Your snaredrum night youve never forgotten

Bozozoid

Diamond Member
Basically we get decent sounds throughout the year but there has been a time or two maybe 3? where you've never forgotten that sound. Beyond perfection in a way. I will never forget the night we played at The Marquee and I took my 5.5x13 Mapex phosphor bronze and put a Remo fiberskyn amb on it and it was (in that room) near magical. Punchy..warm..fat..round..I've never forgotten it which was years ago. Does anyone have a night of all nights you won't forget?. If you do what snare..what heads..what snare wires what club.
 
I took a 6.5” Supraphonic into a venue with a PowerStroke 4 coated batter and the stock Ludwig strand wires. Tuned it down and got a great Eagles phat back sound. My cymbals were getting bigger annd thinner and overall tuning was getting lower and my concept of “blending” was born!
 
Not one night in particular that I can recall, but I took my 5x14 Ludwig Standard snare last night on a freelance gig, and it sounded quite good. I hadn't used it in more than a year. Very crisp and articulate.

I know my DW 6.5x14 maple snare sounds great in large rooms in general. I think the sound has changed slightly for the better as it has aged a bit and been played hard.
 
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I had a great snare mix this past Saturday night actually! When I pulled my snare out, I noticed it had a funky ring to it, so I tuned it up a little higher than usual to get the ring out, put my snarewight one it, and it sounded really good.

I was wearing brand my CCA IEMs with their aftermarket CCA-brand foam tips for the first time. I was was using my Magstar raw steel snare, Evans G2 coated on the batter (I don't know what's on the reso). The sound production team used a Shure Beta 98A(?) gooseneck mic on the snare. I was so afraid I'd hit the thing, and it's a $300 mic.

Both the kick and snare had a really nice snap to them that I'm not used to hearing every time. I wish the toms sounded better in my IEM's, but I didn't want to complain. As long as everything sounded good in the house, well, that's all that really matters. However, it sure does make me play better when my mix sounds good.

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wow....this is a question I don't think I can answer...

I can think of many nights where the sound was really bad....or out of my control to fix...

in reccolection, it is like a bell curve....10% of the time, it is bad; 80% of the time it is almost to my liking, and 10% is great

I just can't remember the exact locations of "great'
 
I'll never forget the sound my snare made when I had a major throw-off malfunction. The particular snare was adjustable on both sides, and lo-and-behold, both screws managed to unscrew themselves during playing. I didn't have a spare snare, and reattaching the snare mat took a good few moments of fiddling about. The singer was completely oblivious and wondered why I didn't count off the next song while the rest of the band tried to tell the singer to say something to fill the silence.

Luckily I'm over it. Totally over it.
 
Live I can think of a couple:
1) Our performance theatre at university. It was the deadest sounding room ever and my 402 used to sing in there. Haven't changed how I set that snare up in 20 years since. Double ply batter, 42 strand snares and a bog standard ambassador/hazy 300 snare side.
2) Played a castle for a function gig a few years back and the room just made the whole kit sound magical. Not big and boomy like a lot of stone walls do but it was like the drums had been mixed on a recording. For the life of me I can't remember what snare I used that night.

Recorded
1) Recording a demo for a sort of faux 60s sound and I couldn't quite get it and put my Acrolite prototype on and boom absolutely perfect, had the right cut with just the right amount of open body.
2) Another demo recording this year, needed a massive deep slap. Tuned my steambent maple way down, chucked an o-ring on and a couple of moongels. It had the slap but the tone of the shell was still coming through.
 
I can't recall a single instance but will say that the "room" makes a huge difference in how a snare sounds. Even outdoors, one stage can be different than another. It's a wonderful thing when your snare clicks with the room.

I did hear a recording of my old band about 7-8 years ago taken from a cell phone. The snare sounded like someone smacking a steel garbage can with a stick!
 
Does anyone have a night of all nights you won't forget?.
Years ago, a 4-piece rock band I was in played at a daytime outdoor gig at a park. It was on a deluxe moveable stage, complete with electricity (from a generator) and lights. I used my Starphonic Aluminum and it sang! It fit so well that I decided to use it that same night at a club gig. The club was very well-treated for acoustics, with acoustic drapes all around the stage. My snare sounded so wimpy! I was shocked. There was no body, no fullness, just a weak-sounding pip . When no one in the band noticed I figured I was hallucinating.
 
Basically we get decent sounds throughout the year but there has been a time or two maybe 3? where you've never forgotten that sound. Beyond perfection in a way. I will never forget the night we played at The Marquee and I took my 5.5x13 Mapex phosphor bronze and put a Remo fiberskyn amb on it and it was (in that room) near magical. Punchy..warm..fat..round..I've never forgotten it which was years ago. Does anyone have a night of all nights you won't forget?. If you do what snare..what heads..what snare wires what club.
Hard to say because the snare (and the whole kit for that matter) sounds very different from sitting at the kit vs the audience perspective. Your snare might have sounded great sitting at the kit, but did it sound just ok from the audience perspective? very, very rare when both happen at the same time (that it sounds amazing from both perspectives) that usually happens in a vary small room or, if you have a huge PA, and you are getting the same feed as the audience. Now to answer the original question... I remember a couple of times where my snare sounded great but it had more to do with the acoustics of the venue than with my snare...
 
I had a great snare mix this past Saturday night actually! When I pulled my snare out, I noticed it had a funky ring to it, so I tuned it up a little higher than usual to get the ring out, put my snarewight one it, and it sounded really good.

I was wearing brand my CCA IEMs with their aftermarket CCA-brand foam tips for the first time. I was was using my Magstar raw steel snare, Evans G2 coated on the batter (I don't know what's on the reso). The sound production team used a Shure Beta 98A(?) gooseneck mic on the snare. I was so afraid I'd hit the thing, and it's a $300 mic.

Both the kick and snare had a really nice snap to them that I'm not used to hearing every time. I wish the toms sounded better in my IEM's, but I didn't want to complain. As long as everything sounded good in the house, well, that's all that really matters. However, it sure does make me play better when my mix sounds good.

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Hints of someone being a pro drummer:
a great snare mix
The sound production team used a Shure Beta 98A(?) gooseneck mic on the snare.
 
I can't recall a single instance but will say that the "room" makes a huge difference in how a snare sounds. Even outdoors, one stage can be different than another. It's a wonderful thing when your snare clicks with the room.

I did hear a recording of my old band about 7-8 years ago taken from a cell phone. The snare sounded like someone smacking a steel garbage can with a stick!
Perfect for playing any of the Metallica's St Anger Album songs:


The worst snare ever recorded!

A trash can might actually sound better.
 

Your snaredrum night youve never forgotten

Well I cannot say never forgotten exactly...but...I drove a long way for a Sunday gig in San Diego.
Got there early to set up...but wait.....where is it?.....where did I put?......oh
Yeah, I forgot my snare. I've never forgotten that situation.
I did get the gig done with a cobbled together "crude facimile" of.....a snare...kind of.
 

Your snaredrum night youve never forgotten

Well I cannot say never forgotten exactly...but...I drove a long way for a Sunday gig in San Diego.
Got there early to set up...but wait.....where is it?.....where did I put?......oh
Yeah, I forgot my snare. I've never forgotten that situation.
I did get the gig done with a cobbled together "crude facimile" of.....a snare...kind of.
I never forgot a drum but I did had a bass drum fail on me and I ended up using the floor tom on its side being hit by the side of my shoe for the rest of the gig, the funny part is that nobody but the bass player noticed.
 
Accordion? where you playing a beer festival?
It was a small-town-fall-festival-type thing. I remember they had a huge portable stage, and they had hired a pretty decent sound crew. They put us across a field from where everyone was shopping, so we were a good 100+ yards from closest attendees. After the "show," my wife and I just laughed. I've played some incredible gigs, but I'm played a whole bunch of stinkers too.
 
OK we're hijacking now.
I went to a hardware store and bought some bailing wire.
Taped strands to the bottom of a rack tom.
Placed the tom on a cardboard box.
Went Don Henley deep dish the whole gig.
DISCOVERED-Not one band member noticed...until the sax player wandered by and.....saw the box.
I motioned to him....shusssssh.
 
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