Need Help with Snare Drum

PRIVATE RYAN 16

I recently bought a drum kit off of thomann for 218 euros and was wondering why the snare drum sounds crap. Im a total newb at this. Should the snares be up or down?

My name is Mud

The snare wires should be touching the resonant (underside) skin. That gives the drum the classic snare "crack" sound.

By having the snares off, i.e away from the resonant side, you get the "pure" tone of the snare, which is used sometimes, depending on what style of music you are playing.

Most of the time, its better to have the snares on.

If you are just getting into drumming, plenty of advice here: www.drummingireland.com

Gaspode

You might have more luck posting this in the Instruments forum - ask a mod to move it for you...

Bongojohn

When you get those kits the heads aren't tightened/tuned. Give the batter head a few turns with the key, and tighten the snares up by turning the knob on the strainer. As previous post, check out www.drummingireland.com, loads of info on there....

drumdrum

Hi Private Ryan!

Im guessing you got one of these, yeah?
http://www.thomann.de/ie/millenium_mx222.htm


First of all, welcome to the best hobby on the planet!!!

Secondly, the quality of the snare that they give on those kits is not great to be honest, but those kits are meant for starters anyways. That said, you can often get great timbres from those types of snares. I myself have an old steel snare I got ages ago which has a great sound to it.

Anyways, yeah tuning the drum is key to a good sound. Heres a quick guide, but you can youtube it to get a visual perspective if it makes things easier (search for tuning a drum). Tuning does come down to taste alot in the end by the ways...

Step 1: Bottom skin (or resonator head as its called) first! Snares off, turn drum on side so that the snare wires do not touch the bottom skin.

Step 2: You will notice that there are probably about 8 lugs (maybe 10....depends on snare make and model) evenly spaced around the rim of the drum holding in the skin. I will assume that the skin is already on the drum here. Otherwise you gotta remove the snare, remove all of the bolts, then the steel rim, place the skin, put back on the rim, tighten with bolts and replace the snare....
Anyways...
tap VERY LIGHTLY with a stick about 2 inches in from each lug, going in opposites as you go, so 12 o clock lug, then 6 o clock lug, then 2 o clock lug, then 8 o clock lug...etc....
With your drum/tuning key that should of come with the kit, tighten at most 1/4 turn (90 degree turn) each lug going in opposites. Tighten the lugs until you reach a tone that you desire. The tone at each of the tap points should be at the same pitch. Remember that when you tighten or loosen one of the bolts, it will also have an effect on the opposite bolts pitch as well.
With no dampener on the skin, the resonator controls the "ringing" pitch that occurs after each snare strike..well in theory anyways. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN as you may damage the skin or worse, end up with a St Anger sounding snare from hell!!!

(Actually screw the step system, Im sure this is step 18 or something by this stage!)

The same job goes for the top skin. Turn lug, turn opposite lug, and repeat until all lugs are at an even pitch at the 2 inch point. The chances are with the snare that you got that it still wont sound like that snare sound off your favourite album....and it wont ever because that snare sound is most likely a drumagog replacement anyways!

But heres some tips for you:
1) Above all else, get a good quality skin. The skins that come with the types of kits you got are generally crap so as soon as you get about €15 - €20 for yourself, get a better one! It usually comes down to taste, but I personally like double ply coated skins as double ply tend to withstand a bit more of a beating!

2) If you are still getting a nasty ring, maybe get something to dampen the skin with. I suggest Moongel which are about €10 per pack (each containing 4 gels). They can really alter the sound of your kit and make it awesome!

3) If you dont have either money or tome to get Moongel, then there is always the oul tap 'n' tissue trick. Take about 3 or 4 joined squares off of a toilet roll. Fold in down on itself about 5 or 6 times until you are left with a small and thick slightly rectangular shape. Put tape over on half of the tissue and tape it to your snare in such a way that one side of the tissue is stuck to the skin, and the other is left unstickied and kind of loose. This allows the energy to dissipate...in theory. It can really deaden your snare mind so experiment with its placement on the skin. Get Moongel if you can or want to. Its way better than tissue crap but Ive saved the sound of some dodgy snares at a few gigs with the tissue trick!

Hope this helps man and best of luck!

DrumSteve

drumdrum wrote: »

Hi Private Ryan!

Im guessing you got one of these, yeah?
http://www.thomann.de/ie/millenium_mx222.htm


First of all, welcome to the best hobby on the planet!!!

Secondly, the quality of the snare that they give on those kits is not great to be honest, but those kits are meant for starters anyways. That said, you can often get great timbres from those types of snares. I myself have an old steel snare I got ages ago which has a great sound to it.

Anyways, yeah tuning the drum is key to a good sound. Heres a quick guide, but you can youtube it to get a visual perspective if it makes things easier (search for tuning a drum). Tuning does come down to taste alot in the end by the ways...

Step 1: Bottom skin (or resonator head as its called) first! Snares off, turn drum on side so that the snare wires do not touch the bottom skin.

Step 2: You will notice that there are probably about 8 lugs (maybe 10....depends on snare make and model) evenly spaced around the rim of the drum holding in the skin. I will assume that the skin is already on the drum here. Otherwise you gotta remove the snare, remove all of the bolts, then the steel rim, place the skin, put back on the rim, tighten with bolts and replace the snare....
Anyways...
tap VERY LIGHTLY with a stick about 2 inches in from each lug, going in opposites as you go, so 12 o clock lug, then 6 o clock lug, then 2 o clock lug, then 8 o clock lug...etc....
With your drum/tuning key that should of come with the kit, tighten at most 1/4 turn (90 degree turn) each lug going in opposites. Tighten the lugs until you reach a tone that you desire. The tone at each of the tap points should be at the same pitch. Remember that when you tighten or loosen one of the bolts, it will also have an effect on the opposite bolts pitch as well.
With no dampener on the skin, the resonator controls the "ringing" pitch that occurs after each snare strike..well in theory anyways. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN as you may damage the skin or worse, end up with a St Anger sounding snare from hell!!!

(Actually screw the step system, Im sure this is step 18 or something by this stage!)

The same job goes for the top skin. Turn lug, turn opposite lug, and repeat until all lugs are at an even pitch at the 2 inch point. The chances are with the snare that you got that it still wont sound like that snare sound off your favourite album....and it wont ever because that snare sound is most likely a drumagog replacement anyways!

But heres some tips for you:
1) Above all else, get a good quality skin. The skins that come with the types of kits you got are generally crap so as soon as you get about €15 - €20 for yourself, get a better one! It usually comes down to taste, but I personally like double ply coated skins as double ply tend to withstand a bit more of a beating!

2) If you are still getting a nasty ring, maybe get something to dampen the skin with. I suggest Moongel which are about €10 per pack (each containing 4 gels). They can really alter the sound of your kit and make it awesome!

3) If you dont have either money or tome to get Moongel, then there is always the oul tap 'n' tissue trick. Take about 3 or 4 joined squares off of a toilet roll. Fold in down on itself about 5 or 6 times until you are left with a small and thick slightly rectangular shape. Put tape over on half of the tissue and tape it to your snare in such a way that one side of the tissue is stuck to the skin, and the other is left unstickied and kind of loose. This allows the energy to dissipate...in theory. It can really deaden your snare mind so experiment with its placement on the skin. Get Moongel if you can or want to. Its way better than tissue crap but Ive saved the sound of some dodgy snares at a few gigs with the tissue trick!

Hope this helps man and best of luck!

No one wants that!

Malice

Gaspode wrote: »

You might have more luck posting this in the Instruments forum - ask a mod to move it for you...

Yep, I can move it if the OP wants, just let me know.

drumdrum

DrumSteve wrote: »

No one wants that!

Exactly!
Rumour has it that listening to the St Anger snare over time gives you cancer....and super-AIDS!!!