dissapointed with my snare

joeysnare

Silver Member
so my band hit the rocording studio a week ago and i thought everything would go great had my drums tunned to perfection, new skins and all. particularly my snare a joey jordison signature 13x6.5 steel, remo dipliomat on the bottom evens genera dry head on the top. it sounded beautiful ,a ton of pop and just enough resonance. i hear the play back..... GAH!!! it sounds weak and just terrible , i suspect this is because of the higher tuning and the thin shell. we messed around with it for days and just couldnt get a good sound out of it.

so the point of this thread is im looking for a wood snare something with a lot of pop and a little more character, im willing to spend up to about 700 canadian. any suggestions?
im looking for a sound akin to like what george kollias's snare sounds like on his new dvd if that helps.
 
Hey man. Sucks to hear about your snare. For a wood snare I would recommend a thick shell 7mm or more. Black Panther make excellent snares. The 14"x6.5" Walnut snare is probably the best one I've heard and I think it might be my next snare. It has a 8mm walnut shell and a great finish. Tama also make great snares and if your willing to spend 700 canadian tama might be a good choice, the Starphonic Bubinga snare is probably one of the nice snares I've heard and I'm pretty sure its under 700. It has an 8ply 7mm bubinga shell. The sound is magnificant. I'd also check out DW and Sonor both make great snares. Hope this helps!

Cheers.
 
Have you thought about a 6.5 Ludwig Supraphonic? I don't thing you could miss w/ this snare - and it's much less than 700 bucks.
 
I've not played your snare, so it would be hard for me to know what you are going for. The first thing I would do is get that Evans Dry head off of it. You said "GAH!!! it sounds weak" and that could be the problem. I've used that head in the past when I felt it necessary to tone down resonances or unwanted overtones. I don't know what you tried, but a coated single ply Ambassador (or similar) might just let that drum do what it does. As for a recommendation (I can already hear the groans) I am using a DW Edge and it is doing everything I could ask of it. It is a 'crack', not a pop... but it does a hybrid wood/metal thing that, to which, I am quickly becoming addicted. For the groaners.... you can also get a Superphonic for about half of that money. If you are playing metal type material, a stave shell in a dense wood would do the trick... Brady, Sleishman, Unix. Money can become an issue with those. Good luck!
 
In my experience that head records terribly.

Have you thought about Canadian companies? My Tempus fiberglass is my favorite 13" snare. Dunnett, George Way (owned by Ronn Dunnett but with a very
different product line), and Epek also make wonderful instruments.
 
I would try loosening the bottom head and the snares a wee bit. You may also want to try a single ply head. I don't think the size of the snare is the problem and I haven't see a JJ snare but maybe it is just too tight.
 
I would ditch that Diplomat snare side. I have never had luck getting a good full sound using a really thin snare side. a Hazy 300 or Ambassador snare would be best.

I also agree with switching out the Dry head as a batter, at least for the recording. The idea would be to shoot for a full tone with the idea that you can always shape the sound of the drum a little more during mastering. Having the drum muffled down to start, doesn't give you much to work with when you go to EQ, etc.
 
Hazy 300 for sure on the reso head.....I use Evans Reverse power dot on the batter....love the combo.


F
 
GAH!!! it sounds weak and just terrible , i suspect this is because of the higher tuning and the thin shell.

Sounds like you need a 14" snare drum. Thirteens sound weak by comparison
 
Don't forget to take into account the room, the mic choice and placement, and all that stuff. It will really shape your sound.
 
Sucks to here and I feel your pain but…. What they said…. Should likely have been more opened… single ply head… thinner bottom head. The first thing an average engineer will do is add on compression and other processing to beef up the tone. If it started out a little lifeless or flat this will only make it worse.
What mic’s were used on top vs. bottom? Was a bottom phase reversed mic used?

Here is an example of differences with fully processed vs. raw camera mic tone.
I have two links to the same video

Disregard the fact that this is an zillion dollar 80’s vintage Solid Tama Bell Brass snare that was borrowed.

First video is the recorded and processed sound from the studio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jmT64j0zCI

Second video is the raw track from the video camera mic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFPaR...eature=channel
 
hmmm i wonder if is just the head , if you've heard the jj sig snare before ,it barks in a big way i have tone it down for live shows. i got more attack out of it on a few songs by just rim shotting the whole song, but still it really sounds thin and in person it will take your head off. ive just been thinking about something with more body. dont get me wrong i love my jj snare for live shows but ive always wanted a wood snare but ive never been able to find one with as much pop or crack as my steel snare.
 
ive just been thinking about something with more body. dont get me wrong i love my jj snare for live shows but ive always wanted a wood snare but ive never been able to find one with as much pop or crack as my steel snare.

Worth looking at aluminium too, Joey.....unmistakably metal, but they can produce a lovely "woody" tone. I love my supras for this very reason.
 
Oh you’re a metal guy… In my sons Death Metal band he uses a relatively inexpensive Pear Masters MCX 6 ½ X 14. That’s what’s on the recordings on the MySpace page in my sig. It’s cranked hard but still just a single ambassador head and hazy 300 reso on the basic maple shell. Check it out… it seems to work decent in the genre.
I believe George used masters for years… now runs the masterworks says his sight.
http://www.myspace.com/dissentientmetal
 
Oh you’re a metal guy… In my sons Death Metal band he uses a relatively inexpensive Pear Masters MCX 6 ½ X 14. That’s what’s on the recordings on the MySpace page in my sig. It’s cranked hard but still just a single ambassador head and hazy 300 reso on the basic maple shell. Check it out… it seems to work decent in the genre.
I believe George used masters for years… now runs the masterworks says his sight.
http://www.myspace.com/dissentientmetal

Exactly what I was gonna recommend. I have a 1986 Pearl WX 6.5x14 10 lug seamless steel snare that just dominates. You may want to look at a deeper 14" steel snare with a single ply head (Evans G1 coated) I also slapped on an Aquarian Hi Performance snare side reso and a fresh set of Pearl UltraSound "D" series snare wires.. POW!
 
I would ditch that Diplomat snare side. I have never had luck getting a good full sound using a really thin snare side. a Hazy 300 or Ambassador snare would be best.
QUOTE]

+1.

The drum really should be fine. Diplomats for metal?

G2 Batter, 300 hazy. Or G1 batter 300 hazy, can't go wrong.
 
All the talk about the snare and tuning. And this is good stuff.

A good sounding snare is a good sounding snare. I know there are times that it is difficult to get the SOUND you are really looking for, but to be this frustrated puzzles me...

it sounds like you guys played with the snare a whole lot, but, what efforts were made with mic placement, type of mics, sound , eq, etc..? Sometimes just moving the drums to a different room can make all the difference in the world..
 
Another vote to ditch the diplomat snare side. And a coated Ambassador or Emperor batter-side for the easy win!

And while you're at it, slap them suckers on a 6.5x14 aluminum Supra!
 
If you were looking for a snare that sounds like George Kollias' snare, perhaps you should look into a Pearl Masters snare like what he plays.... $700cn will get you some really serious snare drums, so the sky is the limit!
 
If you were looking for a snare that sounds like George Kollias' snare, perhaps you should look into a Pearl Masters snare like what he plays.... $700cn will get you some really serious snare drums, so the sky is the limit!

Actually george uses a 6.5x14 REFERENCE snare, i would look at one of those, the brass version would be better i think, Gene Hoglan (dethklok, fear factory) uses the brass version, also id reccomend an aquarian Hi-Energy for the batter and watever on the bottom, the hienergy is the perfect metal snare head
 
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