Snare Tuning....

[PocketPlayer]

Ditto on the Simon sound! [img]wink.gif[/img] That crack off the first tune from his video cranks!

[Randy walker]

Yeah absolutly. For a strong sound and let's face it, the snare is the main voice of the kit, this is how the bottom head should be set up.
The tension around the snare wires is for response, if the snares rattle too much you can always loosen a half turn around the wires. But because the snare bed is a deep concave where the wires sit, if you were to just tension the bottom head equal, the wires would not neccesarly sit right on the head, therefore not produce a more round and pleasing tone.
My theory is experiment, try it for yourself and see what it does. You can't hurt the drum by doing this, plus it puts you more in touch with your gear and the various possibilities of tones you can get from it.
Slacking the top head would be if you want a fatter ballad type sound from the drum. I would go for a nice tension of the top head, not too loose but enough taughtness for ghost notes and not too tight to just choke the drum out, although if you go the really tight top head, you can always loosen the snare wires to compensate and recover the tone of the drum back and not choke it out.

BTW, you might try a wood hoop just on the top of that Black Beauty, the sound might really open your eyes. [img]wink.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 26, 2004 12:15 PM: Message edited by: Randy Walker ]</font>

[ladanny]

The thing about Simon's great drum sound is that he's also an incredible audio engineer and KNOWS how to make drums sound GREAT. So it's a combination of great drum sound, GREAT engineering, great equipment, and great ears.

[Randy walker]

Tuning the bottom head tight won't choke the drum, it's how tightly you put the snare wires to the bottom head that chokes the drum.
Simon tunes his bottom head VERY tight, medium tension on the wires and the top head tight to feel.

Switching from a 2ply head to a single is going to give off a more open sound verses a drier less overtone.

[tombo74]

Originally posted by Randy Walker:
Bottom head should be table tight with the lugs around the snare bed just a tad tighter. Top head tight or to desired feel and sound. Then loosen the snares just a tad before they start to completly rattle, but enough to get some nice response.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This works!!
I also thought my bottom head was tight enough. Now I feel the shell is on the verge of imploding... but I gained sensitivity in zones where I didn't have that much! Plus, it opened up the sound a bit more [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] .

Try this at home! And thanks Mr. RW

[Randy walker]

Glad that it worked for you. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]