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1. Place the snares a little off center towards
the opposite side of the release side.
2. Tighten down the strings or strap paying
close attention to the snare making sure its square to the hoop, not askew.
3. With the retainer in the on position but
with the tension control screwed down (as if loosening the snares), pull the strings or straps again square to the hoop to
moderate tension.
4. With the strainer now on, start to tighten
while hitting the head, you'll get to a sweet spot where the buzz of the snare and feel of the drum come together. If you
tighten more, the drum becomes more articulate. The slightest adjustment here can make huge differences. I'm talking 1/16
of a turn or less on the tension adjustment for the strainer. If you are blessed with an adjustment on both side of the drum,
move up equally, very important!
5. Experiment; at some point in the process
you’ll hear the bottom or that feeling in your stomach suddenly jump out at you if that’s what you want. Don’t
over tighten; it really doesn’t add much other than choking off the tone of the drum and killing stick response.
6. Even the slightest adjustments will make
the tone/overtones come alive or die. See “The 5 Stages of Snare Sound”
section.
1. Drum has an intermittent buzz during play:
Remove heads and thump on the shell with your hand or butt end of a stick. If the lugs buzz, isolate the offending lug and
first try to remove it or them and see if stuffing cotton into the lug retainer helps stop the buzz. You can also look at
taking some thin sheet rubber and placing it between the lug casing and the shell, be careful you do not move the lug too
far away from the shell, the lugs must align freely with the hoop. If you put
the rubber in do it on all the lugs, not just the trouble lugs. If nothing buzzes without the heads, it is possible that the
head itself is spent or seated wrong and this too can cause a buzz or distortion during play. The solution is to either replace
the head or apply higher tension and try reseating the head. Look for loose bolts, etc. as well.
2. How to check snares wire units: Lay the snares,
unrestrained on a flat surface. See if all the wires look very uniform, make sure 1 or 2 of the strands are not over stretched
or curving out (this can happen on new units as well). If they are in doubt, go buy or choose another snare wire unit, otherwise
control over the "buzz" and "crack" of the drum may be very difficult. Check that portion of the unit where the wire of the
snare couples with the clip and look for less than uniform joints. No sharp protrusions,
lumps, etc. should be present. If you observe protrusions or unevenness, sometimes filing them off works, but don’t
remove too much or your likely to cause the wires to pull off the clip.
3. How to determine if a head is too old to
use? Outside of an obvious split, make sure they're not overly worn where the snare bed rides on the head (sometimes there’s
a tiny hole or a milky color). Make sure the head is not warped or dished out
from age or being over tensioned. If either of these conditions exists, replace the heads.
4. How to check hoops? Place them on a kitchen
counter or other very flat surface (not glass or plastic, these are inherently unleveled) and see if they sit flat. If the hoop is stamped or a triple flanged hoop, push down on them to straighten, fix or replace. If the
hoop is cast or wood, you run the risk of breaking the hoop if you push hard enough to actually cause a movement. Your only solution other than live with it will be to replace it. Check for round by measuring in a “+”
pattern with a simple ruler at 90 degrees apart across the hoop. If the measurement
is not the same, they are out of round.
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Working from
loose to tighter you need to work very slow to best understand how the tension on the snare unit can effect the overall tone
of the snare drum. I break this down into 5 stages and if you hit the batter side as you tweak the strainer tension adjustment
knob, you'll hear the stages:
1. Contact with buzz and sounding a little sloppy,
2. Fewer buzzes and a little dry sounding. Almost like over tightening.
3. Warmth starts to come out with a nice sort of “slap” of the snares,
4. Becomes more articulate and the warmth goes away, and
5. The garbage
stage, extremely tight, choked, void of character, little to no response on the outside 3 inches of the batter head at low
volumes, you’ve gone too far.
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It’s important to have the actual snare bed itself ride flat against the resonant head. If a drummer has used
an inferior brand or replacement snare in the past, the place where the wires are held or soldered to the clip can be uneven
or have sharp protrusions. This may have left the drummer feeling the thinner heads are not satisfactory because the poor
condition of the snare itself actually caused the premature failure of the head.
This is where the so called “Heavy Weight heads are usually employed. However,
you might want to try the Aquarian Hi-Performance series here due to it’s unique construction, it gives protection where
you “need” it yet retains some response of a medium weight Snare Side head.
Snare count,
length and material have to be considered. While you can retrofit another snare
to change the drum, be sure it really is the correct length and attaches to the strainer throw-off correctly.
Carbon steel
is going to be brighter than stainless steel with cable, gut or a synthetic being much less bright.
Less curl
to the wire equals less volume and more articulate (i.e. Cable snare units).
Wider snare
units will be louder and potentially so sensitive that you won’t be able to control the sympathetic vibration buzz. So if you bought the wide one and tighten the heck out of it to eliminate the buzz,
you just as well stay with the original one.
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Snare units with a wider surface coupled with a second smaller set inside
will provide a “fatter/wetter” sound.
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If you hit a drum hard, there is a point at which you do not increase
the overall snare drum volume and in fact the drum will sound as though it has less “crack” than at moderate volumes.
This is because you now hear more of the “tom” or “timbales” sound of the drum by virtue of the fact
that you’re hitting only the batter side.
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The snare side is the excited side and it will only move so much when
hit. So changing snares may or may not get you more volume or crack from the snare wire its self, depending upon how you hit.
·
To keep the tone of the drum yet get a warmer less powering snare sound,
reduce the snare count to 10 strands, carbon steel. For less metallic, stainless,
etc.
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