I think most of the sound the snare produced on your “mistake” examples were rather interesting and will be preferred by different drummers for various applications. As long as the snare functions properly mechanically, “proper” sound is subjective.
DRUM.DOG totally agree on that one too. Exploring sound is the musician’s daily adventure. The title/headline was a bit misleading and i know it was written in perception of getting more clicks, but I would have been interested still if it was a straightforward tuning principles video. In my humble opinion the “click bait” headlining trend is polluting RU-vid with false pretences. Having said that, overall I think your videos are well made, clear, concise and very informative. More power to your channel!
Right, but like any tuning video, the target audience is geared towards people who aren't doing these things intentionally. If you're a seasoned musician and you know how and when to break the rules, it's a little bit different.
Professional drummer of 31 years here. These are more preferences to steer people towards mainstream applications and styles. Some people hate moongel, some people like it. Some people like dryer tuning, crisp snare, tight snare, high pitched on large snare, high pitched on small snare, I've even heard drummers record an entire album with NO snare chains on....the result was amazing. Experiment, have fun, everyone.
I've been drumming since i was a kid but never looked into drum mechanics so my snare has always sounded pretty bad and i've always used damping to excuse it but this video just made it really easy to understand everything. So my snare finally sounds good, I appreciate you so much.
Personally, on my Supra early 60's 400 I'll only use Remo heads, both sides, ambassador coated batter side and reso side I'll use a diplomat. I tune the reso side fairly tight so it let's the snare wires bounce about and sizzle well to define ghost note's, the batter side I'll tune up fairly tight too, depending on the Room I'm in as well. I'll also use a 14" muffle ring if the Room is too live with tiles or reflective surfaces, you know what some venues can be like. The brook in Southampton for instance, behind the drum stage is a carpeted wall!! So no muffling needed there, otherwise I'll use a pot of moongel tabs, as you do, handy gizmos indeed. Great video. Thank you.
Bottom leveled to the ruler and adjusted to the wires (sometimes harder with diecast hoops), top tuned to about mid, just not to make it sound dead, not to low, not to high, amount of springs and muffling adjusted to taste. That's all, my snares sound as they should do 😉
Just bought a new 14x6.5" brass snare and haven't found the sweet sound yet but will check your 6 points tobtry to remove that overly ringing sound. Any advice on snare tension (rather than positioning)?
Godsmack - Keep away..... I know that was a DW snare. Tommy Stewart was endorsed by DW at the time. I think he still is to this day. I assume that was a 4x14 solid maple snare on the record. I could be wrong.
I use a DW Collectors Maple Snare 14"x6,5" with Remo coated Ambassador on Top. I tune the Reso table tight by ear and the Top to 392Hz (with "tune bot studio") on each Rod. Wire-tension is medium-low. No damping. I love this bright cutting sound! :D
No, don't crank the reso! Don't! Crankig it up you are killing the shell resonance and all you can hear are snare wires without any body. Also, you are very wrong about low tuned batter head. Sadly, you seems to be higher pitch fan so you can't be objective about the matter. Other mistakes are (more-less) well stated.
Always go for the sound you like, most people know that cranking bottom or batter head kills a lot of body in your snare and can make snare wires go either wild or extra short, but playing extreme music is not so common, most extreme metal drummers go for cranked snares because of rebound and are used to this sound. I've been there also, but now I grew up a little bit and now I want a lot more sound from my drums, doesn't matter if I play jazz or tech death, I want my drums to sound epic, making them dead is a way for some drummers, but then after some time you grew up and discover the magic of proper tuning and muffling and it makes your drumming life a lot better
Honestly... they all sound great, if you ask me. Of course the one thing won't work as well as another in different musical contexts, but this isn't sh* at all.
