bottom of snare tuning

[td-devi]

i have always tuned the bottom head of my snare tight. how is everyone tuning these days. what effect does the bottom head have on your sound? opinions?

[Prof.Sound]

Originally posted by td-devi:

i have always tuned the bottom head of my snare tight. how is everyone tuning these days. what effect does the bottom head have on your sound? opinions?

 

See Drum Tuning Bible for many of these answers.

 

I tension the resonant head much different depending upon drum, heads and effect desired. If you tension tight, the sound can become more timbalic sounding, articulate, dry, etc., sometimes it can also create more of a possibility of sympathetic vibration (buzz) depending upon how tight and the thickness and composition of the head.

 

I think it's really one of "it depends" type of questions.

 

[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: P.Sound ]

[felix stein]

Oh Great Professor Sound, hear my prayer...I have been wanting to ask you about snare batter heads.

 

You do have a Manu Katche if I remember correctly...as do I (and he made man in his image).

 

I would like your advice (if your willing to give it) on what I should put on.

 

I have a cs clear dot on it now and I like the tone for the most part...it is just too loud for my taste and on the bright side (for me).

 

I want a head that has more "low" and mid ring to it that does not have so much attack. Something as versatile as possible. You may suggest a bottom head as well, since I need a new one.

 

In the Professor's name I pray,

 

Amen

[Ben]

The drum tuning bible is great, I have read it through a couple of times. My set is tuned exactly the way yours is, Prof., under the "Musical Notes for Tuning" header. My drums are all the same sizes and using your method for each drum indicated that those were good tuning points.

 

I have a new Yamaha Gadd snare, maple, 5x14. It's a really nice snare, but with this tuning the snares buzz like crazy whenever I hit any of the other drums, unless I tighten them down so much that it's choked off.

 

So, let's see if I've got this right. To decrease the buzz, I should lower the tuning of the resonant head to the lowest usable point?

[td-devi]

professor, thank you for turning me on to your drum tuning bible. it is an excellent reference material. great work!

[Gaddabout]

Originally posted by td-devi:

i have always tuned the bottom head of my snare tight. how is everyone tuning these days. what effect does the bottom head have on your sound? opinions?

 

If you really crank the bottom head, try this trick: keep the top two lugs (1 and 10 on a 10 lug snare) a little looser than the rest on both sides of the head. I find it gives me a more consistent sound in places I hit the drum the most, and the snares touch enough of the bottom head to not sound like a timbale.

[Prof.Sound]

Originally posted by Ben:

I have a new Yamaha Gadd snare, maple, 5x14. It's a really nice snare, but with this tuning the snares buzz like crazy whenever I hit any of the other drums, unless I tighten them down so much that it's choked off.

 

So, let's see if I've got this right. To decrease the buzz, I should lower the tuning of the resonant head to the lowest usable point?

 

The Gadd snare is a great snare!

 

I know people get tired of hearing this, but it is the truth.

 

SMALL TWEAKS & ZONES

 

Every time you change style of heads or tunings, the results can be different. You need to get to know your drum rather intimately and it takes time. You also need to focus a lot more on the resonant head. And your understanding of "lowering the resonant head to its lowest" note is not always the right way, nor does it guarantee that the buzz will go away.

 

This procedure is not in the current version of the Drum Tuning Bible . But what it will do is help you ferret out the sympathetic resonance issue for your snare. The key here is the term "tweak".

 

Tweak: To mean consecutive small turns on each lug not to exceed 1/16th of a revolution thereby raising or lowering pitch slowly.

 

Sympathetic resonance can be a result of several things. In addition to what was in Drum Tuning Bible :

 

1. The room can affect the presence, or lack thereof for snare buzz. If a room is of correct proportions, certain frequencies within the room are elevated at node frequencies, they appear as a spike at a given frequency and reoccur at given multiples of that frequency. If a drum is tuned close to that frequency, or one of its multiples, then it will become excited very easily.

 

2. The position of the kit, or drum in the room can also aggregate, or eliminate this problem because at certain areas of a room, due to phasing issues, the spiked frequency can become diminished or eliminated.

 

3. The tuning relationship between heads may need to be changed because one of the heads, if not both is at the "spiked" frequency. This should not be confused with the overall tuning of the snare because, if you raise the pitch of one head, yet lower the pitch of another, you can often end up with the same note produced but also not have the buzz. This is essentially what Gaddabout's response does.

 

Solutions

 

1. Try a few different locations for the kit in the same room. For example, if you have your kit facing out of a corner, try moving it more off-center along a longer wall. Off-Center because if located in the center, or in a corner, you load the bass portion of the sound and it is therefore more present and more prone to exciting drum heads, you cause frequencies to reflect back symmetrically.

 

2. If movement within the room is not possible, or does not solve the problem, ferret out the problem head in a logical fashion by re-tuning with tweaks by slightly changing the relationship between heads. That is, tune one head (snare side)up by a small amount (go around twice tweaking each lug once) and the batter down the same amount. Maybe try that twice to three times. If that does not work, then:

• 
   
  
• First isolate the problem by striking your toms and noting which tom is most offensive. Then remove the batter head from the snare.
  
• Now turn your snare over on the basket, loosen up the snare strainer and place a stick between the snares and the head, with both ends of the stick now resting on the rim of the hoop.
  
• With tweaks only up, make sure the head is in-tune with itself at the same position, by tapping lightly with a drum key 1.5" away from the hoop next to each lug.
  
• Remove the stick and tighten-up the snare unit to a point where it just touches the snare side head.
  
• Now, while striking the tom that was the most offensive, see if your snare still buzzes. If it doesn't buzz, then you know it is the overall resonance of the tuning that is the issue and you need to focus on the batter side head, or retune the offending toms in very small increments. If it does buzz, then continue:
  
• While striking the tom, try tweaking the snare unit and find the point where the buzz has lessened, but make sure the snare is not real tight!.
  
• Now, while striking the tom, try tweaking the snare head up/down until you find a point where the buzz has either been eliminated, or reduced.
  
• Turn drum over and place the batter side head back on, seat and tune only the batter side headto your desired note.
  
• Now, while striking the tom, TWEAK.
  
• Finally, tweak the snare strainer again.
   
  

 

 

If that has not fixed the problem, then I suggest trying a snare side head that has either a thinner film, such as the REMO Diplomat or Evans 200. These allow the snare to ride deeper into the head, and can help eliminate the buzz because they get excited at different frequencies (usually higher) and also change the amount of contact the wires can have with the head.

 

You can also try a head with a much different mass, such as one of the Evans Glass Heads 30 or 20. The glass adds mass, brightness, and dryness to the overall sound. It takes far more to excite this head and can often solve the buzz problem.

 

P.Sound, Author Drum Tuning Bible

 

[ 01-19-2002: Message edited by: P.Sound ]

[Prof.Sound]

Originally posted by felix stein:

Manu Katche...I would like your advice on what I should put on.

 

I have a cs clear dot on it now and I like the tone for the most part...it is just too loud for my taste and on the bright side (for me).

 

I want a head that has more "low" and mid ring to it that does not have so much attack. Something as versatile as possible. You may suggest a bottom head as well, since I need a new one.

 

This is tall order because the Manu was designed to be one of the brightest snares on earth. Nonetheless, it can be toned down some and here is what I recommend (in order of preferance):

 

Batter side: Evans Genera Snare Coated Batter Head Item# B14GEN, REMO PowerStroke3 coated, Aquarian Studio-X Coated.

 

Snare Side: Evan's 300 weight or Remo Ambassador snare side heads, white if you can find them otherwise hazy.

 

Snares: Replace the stock snare unit with the 10 count one that is for the GADD model if the tone is still too bright after replacing heads.

[Ben]

Thanks, Prof., moving the set is not an option (it's in a small practice space) but I would not have thought of that option at all. So I will go forth and tweak as you suggest.

 

Last night, before I saw your reply, I did lower the resonant head on the snare a bit and it got better, so I'm making progress.

 

And I agree wholeheartedly about the value of relatively minor tweaks - I play timpani as well and they are very sensitive to minor turns of the key on just one or two lugs.