Deeper Snare Tuning-General Advice/Guidance

[vyacheslav]

Greetings,

I have always been a "normal" depth snare player (5" or 5.5" deep). I recently got a 6.5" deep Sonor Steel snare that is good quality and in great shape. I have a single ply coated head on top (Remo USA Ambassador) and a regular (4 mil) snare side head (Remo USA Ambassador Snare). I have Tama Starclassic Wires on it.

My normal MO on drums is the bright, tight, pingy "Buddy Rich" type snare sound. Nice and crisp, wide open. Lots of "ping" and ring. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being as tight as the head will go and 1 being just finger tight, I keep the snare side head around 8 or 9 (just barely flexes with finger pressure in the center) and I keep the batter side around 7 or 8. If it sounds choked, I'll bring down both heads just slightly until it sounds more open. I keep the snare wires around the 5 -7 range. I use mostly standard snare wires (stock or Gibraltar replacements-the usual 15 or 20 strand) and not "boutique" snare wires like Puresounds.

I am tempted to do my usual pingy/Buddy snare sound on the 6.5", but I know it's not really designed for that. I have been experimenting with different tunings and I just can't seem to get it to sound "good". I want a "throaty" and "meaty" kind of sound, but if I tune it too loose, it's just sounds muddy with no tone and if I get it past a certain point in tension, it sounds like it's trying to sound like the pingy/Buddy sound but not really succeeding at it.

For those of you that use deeper snares, what are some of your tuning methods, and do you purposely tune them differently than normal depth snares? I have plenty of experience in tuning and I can almost always get the sound I want out of a snare. I also know that some drums need to tell YOU where they want to be tuned. I've tried it with this drum and I have no preconceived notions about my pingy/Buddy sound (I actually WANT this one to sound different than my normal snares). I just can't seem to dial this one in. I definitely want to stick to a singly ply coated head. I just don't care for the response/feel of two ply heads.

Any advice would be welcomed.

Thanks!

V

 

[Winston_Wolf]

I think the best way to take advantage of the inherent differences in a snare is to just tune it the way you normally would, and let the actual differences do the talking for you.

A deeper drum is going to have a slightly longer note, due to the slightly deeper shell. In my experience in playing snares from 3" to 10" deep I've yet to see the deeper=lower pitch correlation a lot of drummers expect. If anything, I tend to tune my deeper snares a little higher so I can have a sharper crack while keeping body and tone.

A steel shell is going to lean into the "bright, pingy" sound easily. In my experience the best way to dial that back (if you want to dial it back) is through muffling. I'd normally suggest a two-ply head like a Vintage Emperor but if that's off the table I'd go with a single ply head with a bit of edge muffling. One of my favorites is the Aquarian coated Studio-X. The Studio-X's laminated ring controls some of the ping coming off the edge of a drumhead without taking too much away from the drum's tone. When I've tried heads with floating rings like the Powerstroke in the past I've never quite liked the sound.

 

[Neal Pert]

I'd more or less agree with what @Winston_Wolf is saying. I really don't start out by treating my deeper snares any differently than my shallow ones.

I have come to believe that, regarding snare drum sounds, there are two kinds of drummers. The first type really has one ideal snare drum sound in his head, and he's going to end up trying to make all his snare drums sound the same, more or less. The other wants multiple snare drum sounds available and tunes to accentuate the differences.

If I were in your shoes I'd start at my normal tuning and try just detuning one lug-- one that's close to you but not right in the line of the backbeat. So, like, at 4 o'clock on the dial. Try bringing one lug down a full turn and gradually bring it up.

The other thing I've done is to just start a drum at a pretty low tuning, and then slowly go up with just incremental turns on each rod-- something like an eighth of a turn on all 8 or 10 lugs. It takes a while, but with most drums, for me, I hit an "a ha" moment where I've found that drum's sweet spot.

The thing is-- if you're good at tuning and you don't have any problematic heads or snares, you may just not like the snare drum.

 

[davezedlee]

another 1+ whats already been said... i built a bunch of 8" drums and managed to record the same song with a bunch of them, at different tunings and with different heads for comparison

it boils down to what gives the best results; start at your usual, then adjust accordingly until happy

should you care to hear more: https://www.youtube.com/@tiborbohr1339/videos

 

[Totigerus]

I know OP said he only wants single ply coated, but this might be the point of contention within. Just in my experience. I stuck to my coated Ambassadors for years because I thought that's what I was "supposed to do". Thicker snare top heads changed my world. I mean, you bought the new snare to sound different than a buddy ping snare right? So why not just go for it all the way? Worst case senario, you waste 25 bucks on a head you dont like. Also side note, I'm starting to think I've been wasting good money on Puresounds but I'm not convinced yet haha...
as always...YMMV

 

[PorkPieGuy]

Your tuning may be fine. It may be just a bad drum. I'll be the first to tell you that not all steel snares are the same. Some are terrible and some are absolutely fantastic. I wish someone would have told me this years ago.

 

[larryace]

From what I gather from your OP, your reso is lower than your batter.

My suggestion would be to flip it, meaning having your reso tighter than your batter

 

[jda]

Greetings,

I have always been a "normal" depth snare player (5" or 5.5" deep). I recently got a 6.5" deep Sonor Steel snare that is good quality and in great shape. I have a single ply coated head on top (Remo USA Ambassador) and a regular (4 mil) snare side head (Remo USA Ambassador Snare). I have Tama Starclassic Wires on it.

My normal MO on drums is the bright, tight, pingy "Buddy Rich" type snare sound. Nice and crisp, wide open. Lots of "ping" and ring. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being as tight as the head will go and 1 being just finger tight, I keep the snare side head around 8 or 9 (just barely flexes with finger pressure in the center) and I keep the batter side around 7 or 8. If it sounds choked, I'll bring down both heads just slightly until it sounds more open. I keep the snare wires around the 5 -7 range. I use mostly standard snare wires (stock or Gibraltar replacements-the usual 15 or 20 strand) and not "boutique" snare wires like Puresounds.

I am tempted to do my usual pingy/Buddy snare sound on the 6.5", but I know it's not really designed for that. I have been experimenting with different tunings and I just can't seem to get it to sound "good". I want a "throaty" and "meaty" kind of sound, but if I tune it too loose, it's just sounds muddy with no tone and if I get it past a certain point in tension, it sounds like it's trying to sound like the pingy/Buddy sound but not really succeeding at it.

For those of you that use deeper snares, what are some of your tuning methods, and do you purposely tune them differently than normal depth snares? I have plenty of experience in tuning and I can almost always get the sound I want out of a snare. I also know that some drums need to tell YOU where they want to be tuned. I've tried it with this drum and I have no preconceived notions about my pingy/Buddy sound (I actually WANT this one to sound different than my normal snares). I just can't seem to dial this one in. I definitely want to stick to a singly ply coated head. I just don't care for the response/feel of two ply heads.

Any advice would be welcomed.

Thanks!

V

I think you're dealing with a "Steel" snare. Now some can tell of great experiences, or of model's that cost a fortune or not and are worth every cent Or. You're just dealing with a plain old Steel snare.

Is it worth experimenting with
Hoops.
Steel triple flanged
Brass triple flanged
zinc Die cast

To try and manipulate into a satisfactory zone.
I'm going to wager No.

It's a steel snare.
Others will differ but a Steel snare is about 80% of the time, as plain , staid, oops Boring, faceless, characterless, as it gets.
But hey it's a Sonor so maybe it's made from some magic steel.
I dunno. But I do know I tried to like a stock 6.5 Chrome steel tube lug Mapex.
And it's a memory
It had no song to sing within it at all past intermediate 8th grade Rock band
when you're too young to notice

On a quality (wood) deeper snare hoops make a difference.
Steel hoops sometimes too ringy cold and direct.
NOB rare but 'o so musical
Zinc well.

one I forgot.
Wood hoop. (if you want to spend $125)
retrofit.