→ Learn ANY Song by Ear in 60 Minutes Without Using Drum Tabs or Video Tutorials | Download my FREE, 23p. PDF guide, “5 Steps to Learning Any Song in Under an Hour.” www.thenonglamorousdrummer.com/5-steps-to-learning-any-song-in-under-an-hour
Learn a song in 1 hr. ! I can listen too a song once and play it 5 mins. after ward ! Well I have been playing drums for 45 years , so music composition and arrangements are child's play too me now! And about snare drum ring , always replace the batter head ( I always use Remo coated Ambassador with a floating Remo E-ring ) as soon as you start to see indentations and coating pop off! And use a 48 strand snare strainer , you get better buzzroll response!
Nice to see you work through that low snare tuning. I remember when I started learning the drums and watching tuning videos that made tuning look too easy, and then I’d try and it wouldn’t sound close at all. Actually watching you try something and go “Oh that sounds bad, let’s try something else” is super helpful. Thanks man!
Our ears can't make any sense of all the overtones and ringing of a drum when starting out. Eventually our ears start to understand and hear the musicality of it.
Hey Stephen, I think there's still one more "last resort" step, and that would be to check the snare beds. I bought a custom snare drum years ago that should have sounded great but had this weird buzz that just wouldn't go away. So I disassembled the drum and had a good look at the shell, and realized it had virtually no beds cut at all. Essentially the wires weren't able to hug the reso head as they should. After watching a couple videos on how to cut snare beds, I was able to take a file to the shell and get those beds to be a bit deeper. After that the wires fit more snugly and uniform the head, which got rid of that weird ring. I know this is a fairly unique scenario but since then, I've seen snares on the shelf at drum shops with no beds at all. So I've learned to always check my snare drums for adequate snare beds.
37 years playing drums. The one thing that helped me tune my snares better than anything was tuning the bottom head to "finger tight." Then tune the batter head. I never crank my resonant head. I get EXCELLENT results by just tuning the batter head tighter than the resonant and adjusting the snare tension. Saved me SO much time over the years.
Interesting, gonna try that, I've been loosening my snare side head little by little but gonna try that, I have a pdp steel snare that's super annoying
Another thing to remember about snare ring is that it will be significantly drowned out in a mix\full band setting. I remember recording a drum track that I was sure would sound terrible because of how ringy the snare was, but in the full mix you only heard a smidge of the ring and it sounded great. If I had over-dampened the snare so it didn't ring so much while tracking, it wouldn't have sounded so good in the final mix.
Puresound wires are great... but those Cotter Pins will slip at the worst time possible and ruin your recording. Regular straps work just fine. I really enjoyed this epsidoe, though! Great job!
I agree with this 100% I bought a 20 thread Puresound brass that came with those "Quick shit" straps, and I couldn't actually never get them to sound properly. (As you showed in your video they get misaligned) so I swapped the straps for the oldschool vintage cords that I had on the old snare wires, and worked like a charm.
@@Chiroman527 No. A Drumdial, mechanically, measures the tension of the head at each lug. The Tunebot measures the tone produced by the drum. ...like a guitar tuner. Best of all worlds would be to get your tension even with a Drumdial then use a Tunebot to fine tune your tone. You can also just download an app to measure the tone. Though YMMV.
Thanks for the share of the drum dial value, there is also a way to manage that with sticker stich to the botom head, you can also tape the snare directly to the botom head but it muffle a lot.
The best way to get a great sound is to keep tuning, keep trying different things and keep recording each time and listen back. If you're in a hurry forget it this is going to take some time LOL
Great video. Two more tips before you replace the snare: 1) Replace the hoops 2) Have the bearing edge reground. Sometimes the bearing edge is either warped or inconsistent, or cut in a way that produces higher overtones. I wish you had also used a ring muffler and moongel, just to hear the difference on your particular snare. I stopped using moongel but love the thin hoop I got.
I have the Puresound wires, but what's even better are the 42 strand ones made by Masshoff which I just recently discovered and the difference is huge!
1 additional note, adding a 2nd mic to the underside of the snare to catch more of the snare's snap, gives a slightly drier sound with more of a crack without compromising the tone. This will allow you to effectively mask the ring from the batter head.
@@conradleffman8393 personally I don't know what the big deal is about hitting directly in the center of the drum. Yes, it gives a consistent tone but there are different tones in different parts of the head. My snares all have two distinct stick mark zones. My right stick hits center right and my left hits center left mainly because when I hit the snare with my left stick I essentially hit the head off center and hit the rim at the same time giving off a really nice pop. I like that tone better than just hitting the head in the center. And when I do a singles roll I essentially do the same with the right stick on the right side. Just off center. Just do you. Find the part of the head that gives you the tone you like and hit it there.
@@michaeldeloach838 I've always thought about this too, I really like to play around different areas of the snare at different times. I feel like having one tiny area that gets hit just means a lot of value from the snare is lost because many of it's sounds aren't being used.
Take all the advice you can on drum tuning while becoming more prolific at it. Don't forget that new heads will almost always sound better. Seating the heads properly in the beginning also helps, especially if the shell has imperfections on the mating surface, some wax or a candle can smooth it out. I'm going to definitely try put the jangly thing. Great video!
63 here and I still ALWAYS go for tight top batter and a slightly more lower bottom head! Great sound and great speed!! A Tama tension watch has a reference that comes with for top and bottom heads per drum size that really helps including your snare that I like. Snare drum is a little different but in general all toms and such are tuned lower on the bottom slightly. keeps overtones and ring to a minimum!! Investing in one will get you to a point where you don't need to use it over time!! K I like dead ringers too Remo!!!
Good video with clear explanation. I tuned my snare with a sponge between the snare holder and the snares of the snaredrum. Sounds exellent without ringing for studio recordings.
I'm new to tuning drums .. I just started watching tunin video's lately. One thing that I just learned that is very important to me is where you said not to worry about tuning your resonant head to tight, just don't tune it too loose/low. That I will experiment with now. I'm glad you hit the bottom head and then the top head so that I now actually have something to work with. Before I turned on your video, I turned on my complete sound system here, good quality main speakers and 300 watt subwoofer so I think I got a good representation of what the actual sound is from that snare drum .. thank you for posting by the way.
I hated the way my snare made echo and ring tones , so I took your advice and put a jiggly bracelet on my snare Wow it sounds amazing now . Its like magic I love playing my snare again. I didn't need to do any other tuning thank you for the great advice .
Judging my how ridiculously cranked his bottom head was, it sounds like he might have gotten that piece of awful advice from this video... YOU CAN TUNE YOUR SNARE RESO HEAD TOO HIGH. MOST PEOPLE DO.
last tip actually the most worthy, i recorded with my band 4 weeks ago and it was a hard to swallow pill that my snare practice isnt that good as i thought haha
another tip is to put a piece of felt the same width as the snare wires and about an inch in length to the bottom of your snare head, under the snare wires and centred. tightly tune the bottom head and tension the snare strainer, this will help especially when large amps make your snare rattle like crazy.
I ditched the Moon Gel because it eventually breaks down into a gooey, sticky mess that's difficult to remove, especially from the coated heads I prefer for, y'know, the brushwork. I now use the Trutones drum dampers, and so far, very good. They're much tougher and more tear-resistant than Moon Gels and if anything, even stickier. The downside is they stick so hard to each other, they're a bit difficult to deploy. A little soap and s rinse recharges them if they get dusty/dirty.
Lots of great content in this one. Thanks. Consistent time is crucial for anything coming before or after the beat to "fit" as you practice different consistent dynamics. When your're in your car at a red light, slapping your leg, the sound in the slap should be absolutely identical to the music. The effect of the drums in the recording should sound like it came from your leg- always, every time.
I play the snare drum a tiny bit higher than the centre with oak sticks. So its got more ring (Old school teacher) Evans Genera HD dry Hazy with the holes then cut a top muffling ring back to clear the holes by about 3mm. High bottom, medium high top head. Has worked well over the years for live using a old Pearl Export ELX 14 x 5 1/2 with the pure sound wires and had lots of sound engineers say it sounds great no problems. No ratyle no buzz. Have played in big/small venues and the sound guy has said "I almost turned the Mic off" 😮😂
#10:52 Going by harmonics, this is a case of forced vibrations(resonance), and one cannot avoid the snare buzzing on a hit on the tom since toms are tuned and harmonized as well. The snare drum, being the heart of it, may be left with its best tuning. I liked the idea of sacrificing a little bit of tune with the toms in order to break the resonance...
Thank you for this video! One interesting thing though, I have a Mapex Saturn III and my snare just never sounded quite right. It was when I LOWERED the snare side head a bit that it started to sound better. So I think on some snares, it actually helps not to crank the bottom head way up there. It's still tight, just not super cranked.
Love this to help me understand my snare better. Only use the one drum and we do a type of street drumming / street performance which can cover up a lot until I'm at home and was like yikes 😣 so exploring as much as I can now. Thanks 🙏🏻
My problem was resonation of a certain frequency. I tune the top head sharper than the lower head. That helps a lot. I also seen others tune the bottom head sharper. It depends on how long you want the ring. The main thing is that the head is tuned evenly. That's true for the toms too. You need a piccolo snare to get that Red Hot Chili Peppers sound. Wood sounds more marching band. Metal rims to me sounds best. He shows doing a few lugs loose. You can rip a head that way. I was brought up playing percussion in a Hispanic nightclub. Alternative, country, & metal drummers don't tune the same. I also use splash & Chinese cymbals in my set. I noticed he doesn't have them.
I did years ago take a wash cloth, wad it up, put it under the snare drum between the middle of the snares and the chrome stand. It works great to deaden snare ring . You are welcome 😀
One more technic to reduce/eliminate over ring is on batter head after tuning up evenly is to: give a further slight 1/10th turn on the 9, 10, 11, 12 o Clock tuning lugs. Try it! Its insanely effective & doesn't compromise or chock the pitch.
I had this dw design snare I could not make sound decent for the life of me. I ended up just selling it and buying a higher priced dw collectors snare. I agree it won’t always solve your problem, it did solve mine lol. It sounded fantastic out of the box
This video is aces!! My favorite of yours so far. Whatever magic you sprinkled on it works. And what JG Drums said. Beds are too often overlooked, as well as bearing edges.
Hello! I like your videos. As a beginner I have a lot of questions.. for example, how do you protect your ears? What do you use? It would be great to get an advice from you :)
Excellent video. Very deep stuff. Tuning your snare "out of tune (with itself)" for a more complex fuller tone(s), that helps kill the age old snare ringy problem. Wow. A++ Thank you for the insights!
If your snares are too tight it will choke the drum. I personally like an open, not choked snare sound, but not too ringy. I have a cheap snare that sounds and feels better than my expensive DW snare drum. The reason is not the shell. The reason is that it has only 8 lugs, and lighter weight lugs and hoops. It feels totally comfortable to play. Bigger isn't always better. Also, the weather will obviously affect the feel and sound of a snare drum.
There's essentially 11+ main factors that will determine the sound of a snare drum. 1. The shell material 2. The bearing edges 9snare bed) of the shell and whether the drum has reinforcement hoops or not, and their respective thickness. 3. The finish of the shell (for wood shells, raw unfinished, vs. a satin or primer coating, or a gloss finish on wood shells) 4. The thickness of the shell 5. The type of heads 6. The type of strainer, how many strands and the type of material and whether it covers the entire surface or just part of it. 7. The tension of the heads 8. The tension of the strainer.. 9. the type of sticks you are using. 10. The technique of how you are playing the drum. 11. The type of hoop, (materials and thickness). then when it comes to recording, the factors are the room acoustics/size, the type of microphone, placement, and what type of electronics/settings and the actual performance of the player, etc.
Great advice as always. If you want to hit your drums consistently in the centre, ‘the sweet spot’, make yourself a bottle practice pad. Take a soda bottle and glue a small, felt circle like the little pads that go under table legs to protect the floor, which you can buy at the dollar store. Hold the bottle between your knees and practice on the felt pad. I saw this in a video on youtube and the drummer consistently hits his drums dead centre all the time.
An interesting video. I play in a samba band and I put the snares on the top skin but without being too tight. A slightly rattly snare sound works with samba. Also I lay a rubber pad on the top skin to deaden a bad ring.
There are certain snare drums that will sound cheap no matter what. In my opinion this has to do with improperly cut snare beds. Also the amount of lugs has a lot to do with the way the snare resonates.Great video
“You can’t go too High on the bottom head”..... that’s not true at all 😅 Cranked too High it just starts to sound weird... And weird snare wire response
When I still played acoustics, I used to take a piece of material, cut it about 3/4 of a inch wide, and about 6 - 8" long, take the head off, and place it under the head, close to the edge, did this with all my drums coz I hated the ring. The closer to the center of the drum you went, the less ring you had, close to the side was best. My favourite snare sounds are not possible playing at home coz theybe added compression to the snare in the studio, giving it a great sound. That's why I play Edrums now.
Steve Albini made a video where he explains the difference between tuning the top and the bottom equally or tuning one side higher/lower than the other side. I'm not a drummer but he explained it, so that everyone can understand.
On a 13" snare that sweet spot in the middle can be very small. When recording I've found things get much easier with a bit of moongel (1 or a half piece) gets me much more consistent results without killing the decay altogether. I try to use them as little as possible, but sometimes I just need it.
All good tips, I recommend the ambassador X head and the coated CS head also will have less nasty overtones than a regular ambassador and last longer Bonus!
I love a good ring with a tone. Especially on recordings. Gives it personally. The tight over compressed sound is way overplayed and generic these days.
Well honestly I like my snare drum to be tight and crispy sound like a marching snare drum. But I eliminate the buzz sound when you hit the bass drum with the pedal that was the most annoying (To Me). No matter if I play with a 5x14" 6x14" or 3x14" or 3x13". That's the type of sound that I 100% love.
I fixed mine . I put 2 gel tabs inside and I cut the edge off a t-shirt and placed it across the underneath the rim then tightened all up. There now it's fixed
Interesting as I too had to adjust my snare for the mics and the room. I actually have 2 snares a 14x5 and a 13x4 Both I dampened the heads with a tea towel. The 13x4 has a tight crisp snap that was actually too snappy so I placed a tissue (Kleenex) draped over the snare wires to dampen the contact. Turned out perfect on playback. So I'm happy.
Have you ever used a Drum Dial? I used to tune this way and it sux. A drum in tune with its self sounds way better. There are other ways to get rid of ring and over tone. Dead ringers work well. Tape some times. I use stick on pantie liners on the bottom of my floor toms and they sound great. Gels have their place also. Something I like, is using Evans hydraulic batter heads on the bottom of my rack toms. They look better because they come in colors and give the drum a more powerful sound with less ring.
Been ok ahi if for over a decade. I personally never had running problems. Not sure if it is cause I invested in Top of line drums. Fact, I notice no matter what tuning a top of the line Tom or snare will sounds amazing in any tuning
I finally decided after awhile that the Ambassador heads were not for me. I put Ambassador Xs on all my drums, and they're just too ringy all the way around, and they just take too much work to cut down on it. Especially on the bass drum. I'm gonna try some different heads now - I'm gonna use Steve Goold's setup of CS coated reverse black dot on the snare, Powerstroke 3 coated on the bass, and Emperor coated for the toms. However, I think Ambassadors would be awesome for jazz. If I were playing jazz, I would absolutely use Ambassadors.
there's one thing that vey few drummers think about to check is the build quality of the head rim. sometimes there's a little step where they're solded together. and that causes a bad sitting of the hoop on the head rim. bad contact = tuning nightmare and weird overtones. what i do in this case? i just take my good'ol trusty Dremel with high grain grinder and i flatten the step and i put one layer of paint tape all the way around on the top of the rim where the hoop is gonna sit. that tape layer will fill the little gaps and allow a full contact of both parts. result is night and day. you end up with a predictable easy to tune drum.
Get a ludwig super sensitive, no strings or straps. No matter how many times you drop the throw, it always comes back the same, with clarity and power.😁
I like my snare tight and poppy. I tighten the batter head about a half step lower than the resonant and tighten the snare wires as tight as I possibly can. Works for me
Amen brother. This video makes a ton of sense, especially coming from a drummer who has been playing for 20+ years and who also strives to perfect that desirable sound that each drummer expects to hear in each of our styles. There is definitely something beautiful about stepping back and reassessing the situation with a suttle approach while not forgetting to remember the simple tricks in which most of us tend to commonly overlook or write off. Also, great job with the delivery of each message and demonstrations.
hazy 300 snare side, 30 strand pure sound wires, evans hd dry batterside or remo reverse dot battter and two moon gels since the plastic evans e ring flys off when you play fast and hard
Hey Stephen. I am a subscriber to your channel and while surfing drum tuning this video came up. I want to explain a "weird" occurrence which perhaps you can help explain. I have a DW Design Series Nickel over Brass 14 X 6.5 Snare that I purchased Used via Reverb in early 2021. It came with a HD Dry Batter head and standard clear single ply reso head. It was cranked high by the previous owner (who used the HD dry head which was not the original one). As soon as I played it out of the delivery box, it was vast improvement from the other snares that I had and have. My main kit is a PDP Concept Maple 6 Drum Kit - also purchased used via Guitar Center in 2021. I changed the PDP snare , 14 X 5.5 batter head to a HD dry one. About 6 weeks or so, I had to replace the HD dry head on the DW snare - bought and installed a new HD dry, re-installed reso head and the snare wires. I'm 71 yo, and a Resurrected after a 50 Year Absence [1969] , recreational drummer who is actually new to the art of Drum Tuning. I tuned the DW snare best I could, cranked it medium to high, yet I can not achieve that same sound that I had out of the Box. Then last week, while getting ready to play a session (Ilay about 1 hour a day to My Music), i set the DW atop of my 16 inch Floor Tom, placed the PDP snare in the stand and played. Then while doing a Fill, I hit the DW snare and BINGO... it sounded great - that nice LUDWIG Supraphonic , Jon Bonham sound that I sought!!. Lifted the drum off the Tom and it was not the same. Placing the PDP Maple Snare had a sound improvement atop the Floor Tom. I have posted the same at various Drummer forums. One poster said that this was actually engaging the resonance of the Tom. Another poster jokingly said that I invented a new Snare Stand!! I tried putting a old Remo clear batter head (16 inches) in the snare basket, and place the DW snare on that. The sound was slightly better but not what achieved sitting on the Floor Tom. FWIW, I have Evans G2 Coated batter heads on my 2 Floor Toms & I use Evans E-Rings (which work great to help eliminate any annoying Over Ringing. Nothing on the Snares. Your thoughts are much appreciated. Another consideration is that I have cheapo Griffin Piccolo 13 X 3.5 Snare which I place on top of the PDP snare in the stand that enhances the sound of the Griffin a lot. The Griffin snare has a HD dry batter head as well.
At the tuning is important more so if you are playing alone with no backup music but with a whole band I think you need to tune what it sounds like with the whole band because the whole band will make the ringing almost negligible
Dont Forget to mention the placement of the mics! You can find great ways to get the sound you want. Just some milmimeters will show a big difference.. The focus of the mic and the distance are important !
Insightful and clear, but you might want to discuss the tuning of the resonant head, e.g. tightness/ looseness compared to batter. There’s a lot to explore on the dark side. Lol.
If you’re doing surf music from the 60’s it’s has a lot of rim shots on your snare when it’s turned high. Have a extra snare drum for lower tones 🥁🏄♂️
Stephen, If this snare had wooden hoops would you still do these steps or would you change in some way? I ask because I have one and it is my problem child. I consider putting metal hoops on it in hopes it will be easier to cope with. But maybe there is another solution. Thanks very helpful video
I cured a lot of those problems by moving the drums around the room. Center vs the corner of the room for example. And every drum is different. A better solution if one can afford it, is have several different snare drums.
C.R. Blankenship depends on the drum set. The Gretsch broadcasters sounded best in the center of the room, the Yamaha club custom jazz kit did better closer to the wall. Snare drums varied. When one of the snare drums had sympathetic buzz, I cured it by changing the the snare drums..
Just was having trouble with a cheap snare i own, Will probably Buy a new head as the one it has is pretty worn out (it still holds tension alright though)
There's not that much tension used in drum set tuning, as opposed to say marching stratosphere tuning, that detuning a lug or 2 would cause harm to a shell, especially at that low tuning. At least in my opinion. If you put a Kevlar head that has a rediculously high tuning ability on a set snare and cranking it up to those crazy high marching snare tensions and then detune a couple of lugs then yes, but if you're that high to begin with your gonna put your shell in danger regardless of what you do.
I actually kind of like the ring demonstrated with not hitting dead center. One of my favorite songs has a snare with a very high and very obvious ring that it almost doesn't even sound like a snare drum. The worst ring for me always sounded like feedback.
Always check the head if you have issues. I got a used snare that I couldn't tune right. Found out after trying everything that the head was broken with the resin coming out of the aluminum hoop on one side. Aside of that the overall look was almost immaculate so it fooled me. :/
→ Learn ANY Song by Ear in 60 Minutes Without Using Drum Tabs or Video Tutorials | Download my FREE, 23p. PDF guide, “5 Steps to Learning Any Song in Under an Hour.” www.thenonglamorousdrummer.com/5-steps-to-learning-any-song-in-under-an-hour
Learn a song in 1 hr. ! I can listen too a song once and play it 5 mins. after ward ! Well I have been playing drums for 45 years , so music composition and arrangements are child's play too me now! And about snare drum ring , always replace the batter head ( I always use Remo coated Ambassador with a floating
Remo E-ring ) as soon as you start to
see indentations and coating pop off! And use a 48 strand snare strainer , you get better buzzroll response!
Nice to see you work through that low snare tuning. I remember when I started learning the drums and watching tuning videos that made tuning look too easy, and then I’d try and it wouldn’t sound close at all. Actually watching you try something and go “Oh that sounds bad, let’s try something else” is super helpful. Thanks man!
Our ears can't make any sense of all the overtones and ringing of a drum when starting out. Eventually our ears start to understand and hear the musicality of it.
Exactly
Hey Stephen, I think there's still one more "last resort" step, and that would be to check the snare beds. I bought a custom snare drum years ago that should have sounded great but had this weird buzz that just wouldn't go away. So I disassembled the drum and had a good look at the shell, and realized it had virtually no beds cut at all.
Essentially the wires weren't able to hug the reso head as they should. After watching a couple videos on how to cut snare beds, I was able to take a file to the shell and get those beds to be a bit deeper. After that the wires fit more snugly and uniform the head, which got rid of that weird ring.
I know this is a fairly unique scenario but since then, I've seen snares on the shelf at drum shops with no beds at all. So I've learned to always check my snare drums for adequate snare beds.
Some snare beds are very wide and smoothed out so they're difficult to see unless you put the drum on a flat surface.
Bad advice. It did not work with my electronic drumset.
Because on electronic drums you need to trust drum module on sound
@@BlackBallsImMyMouth dude he’s joking
@@BlackBallsImMyMouth woooooooooooosh
one could argue, electronic drums, are not drums ... at all
Sarcasm alert. ... I dont use bottom heads on my ellectric drumset so this wouldnt work for me either. D'OH
37 years playing drums. The one thing that helped me tune my snares better than anything was tuning the bottom head to "finger tight." Then tune the batter head. I never crank my resonant head. I get EXCELLENT results by just tuning the batter head tighter than the resonant and adjusting the snare tension. Saved me SO much time over the years.
Mate just tried your idea and it works a treat . The only difference I went half a turn above finger tight . thanks Pete
Interesting, gonna try that, I've been loosening my snare side head little by little but gonna try that, I have a pdp steel snare that's super annoying
@@stevepompei3694 It works really well with my Ludwig 6.5x14 steel snare. Cracks likes a Ludwig is supposed to. Sounds amazing!
I tried your trick! Best snare sound ever. Thanks!
Thanks for the tip.
Another thing to remember about snare ring is that it will be significantly drowned out in a mix\full band setting. I remember recording a drum track that I was sure would sound terrible because of how ringy the snare was, but in the full mix you only heard a smidge of the ring and it sounded great. If I had over-dampened the snare so it didn't ring so much while tracking, it wouldn't have sounded so good in the final mix.
Puresound wires are great... but those Cotter Pins will slip at the worst time possible and ruin your recording. Regular straps work just fine. I really enjoyed this epsidoe, though! Great job!
I agree with this 100%
I bought a 20 thread Puresound brass that came with those "Quick shit" straps, and I couldn't actually never get them to sound properly. (As you showed in your video they get misaligned) so I swapped the straps for the oldschool vintage cords that I had on the old snare wires, and worked like a charm.
The wear marks on this guys snare drum! Absolute control. Especially that tiny little spot in the center!
For drumdial users, I've found around 80 on the snare side works well for most tunings.
Drumdial solved my tuning problems. Before I kept hearing over tones and chasing them led nowhere. 88 on the top.
@@RalphWLundvall Hey Ralph, is a Tune Bot similar to a Drumdial?
@@Chiroman527 No. A Drumdial, mechanically, measures the tension of the head at each lug. The Tunebot measures the tone produced by the drum. ...like a guitar tuner. Best of all worlds would be to get your tension even with a Drumdial then use a Tunebot to fine tune your tone. You can also just download an app to measure the tone. Though YMMV.
Thanks for the share of the drum dial value, there is also a way to manage that with sticker stich to the botom head, you can also tape the snare directly to the botom head but it muffle a lot.
The last tip is the most important drum advice I heard in a while. Thank you!
I had a cheap set of hi hats that sounded bad until I learned how to play.
The best way to get a great sound is to keep tuning, keep trying different things and keep recording each time and listen back. If you're in a hurry forget it this is going to take some time LOL
Great video. Two more tips before you replace the snare:
1) Replace the hoops
2) Have the bearing edge reground. Sometimes the bearing edge is either warped or inconsistent, or cut in a way that produces higher overtones.
I wish you had also used a ring muffler and moongel, just to hear the difference on your particular snare. I stopped using moongel but love the thin hoop I got.
I think the ring muffler (Gadd's ring) works like the bracelet
Stephen Clark adds on his snare : up and down.
Wood hoop on batter only seems to help on low tone.
I have the Puresound wires, but what's even better are the 42 strand ones made by Masshoff which I just recently discovered and the difference is huge!
big thanks for that Masshoff tip))
@@TheLeon1032 no problem you won't be disappointed! If you look them up on YT you'll find the demonstration video on how they sound!
1 additional note, adding a 2nd mic to the underside of the snare to catch more of the snare's snap, gives a slightly drier sound with more of a crack without compromising the tone. This will allow you to effectively mask the ring from the batter head.
Perfect timing, I've been dealing with this problem from my snare
Subtle brag about hitting in the middle with that center dirt/worn mark. :D
Yh ikr, his are like a pinprick in the dead centre compared to mine, which have hit marks everywhere
@@conradleffman8393 personally I don't know what the big deal is about hitting directly in the center of the drum. Yes, it gives a consistent tone but there are different tones in different parts of the head. My snares all have two distinct stick mark zones. My right stick hits center right and my left hits center left mainly because when I hit the snare with my left stick I essentially hit the head off center and hit the rim at the same time giving off a really nice pop. I like that tone better than just hitting the head in the center. And when I do a singles roll I essentially do the same with the right stick on the right side. Just off center. Just do you. Find the part of the head that gives you the tone you like and hit it there.
@@michaeldeloach838 I've always thought about this too, I really like to play around different areas of the snare at different times. I feel like having one tiny area that gets hit just means a lot of value from the snare is lost because many of it's sounds aren't being used.
Take all the advice you can on drum tuning while becoming more prolific at it. Don't forget that new heads will almost always sound better. Seating the heads properly in the beginning also helps, especially if the shell has imperfections on the mating surface, some wax or a candle can smooth it out. I'm going to definitely try put the jangly thing. Great video!
Prolific? Do you mean proficient? Prolific means you make or have a lot of something.
63 here and I still ALWAYS go for tight top batter and a slightly more lower bottom head! Great sound and great speed!! A Tama tension watch has a reference that comes with for top and bottom heads per drum size that really helps including your snare that I like. Snare drum is a little different but in general all toms and such are tuned lower on the bottom slightly. keeps overtones and ring to a minimum!! Investing in one will get you to a point where you don't need to use it over time!! K I like dead ringers too Remo!!!
Good video with clear explanation. I tuned my snare with a sponge between the snare holder and the snares of the snaredrum. Sounds exellent without ringing for studio recordings.
This is the best video I’ve found so far to get the snare sound just right. De-tuning one of the lugs makes a huge difference. Thanks!
I'm new to tuning drums .. I just started watching tunin video's lately. One thing that I just learned that is very important to me is where you said not to worry about tuning your resonant head to tight, just don't tune it too loose/low. That I will experiment with now. I'm glad you hit the bottom head and then the top head so that I now actually have something to work with.
Before I turned on your video, I turned on my complete sound system here, good quality main speakers and 300 watt subwoofer so I think I got a good representation of what the actual sound is from that snare drum .. thank you for posting by the way.
I hated the way my snare made echo and ring tones , so I took your advice and put a jiggly bracelet on my snare Wow it sounds amazing now . Its like magic I love playing my snare again. I didn't need to do any other tuning thank you for the great advice .
Lars should've watched this before recording St. Anger.
Lars problem is more than just drum tuning.
Judging my how ridiculously cranked his bottom head was, it sounds like he might have gotten that piece of awful advice from this video... YOU CAN TUNE YOUR SNARE RESO HEAD TOO HIGH. MOST PEOPLE DO.
You all need to step outside and stop being so negative.
You’re beating a dead horse
it was intended. And sound awesome. Something fresh in their output
I love an open ringing snare. I never get complaints because the head is usually in tune so the ring is nice and not annoying
I agree. Also you don't hear the ringing in recordings.
It boggles my mind that some engineers will always want to climb out of the ceiling if they hear a snare ring for 30ms.
last tip actually the most worthy, i recorded with my band 4 weeks ago and it was a hard to swallow pill that my snare practice isnt that good as i thought haha
I'm just a noob bassist trying to learn more about drums
great video!
another tip is to put a piece of felt the same width as the snare wires and about an inch in length to the bottom of your snare head, under the snare wires and centred. tightly tune the bottom head and tension the snare strainer, this will help especially when large amps make your snare rattle like crazy.
I ditched the Moon Gel because it eventually breaks down into a gooey, sticky mess that's difficult to remove, especially from the coated heads I prefer for, y'know, the brushwork. I now use the Trutones drum dampers, and so far, very good. They're much tougher and more tear-resistant than Moon Gels and if anything, even stickier. The downside is they stick so hard to each other, they're a bit difficult to deploy. A little soap and s rinse recharges them if they get dusty/dirty.
Try drum dots
As a person who knows nothing about drums, I found the video very logical and informative. Thank you.
Lots of great content in this one. Thanks. Consistent time is crucial for anything coming before or after the beat to "fit" as you practice different consistent dynamics. When your're in your car at a red light, slapping your leg, the sound in the slap should be absolutely identical to the music. The effect of the drums in the recording should sound like it came from your leg- always, every time.
not usually a fan of lower tuned snares but yours sounds amazing. great video.🤘🏻🍻
I play the snare drum a tiny bit higher than the centre with oak sticks. So its got more ring (Old school teacher) Evans Genera HD dry Hazy with the holes then cut a top muffling ring back to clear the holes by about 3mm. High bottom, medium high top head. Has worked well over the years for live using a old Pearl Export ELX 14 x 5 1/2 with the pure sound wires and had lots of sound engineers say it sounds great no problems. No ratyle no buzz. Have played in big/small venues and the sound guy has said "I almost turned the Mic off" 😮😂
#10:52
Going by harmonics, this is a case of forced vibrations(resonance), and one cannot avoid the snare buzzing on a hit on the tom since toms are tuned and harmonized as well.
The snare drum, being the heart of it, may be left with its best tuning. I liked the idea of sacrificing a little bit of tune with the toms in order to break the resonance...
The vicious cycle continues
6:46 "cuz we wanna be dead right now" damn same
Thank you for this video! One interesting thing though, I have a Mapex Saturn III and my snare just never sounded quite right. It was when I LOWERED the snare side head a bit that it started to sound better. So I think on some snares, it actually helps not to crank the bottom head way up there. It's still tight, just not super cranked.
Love this to help me understand my snare better. Only use the one drum and we do a type of street drumming / street performance which can cover up a lot until I'm at home and was like yikes 😣 so exploring as much as I can now. Thanks 🙏🏻
My problem was resonation of a certain frequency. I tune the top head sharper than the lower head. That helps a lot. I also seen others tune the bottom head sharper. It depends on how long you want the ring. The main thing is that the head is tuned evenly. That's true for the toms too. You need a piccolo snare to get that Red Hot Chili Peppers sound. Wood sounds more marching band. Metal rims to me sounds best. He shows doing a few lugs loose. You can rip a head that way. I was brought up playing percussion in a Hispanic nightclub. Alternative, country, & metal drummers don't tune the same. I also use splash & Chinese cymbals in my set. I noticed he doesn't have them.
63 here and could not agree with you more! A Tama tension watch gives you parameters just like you said here. Nice job kid!!
I did years ago take a wash cloth, wad it up, put it under the snare drum between the middle of the snares and the chrome stand. It works great to deaden snare ring . You are welcome 😀
One more technic to reduce/eliminate over ring is on batter head after tuning up evenly is to: give a further slight 1/10th turn on the 9, 10, 11, 12 o Clock tuning lugs. Try it! Its insanely effective & doesn't compromise or chock the pitch.
I had this dw design snare I could not make sound decent for the life of me. I ended up just selling it and buying a higher priced dw collectors snare. I agree it won’t always solve your problem, it did solve mine lol. It sounded fantastic out of the box
This video is aces!! My favorite of yours so far. Whatever magic you sprinkled on it works. And what JG Drums said. Beds are too often overlooked, as well as bearing edges.
Hello! I like your videos. As a beginner I have a lot of questions.. for example, how do you protect your ears? What do you use? It would be great to get an advice from you :)
I had a ringy snare problem: I installed a "jingly metal thing" on it and it solved it: thanks for the tips!
Excellent video. Very deep stuff. Tuning your snare "out of tune (with itself)" for a more complex fuller tone(s), that helps kill the age old snare ringy problem. Wow.
A++ Thank you for the insights!
The low tuning is gonna to b a big help. I get frustrated with low tuning. Thx Jeff, really enjoy your channel 👍🤣👍👍👍
If your snares are too tight it will choke the drum. I personally like an open, not choked snare sound, but not too ringy. I have a cheap snare that sounds and feels better than my expensive DW snare drum. The reason is not the shell. The reason is that it has only 8 lugs, and lighter weight lugs and hoops. It feels totally comfortable to play. Bigger isn't always better. Also, the weather will obviously affect the feel and sound of a snare drum.
totally right: the amount of humidity can brighten your sound or dampen it.
There's essentially 11+ main factors that will determine the sound of a snare drum.
1. The shell material
2. The bearing edges 9snare bed) of the shell and whether the drum has reinforcement hoops or not, and their respective thickness.
3. The finish of the shell (for wood shells, raw unfinished, vs. a satin or primer coating, or a gloss finish on wood shells)
4. The thickness of the shell
5. The type of heads
6. The type of strainer, how many strands and the type of material and whether it covers the entire surface or just part of it.
7. The tension of the heads
8. The tension of the strainer..
9. the type of sticks you are using.
10. The technique of how you are playing the drum.
11. The type of hoop, (materials and thickness).
then when it comes to recording, the factors are the room acoustics/size, the type of microphone, placement, and what type of electronics/settings and the actual performance of the player, etc.
Great advice as always. If you want to hit your drums consistently in the centre, ‘the sweet spot’, make yourself a bottle practice pad.
Take a soda bottle and glue a small, felt circle like the little pads that go under table legs to protect the floor, which you can buy at the dollar store.
Hold the bottle between your knees
and practice on the felt pad.
I saw this in a video on youtube and
the drummer consistently hits his drums dead centre all the time.
An interesting video. I play in a samba band and I put the snares on the top skin but without being too tight. A slightly rattly snare sound works with samba. Also I lay a rubber pad on the top skin to deaden a bad ring.
This is the “Gold Standard” in snare drum tuning and sound design! Thank You!
I’m all about the art of tuning and it was cool to see some different ideas about tuning for different sounds. Very cool.
There are certain snare drums that will sound cheap no matter what. In my opinion this has to do with improperly cut snare beds. Also the amount of lugs has a lot to do with the way the snare resonates.Great video
“You can’t go too High on the bottom head”..... that’s not true at all 😅 Cranked too High it just starts to sound weird... And weird snare wire response
I lined the inside of mine with a piece of carpet under pad, worked perfect, works good on toms too, no need for ugly tape
When I still played acoustics, I used to take a piece of material, cut it about 3/4 of a inch wide, and about 6 - 8" long, take the head off, and place it under the head, close to the edge, did this with all my drums coz I hated the ring. The closer to the center of the drum you went, the less ring you had, close to the side was best.
My favourite snare sounds are not possible playing at home coz theybe added compression to the snare in the studio, giving it a great sound. That's why I play Edrums now.
Probably the best snare tuning tips video around, thanks!
Steve Albini made a video where he explains the difference between tuning the top and the bottom equally or tuning one side higher/lower than the other side. I'm not a drummer but he explained it, so that everyone can understand.
Steves one in a million
I put a piece of gel on the beater head, and another one on the resonant head, and it works wonderful.
Excellent video. Loved the metal bracelet on the snare. Nice quick effect/deadening for mid show snare sound change!
On a 13" snare that sweet spot in the middle can be very small. When recording I've found things get much easier with a bit of moongel (1 or a half piece) gets me much more consistent results without killing the decay altogether. I try to use them as little as possible, but sometimes I just need it.
@Nothing... Hah
This helped a lot, I nearly threw my snare out the window, no matter what I done I had this horrible buzz when tuned low
All good tips, I recommend the ambassador X head and the coated CS head also will have less nasty overtones than a regular ambassador and last longer Bonus!
Good video. Not what i was searching for but this absolutelty helps me with my second snare plans.
I love a good ring with a tone. Especially on recordings. Gives it personally. The tight over compressed sound is way overplayed and generic these days.
Well honestly I like my snare drum to be tight and crispy sound like a marching snare drum. But I eliminate the buzz sound when you hit the bass drum with the pedal that was the most annoying (To Me). No matter if I play with a 5x14" 6x14" or 3x14" or 3x13". That's the type of sound that I 100% love.
I love the ring because it’s very musical, especially in Jazz drumming.
I fixed mine . I put 2 gel tabs inside and I cut the edge off a t-shirt and placed it across the underneath the rim then tightened all up. There now it's fixed
Thank you for making your first point about consistency!
Interesting as I too had to adjust my snare for the mics and the room. I actually have 2 snares a 14x5 and a 13x4 Both I dampened the heads with a tea towel. The 13x4 has a tight crisp snap that was actually too snappy so I placed a tissue (Kleenex) draped over the snare wires to dampen the contact. Turned out perfect on playback. So I'm happy.
Have you ever used a Drum Dial? I used to tune this way and it sux. A drum in tune with its self sounds way better. There are other ways to get rid of ring and over tone. Dead ringers work well. Tape some times. I use stick on pantie liners on the bottom of my floor toms and they sound great. Gels have their place also. Something I like, is using Evans hydraulic batter heads on the bottom of my rack toms. They look better because they come in colors and give the drum a more powerful sound with less ring.
Been ok ahi if for over a decade. I personally never had running problems.
Not sure if it is cause I invested in Top of line drums. Fact, I notice no matter what tuning a top of the line Tom or snare will sounds amazing in any tuning
I actually really love the sound in the beginning where you said "meeh.. too flat" What did you do there?
That tone at the end with the low tuned snare took me right back to Lee Kerslake on Ozzy’s “Diary of a Madman” - The “Little Dolls” intro. Great tone.
I finally decided after awhile that the Ambassador heads were not for me. I put Ambassador Xs on all my drums, and they're just too ringy all the way around, and they just take too much work to cut down on it. Especially on the bass drum. I'm gonna try some different heads now - I'm gonna use Steve Goold's setup of CS coated reverse black dot on the snare, Powerstroke 3 coated on the bass, and Emperor coated for the toms.
However, I think Ambassadors would be awesome for jazz. If I were playing jazz, I would absolutely use Ambassadors.
there's one thing that vey few drummers think about to check is the build quality of the head rim. sometimes there's a little step where they're solded together. and that causes a bad sitting of the hoop on the head rim. bad contact = tuning nightmare and weird overtones.
what i do in this case? i just take my good'ol trusty Dremel with high grain grinder and i flatten the step and i put one layer of paint tape all the way around on the top of the rim where the hoop is gonna sit. that tape layer will fill the little gaps and allow a full contact of both parts. result is night and day. you end up with a predictable easy to tune drum.
Outstanding video Stephen. It was very thorough and provided helpful suggestions for reducing snare ring.
You’re doing incredible work my guy. You should be proud. Please keep it coming
Oh man, this makes SO much more sense. Thank you so much!
Get a ludwig super sensitive, no strings or straps. No matter how many times you drop the throw, it always comes back the same, with clarity and power.😁
Nice video! Experimenting with your drum sound is definitely an important part of getting your sound! 🥁❤
I like my snare tight and poppy. I tighten the batter head about a half step lower than the resonant and tighten the snare wires as tight as I possibly can. Works for me
Amen brother. This video makes a ton of sense, especially coming from a drummer who has been playing for 20+ years and who also strives to perfect that desirable sound that each drummer expects to hear in each of our styles. There is definitely something beautiful about stepping back and reassessing the situation with a suttle approach while not forgetting to remember the simple tricks in which most of us tend to commonly overlook or write off. Also, great job with the delivery of each message and demonstrations.
hazy 300 snare side, 30 strand pure sound wires, evans hd dry batterside or remo reverse dot battter and two moon gels since the plastic evans e ring flys off when you play fast and hard
Hey Stephen. I am a subscriber to your channel and while surfing drum tuning this video came up. I want to explain a "weird" occurrence which perhaps you can help explain. I have a DW Design Series Nickel over Brass 14 X 6.5 Snare that I purchased Used via Reverb in early 2021. It came with a HD Dry Batter head and standard clear single ply reso head. It was cranked high by the previous owner (who used the HD dry head which was not the original one). As soon as I played it out of the delivery box, it was vast improvement from the other snares that I had and have. My main kit is a PDP Concept Maple 6 Drum Kit - also purchased used via Guitar Center in 2021. I changed the PDP snare , 14 X 5.5 batter head to a HD dry one. About 6 weeks or so, I had to replace the HD dry head on the DW snare - bought and installed a new HD dry, re-installed reso head and the snare wires. I'm 71 yo, and a Resurrected after a 50 Year Absence [1969] , recreational drummer who is actually new to the art of Drum Tuning. I tuned the DW snare best I could, cranked it medium to high, yet I can not achieve that same sound that I had out of the Box. Then last week, while getting ready to play a session (Ilay about 1 hour a day to My Music), i set the DW atop of my 16 inch Floor Tom, placed the PDP snare in the stand and played. Then while doing a Fill, I hit the DW snare and BINGO... it sounded great - that nice LUDWIG Supraphonic , Jon Bonham sound that I sought!!. Lifted the drum off the Tom and it was not the same. Placing the PDP Maple Snare had a sound improvement atop the Floor Tom. I have posted the same at various Drummer forums. One poster said that this was actually engaging the resonance of the Tom. Another poster jokingly said that I invented a new Snare Stand!! I tried putting a old Remo clear batter head (16 inches) in the snare basket, and place the DW snare on that. The sound was slightly better but not what achieved sitting on the Floor Tom. FWIW, I have Evans G2 Coated batter heads on my 2 Floor Toms & I use Evans E-Rings (which work great to help eliminate any annoying Over Ringing. Nothing on the Snares. Your thoughts are much appreciated. Another consideration is that I have cheapo Griffin Piccolo 13 X 3.5 Snare which I place on top of the PDP snare in the stand that enhances the sound of the Griffin a lot. The Griffin snare has a HD dry batter head as well.
At the tuning is important more so if you are playing alone with no backup music but with a whole band I think you need to tune what it sounds like with the whole band because the whole band will make the ringing almost negligible
Really enjoyed this video. I noticed you play heel down, is this your way or do you do both heel up and down?
Nice sounding kit, too. Is it a Gretsch?
Love Gavin Harrison’s snare sound. Perfect 👍
Dont Forget to mention the placement of the mics! You can find great ways to get the sound you want. Just some milmimeters will show a big difference..
The focus of the mic and the distance are important !
Insightful and clear, but you might want to discuss the tuning of the resonant head, e.g. tightness/ looseness compared to batter. There’s a lot to explore on the dark side. Lol.
If you’re doing surf music from the 60’s it’s has a lot of rim shots on your snare when it’s turned high. Have a extra snare drum for lower tones 🥁🏄♂️
Thank you very much for this video! I found it a massive help when tuning my own snare
Bill Bruford might disagree !! I love the ring!!
Meu amigo , essa esteira da pure sound custa uma fortuna aqui no Brasil
Stephen, If this snare had wooden hoops would you still do these steps or would you change in some way? I ask because I have one and it is my problem child. I consider putting metal hoops on it in hopes it will be easier to cope with. But maybe there is another solution. Thanks very helpful video
I cured a lot of those problems by moving the drums around the room. Center vs the corner of the room for example. And every drum is different. A better solution if one can afford it, is have several different snare drums.
Which position in the room worked better?
C.R. Blankenship depends on the drum set. The Gretsch broadcasters sounded best in the center of the room, the Yamaha club custom jazz kit did better closer to the wall.
Snare drums varied. When one of the snare drums had sympathetic buzz, I cured it by changing the the snare drums..
@@elithepitbulldog2209 Interesting. Things to try!
better yet, several different rooms
drofnoise555 well actually, I’ve done that as well. Upstairs in the game room, and downstairs in the bedroom. The smaller bedroom was best
Just was having trouble with a cheap snare i own, Will probably Buy a new head as the one it has is pretty worn out (it still holds tension alright though)
There’s a debate that detuning one or two lugs may eventually result in a warped shell. I wonder if it’s true.
i heard of that too, and i also wonder the same thing
I wouldn't suggest trying it with any vintage drums but any modern snare drum (built in the last 30 years) you'll be fine.
There's not that much tension used in drum set tuning, as opposed to say marching stratosphere tuning, that detuning a lug or 2 would cause harm to a shell, especially at that low tuning. At least in my opinion.
If you put a Kevlar head that has a rediculously high tuning ability on a set snare and cranking it up to those crazy high marching snare tensions and then detune a couple of lugs then yes, but if you're that high to begin with your gonna put your shell in danger regardless of what you do.
Chris L so you're saying it IS true is what it sounds like
It won't work the shell but it can warp the hoops if it's a super cheap made hoop
I actually kind of like the ring demonstrated with not hitting dead center. One of my favorite songs has a snare with a very high and very obvious ring that it almost doesn't even sound like a snare drum.
The worst ring for me always sounded like feedback.
Always check the head if you have issues. I got a used snare that I couldn't tune right. Found out after trying everything that the head was broken with the resin coming out of the aluminum hoop on one side. Aside of that the overall look was almost immaculate so it fooled me. :/
Thank you for making this video, I’m definitely going to change the tuning on the snare side head on my ocp maple snare.