Snare damping????

[mikel]

What is the strangest damping you have seen on a snare?

I have just returned from a day at the Marciac Jazz Festival in France and had an eye opening experience.

After lunch we were going to sit at one of the outdoor cafes to watch a band covering the lunch break. They sounded really good, especially the drummer, and as I walked past them I gave his kit the usual once over. A lovely Yamaha SC, one up one down, and as he was playing I noticed a splash cymbal placed on his snare, I presume to dampen it as they were playing fairly quietly. This, not surprisingly, left little room to hit the head, but he was playing superb jazz, comping and fills etc.

The band are called The Edmund Bilal Band and they play 90% original material. Sax, drums, bass, guitar and keys and they are all excellent musicians playing complex Weather Report type stuff, amongst other styles.

But here is the thing as we got more and more into the band, and me particularly enjoying this very good drummer, he took the cymbal off the snare between songs and replaced it with the bass players rubber flip flop !!!!!!!!

He still sounded great and continued his effortless playing.

Anyone else got any strange, to me at least, damping/drum equipment stories?

[Anthony Amodeo]

I'm sure the cymbal was not for dampening

lots of guys use cymbals, hooves, and other things on the snare to create certain affects

see Eric Harland, Benny Greb ...and countless others

...although I have seen lots of different dampening techniques

a lot of the old timers use their wallets
I had a producer once put an old LP on my snare ...it actually gave a great disco like sound on recording
Ringo used a towel over the whole drum
etc etc .....

[zarrdoss]

I bought an old snare once and it sounded dead, when I got it home it was completely full of polyfill, it had the older white reso and coated batter so I could not see in it. I have also put Dynamat inside the shell on an old cheap steel snare that rang horribly like a bell every time you hit it. The strangest to me is just half a sheet of notebook paper, it does not seem like it should work but it does.

[mikel]

Originally Posted by Gvdadrummasum

I'm sure the cymbal was not for dampening

lots of guys use cymbals, hooves, and other things on the snare to create certain affects

see Eric Harland, Benny Greb ...and countless others

...although I have seen lots of different dampening techniques

a lot of the old timers use their wallets
I had a producer once put an old LP on my snare ...it actually gave a great disco like sound on recording
Ringo used a towel over the whole drum
etc etc .....

Yes, we have all heard of the wallets etc on snares, didnt need a history lesson, but a flip flop??

[Anthony Amodeo]

Originally Posted by mikel

Yes, we have all heard of the wallets etc on snares, didnt need a history lesson, but a flip flop??

any reason why you are constantly a dick to me ?

did you not ask for some dampening tactics ?

sure....why not a flip flop....they were having fun

...and that was no history lesson....if you need one let me know

[mikel]

Originally Posted by Gvdadrummasum

any reason why you are constantly a dick to me ?

did you not ask for some dampening tactics ?

sure....why not a flip flop....they were having fun

...and that was no history lesson....if you need one let me know

I may be a dick, no change there, but constantly a dick to you???? I dont recall ever having a digital conversation with you on this forum.

It was strange damping during a live set I was looking at, not during recording, and I only brought it up as a light hearted post, hoping for some anecdotes. Perhaps someone using a live hamster an there snare.

Ah well, I will be more careful what I say next time, I am not looking to make enemies.

[SergiuM]

Like GV said, it wasn't for dampening. If it was for dampening people would just put 10 pieces of moongel on their snare. It was for the unique sound, Benny Greb has a nice video of him demonstrating it

[blastbeatkeeper]

When I first got my Sonor Phonics, it had the original snare side head and wires on it. So when I went to change them out, the previous owner, who was a jazz drummer and Music Professor at a local college, actually took rubber tube, cut it to length to fit the inside of the bearing edge on the snare side, then plugged one end, filled the other with BB's, and plugged the other end. He THEN took the guts out of 10 Bic pens, stuffed them full of BBs as well, and stood them vertically in between another hollow rubber tube on the batter side bearing edge and the BB filled tube, then put the heads on. I still have all 10 pens and rubber tubing...

[Nickropolis]

Originally Posted by blastbeatkeeper

When I first got my Sonor Phonics, it had the original snare side head and wires on it. So when I went to change them out, the previous owner, who was a jazz drummer and Music Professor at a local college, actually took rubber tube, cut it to length to fit the inside of the bearing edge on the snare side, then plugged one end, filled the other with BB's, and plugged the other end. He THEN took the guts out of 10 Bic pens, stuffed them full of BBs as well, and stood them vertically in between another hollow rubber tube on the batter side bearing edge and the BB filled tube, then put the heads on. I still have all 10 pens and rubber tubing...

That is not even something I would come up with if someone told me to do the most elaborate ghetto rig that I could possibly dream up.

[RollingStone000]

Originally Posted by blastbeatkeeper

When I first got my Sonor Phonics, it had the original snare side head and wires on it. So when I went to change them out, the previous owner, who was a jazz drummer and Music Professor at a local college, actually took rubber tube, cut it to length to fit the inside of the bearing edge on the snare side, then plugged one end, filled the other with BB's, and plugged the other end. He THEN took the guts out of 10 Bic pens, stuffed them full of BBs as well, and stood them vertically in between another hollow rubber tube on the batter side bearing edge and the BB filled tube, then put the heads on. I still have all 10 pens and rubber tubing...

*Facepalm* What! I wish there were pictures of that.

[longgun]

Originally Posted by blastbeatkeeper

When I first got my Sonor Phonics, it had the original snare side head and wires on it. So when I went to change them out, the previous owner, who was a jazz drummer and Music Professor at a local college, actually took rubber tube, cut it to length to fit the inside of the bearing edge on the snare side, then plugged one end, filled the other with BB's, and plugged the other end. He THEN took the guts out of 10 Bic pens, stuffed them full of BBs as well, and stood them vertically in between another hollow rubber tube on the batter side bearing edge and the BB filled tube, then put the heads on. I still have all 10 pens and rubber tubing...

...Wow....can honestly say I've never heard or seen anything like that....any pics?

[SergiuM]

Originally Posted by blastbeatkeeper

When I first got my Sonor Phonics, it had the original snare side head and wires on it. So when I went to change them out, the previous owner, who was a jazz drummer and Music Professor at a local college, actually took rubber tube, cut it to length to fit the inside of the bearing edge on the snare side, then plugged one end, filled the other with BB's, and plugged the other end. He THEN took the guts out of 10 Bic pens, stuffed them full of BBs as well, and stood them vertically in between another hollow rubber tube on the batter side bearing edge and the BB filled tube, then put the heads on. I still have all 10 pens and rubber tubing...

how on earth did it SOUND??

[blastbeatkeeper]

Unfortunately, no pics of this....idea....of his, but it really didnt sound [i]that[i] bad, from what I remember. I mean, I was young (20) when this went down, so I really didnt know what to do in that situation, and I have been kicking myself ever since. I even called my local music shop and described in detail what I was looking at. The guy I talked to was dumbfounded. The only possible explanation he gave me was he was trying to dampen the shell, but still have the heads untouched, and then to use the tone control to dampen any more overtones out of the head. It makes sense, I just wish I had gotten pics of it.