. Of couse they sound the same when processed, but that's not the true user experience 90% of the time, most of us are just playing accostically in our practice rooms or smaller room gigs. Even when miced at a gig your probably not hearing the processed, your hearing what right between your legs.
Shells material is about 10% the drums sound. The heads and the room make a bigger difference then the material though. I can hear a difference. Not huge but the overtone and ring are different.... I will say the dw claim of the specialty staggered shell plys do hood water. The note of the shell thing is a bit of a reach I think though. Also solid ply snares and staves have a different feel and sound as well. I've been recording drums for over 10 years now and will say 90% of drums will sound similar. The biggest difference is the room and heads. And of course the player.
Thank you for this simple but enlighting explanation! Die cast hoops are both a blessing And a curse! I have yamaha aluminium die casts and they can be very frustrating form time to time. The only good solution somtimes is just loose them all and start over again
Thanks for the explanation. I´ve been experimenting for weeks with my snare in a very hight tunning for reggae, included some drumhead broken 😅. The tunning like I want and the mic position to sound good in a song mix drive me crazy, but I will apply your teachings!
Wider snare wires on a snare drum, no matter what type of shell or depth, doesn't mean more sensitivity or presence., just as these guys have demonstrated nicely. It's like saying deeper depth bass drums will give you more bottom end and punch. Look where those bass drums are now. Being used as furniture. 😂 Give me a 12 or 14 depth bass drum over 16 or 18 any day, just like I'd sooner use 16, or 20 strand wires..
I enjoy your videos ALOT, but this one hits home alot, as I experiment all the time and with snare drums find them to be somewhat puzzling sometimes to get the snares close to perfection to how I prefer them for articulation and clean sounding, and not too buzzy or snarry...
Cody, first let me say thank you for all you and the Crew do,... much appreciated. I have a question about mounting wires with string on a vintage 1960's Ludwig Acrolite with a Ludwig P83 snare strainer like in this Video. What string are you using and where can I get some of it at ???? It looks like it ties easily with an even PULL on the wires. Most of the string / cord I find is a little on the "thick" side and when I tie it, it becomes unbalanced or un-even on the PULL of the wires. (very annoying to deal with). Thanks in advance for any help. GOD Bless
You say that, with die-cast hoops, it's possible to have a backed out tension rod but not be able to hear it because of the hoop's rigidity. Yet, in your demonstration, a quarter turn difference was somewhat audible, and a half turn was very audible. How do those two things reconcile? I agree that a die-cast hoop can mask tuning inconsistencies when the differences aren't that large. But your demonstration clearly shows that, by a half turn (if not sooner), it's not masking anything anymore. If you mean that backed out tension rod can be inaudible if the adjacent tension rods are also over-tightened to compensate, then you should say so in your explanation.
Yes but my 6.5” deep brass snare rim shots hit the chest of the people in the back row of the venue which a wood snare can’t do (I play alone in my basement it doesn’t matter)
There IS a coated snare side head! The Remo Doplomat M5. It's a 5 mil coated orchestral batter head, but in the same thickess as the Emperor snare side or an Evans 500
Die-cast hoops are a different game altogether. Once the tension is off, I often start from very loose again, as it's the only way I can hear the tension of each lug. There's also the method of loosening a single lug to fingertight, then tightening it say a half-turn. Repeat this at every lug, maybe for two rounds. If the bearing edge is good, you might end up with the head in tune (same tension at every lug) without even listening in-between. Sort of a drum dial7tension watch method without a device.
Do you think die cast snare side hoops offer any advantage? My thinking is that they're pointless but I've never tried one. On a regular 3-flange hoop I can detune around the strainer to control buzz,
Great video! One can actually see what you're doing. There are other videos from your channel where you only describe what you do, but here, it's a lot more interesting to see how you do the changes
You might have tuned down instead of up, loosening instea of tightening. Then the head might still have some hidden slack beyond the bearing edge that only comes out when you play it. Always tighten from below, loosen before if necessary.
I cant get my snare to stop ringing really bad.Its not a good ring its a terrible ring I cant get it to sound good at all.I've never been great at tuning though.I taught myself to play so tuning was something I tried to learn from videos and I just cant get it right no matter how much I try.
Unless you have a less common snare system like the parallel action snares found on drums like the Ludwig Super Sensitive, the wires are generally shorter in length than the diameter of the shell. 14” wires are for a 14” drum but are shorter in length so that the end plates don’t sit on the bearing edge. It’s important to note that wire lengths, even for a given shell diameter, can vary quite a bit.
@@SoundsLikeADrum Thankyou for answering. I just watch this episode "Shorter Snare Wires Solve Problems | Season Four, Episode 14". As a beginner it helped a lot for me to understand this. Love and Laser beams from Philippines!
About 12 years ago, I saw a picture of a drummer playing with what looked like 2 zildjian master sound bottom hi hats. Both top and bottom were those wavy hats. I thought it was crazy, but I decided to experiment with it. I got a 14” Zildjian A Mastersound bottom hat as my bottom and a 14” Zildjian A Custom Mastersound bottom hat as my top. It was weird at first, but after a few songs with them, it just felt right. Still one of my favorite pairs to play to this day.
My at home / jazz hats consists of an old Istanbul K as Top (have to look up which stamp) and either a lighter Zanki or a much heavier Tosco with two air holes as bottom. Have experimented a lot and own several single Tops/Bottoms. I do the same with drums, have a lot of orphans and mix them up regularly. If it works, it works!😂 Great content by the way!
