Four Cool Snare Sounds

Posted on: October 17 2019 at 4:22 pm

No matter what type of snare drum you have, you can get many different sounds from it. There are many variables at your disposal, tuning, head choice, snare wire tension, muffling etc. How you hit the drum is also going to have an impact on the sound as well. Here are some different sounds to try out.

Fat wet sound- To get a fat sound I recommend tuning your snare pretty low, maybe an F#(252Hz batter, 378Hz resonant) or a G (266 Hz batter, 398Hz resonant). Then, I like to loosen the snare wires a bit so it sounds a bit sloppy. Experiment with snare wire tension until it sounds good to you. I also like to muffle the batter head for a fat sound. You can use tape, moon gel, drum dots etc. whatever works for you. Try some rim shots, how does that sound? Great for back beats and ballads.

Tight funk sound- To get a tight funk sound you want tune your head fairly high, maybe G#(299Hz batter, 398Hz resonant) or A(319Hz batter, 398Hz resonant). I think it is best with a single ply head unless you are a heavy hitter. I like to tighten the snare wires until you are getting a fairly articulate sound. You want good stick definition for playing funk. You can leave the drum open for a brighter sound or muffle it slightly for even more stick definition. If you want a hip hop sound, muffle the drum even more until it almost sounds like a drum machine.

Versatile all around sound- It’s no surprise that medium tuning works good for a versatile sound. I go for between a G(266, 398) and G#(299, 398). You can use a variety of heads, I prefer a single ply for a brighter sound, but if you want more controlled sound or are a heavy hitter you should use 2 ply or muffled head. I think a medium snare wire tension is best here as well. Don’t have the wires too tight to choke the drum and not too loose to sound sloppy and washy. For jazz this tuning with a coated single ply head works well too.

Reggae sound- This one really works best with a metal shelled drum. Tune it up quite high, A#(356, 400) or higher . Make sure not to use any dampening and play rim shots close to the rim for that timbale like sound. I think a single ply drum head works best because you really want to hear the ring. Some people like to leave the snares disengaged as well.

These are just a few of the drum sounds you can get, the possibilities are endless. Try some out for yourself.

Tuning Concert Toms

Posted on: April 23 2019 at 10:47 am

What are concert toms?

Concert toms are toms with only a batter head, no resonant head. Concert toms were extremely popular in the 60’s and 70’s.

Why use them?

Concert toms are very easy to tune, having only one head to deal with. You don’t have to worry about the relationship between batter and resonant head if there is no resonant head! For a concert tom the fundamental pitch is half the lug pitch in Hz, which makes it very easy to tune your drums to notes. You can get a really nice punchy sound from concert toms or you can get that very dead, dry sound that was so popular in the 70’s. In short, they have more attack and less resonance than 2 headed toms. Concert toms are easy to work with. An added benefit is that you can nest them inside each other making it easier to gig with. One of the reasons they were so popular is that they are easy to record. You can mic them from the bottom and still get a lot of attack without much resonance. Some negatives are that they are less resonant and you cannot control the resonance by adjusting the pitch of the bottom head. You cannot tune for feel with concert toms either.

How to tune them

If you are looking for that very dry 70’s sound it is quite easy to get. It is best to use a thicker head or one with a controlled sound like pin stripe, hydraulic, EC2, performance II, Studio X etc. Then you want to tune your head so that it is just tight enough to not have any wrinkles. Then check to make sure you get all the lugs tuned evenly. Next, hit the drum in the center. How does it sound? If it doesn’t sound quite right bring the drum up slightly. Also, try muffling the drum- a drum tuned this low often sound better with some muffling.

It is also very easy to get a melodic sound from your concert toms, especially with tune-bot. The same heads will work for these tunings but you probably won’t need to muffle. If going for the melodic sound I recommend tuning the drums higher than for the dry sound. If you know what note you want to tune your fundamental pitch to, tune your lugs one octave above that pitch and you will get the correct fundamental pitch. For example, if you tune your lugs to C3 (130Hz), your fundamental pitch will be C2(65 Hz). If you do not know what notes you want to tune your drums, I recommend using our drum tuning calculator. The app version of the calculator has tunings for single headed drums (website version does not). The tuning guide also helps with choosing notes. Here is a good tuning for 10”,12”,13”,14”,16″: