drum machine
Junior Member
Hi all,
Long-time lurker and first-time poster here. Happy to be a part of this forum.
I could use some pointers on what to do with my snare drum. Drums were something of an afterthought for me to get in to, as I picked them up basically to back myself up on my own recordings (albeit that was about 12 years ago so I'm not bad now). Recently I've been getting really in to recording and producing and my drum sounds have really come along, but my snare still just is not there. I've gotten it just how I want it about once, but the battle just never seems to end.
My main problem is that there is an overbearing, obnoxious ring, in both of the snare drums that I own (Tama Superstar 13" and Epek Indigo, Maple, 14"). I get the head in tune with itself, but still, all I can hear is what sounds like a damn Timbale. It's not right for a snare sound really. I can deal with that pretty well by dampening with moongel, but then it starts to get a bit too dull and it takes too much of the high end out of the drum and it ends up being tubby and flat sounding in a mix. So I'd like to not dampen the drum and just get it sounding right purely by tuning, but I always get this annoying, long-lasting resonant ring that just won't seem to quit.
I've checked my tunings with a drum dial repeatedly and they're all pretty in, so my ear isn't leading me astray. I've also even double checked them using a strobe tuner with a low pass filter right before it and again, I'm pretty on the mark. So tuning a head with itself isn't a problem, it's just that the drum doesn't seem to sound good once it is tuned. Maybe my snare drums are just kinda crappy, but I mean.. Epek is fancy custom stuff with a really good name to it, so I'm sure I can do something to get it sounding awesome.
Maybe I'm not tuning the top and bottom head well relative to one another? I don't find I get my best snare sounds with the bottom head just cranked like everyone says to do, but still, I'm at a loss either way.
Also, wires are such a hassle too. I think I don't really get how to put them on properly. I centre them as best I can, but they always end up being either too tight and choking the drum out, or they buzz for too long after the snare is hit and they even put off this horrible feedbacky screeching sound. Just horrible.
Toms are easy for me after much practice, so yeah. Everything is coming together here, I just really need to get this snare tuning situation dialed and I'll be rolling. It's pretty much the only thing I have left to get a great sound on and my record should come together really nicely.
Long-time lurker and first-time poster here. Happy to be a part of this forum.
I could use some pointers on what to do with my snare drum. Drums were something of an afterthought for me to get in to, as I picked them up basically to back myself up on my own recordings (albeit that was about 12 years ago so I'm not bad now). Recently I've been getting really in to recording and producing and my drum sounds have really come along, but my snare still just is not there. I've gotten it just how I want it about once, but the battle just never seems to end.
My main problem is that there is an overbearing, obnoxious ring, in both of the snare drums that I own (Tama Superstar 13" and Epek Indigo, Maple, 14"). I get the head in tune with itself, but still, all I can hear is what sounds like a damn Timbale. It's not right for a snare sound really. I can deal with that pretty well by dampening with moongel, but then it starts to get a bit too dull and it takes too much of the high end out of the drum and it ends up being tubby and flat sounding in a mix. So I'd like to not dampen the drum and just get it sounding right purely by tuning, but I always get this annoying, long-lasting resonant ring that just won't seem to quit.
I've checked my tunings with a drum dial repeatedly and they're all pretty in, so my ear isn't leading me astray. I've also even double checked them using a strobe tuner with a low pass filter right before it and again, I'm pretty on the mark. So tuning a head with itself isn't a problem, it's just that the drum doesn't seem to sound good once it is tuned. Maybe my snare drums are just kinda crappy, but I mean.. Epek is fancy custom stuff with a really good name to it, so I'm sure I can do something to get it sounding awesome.
Maybe I'm not tuning the top and bottom head well relative to one another? I don't find I get my best snare sounds with the bottom head just cranked like everyone says to do, but still, I'm at a loss either way.
Also, wires are such a hassle too. I think I don't really get how to put them on properly. I centre them as best I can, but they always end up being either too tight and choking the drum out, or they buzz for too long after the snare is hit and they even put off this horrible feedbacky screeching sound. Just horrible.
Toms are easy for me after much practice, so yeah. Everything is coming together here, I just really need to get this snare tuning situation dialed and I'll be rolling. It's pretty much the only thing I have left to get a great sound on and my record should come together really nicely.
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