Snare ring/buzz is KILLING ME

[dpakman91]

alright, so in the past, i've had problems with the snare buzzing/ringing in sympathy with the toms being hit.

tuning and retuning the toms, and eventually adding a little bit of paper towel to the batter heads has eliminated the long "buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" when i hit them.

BUT, now there is a very sharp "bzz" every time i hit a tom. i have tried to just deal with it, and try small adjustments to both the snare and tom tuning, but i can't eliminate it, and after playing on several of my friends kits, it is way way way more than what i would consider "normal" or "tolerable."

lately, i've been learning some of the "bo diddley" style floor tom beats, and it's relaly killing them to have the snare making that sharp "bzz" every time i hit a note, specifically an accented note, on the floor tom or any other tom.

what can i do? what about some duct tape on the snare, and if so, where would i even put it? it's been months and i'm pretty desperate to find a solution.

:wave:

[RockStar34C]

Nothing you can do besides tune, which doesnt always help. Dont worry. You'll get used to it. AND DONT USE DUCT TAPE!!!

[Tim]

never use duct tape it will kill the sound of the drum completely. try lowering the pitch of your toms.

[dpakman91]

Nothing you can do besides tune, which doesnt always help. Dont worry. You'll get used to it. AND DONT USE DUCT TAPE!!!

i'm not long convinced with the 'you'll get used to it' thing. the ring is quite loud, i can hear it even with any kind of ear protection on, and even when playing along with music, AND it's perfectly audible even on video recordings i make with the camera 20 feet away.

[dpakman91]

never use duct tape it will kill the sound of the drum completely. try lowering the pitch of your toms.

i've tried higher and lower tunings on the toms, i mean over the months i've been dealing with this, i've tried tunings from as low as they go to really really high.

[tidge88]

get used to it, it's not gonna go away. That, or get some different drum heads.

[DrummerDave96]

Try a thinner snare side head. Such as a Remo Diplomat side head...it's the thinnest they make....and I read that a thinner head lets the snare wires sink into the head better, and won't allow much buzz.

Also lower the tom pitches.

[bTd09]

try tuning the snare differently....that's what i did

[aznriceball]

what the crowd doesnt hear wont affect em

[Seafroggys]

if the camera can pick it up over the band 20 feet away, then the audience will hear it.

Most people jump on the bandwagon that the audience will NEVER hear the buzz....I have in fact witnissed otherwise. My bassist was playing on his bass in my garage, I walked outside of my garage quite a distance to the road, and I could hear the buzzing like crazy, almost as loud as the bass.

However, there are ways to lessen it, but never muffle.

[pauloz!]

It sounds pretty bad but i am used to it now so you will probably have to keep on trying different tunings to decrease the buzz. Remember that you cannot get rid of it but you can reduce it. Fiddle around with the tuning of mainly your snare side head and your toms.

There was a point where i hated that buzzing noise becuase it was sooo loud and i tried to use muffling to get rid of it but it made my snare sound sooo bad so i took the muffling off and just found it to be innevitable to get away from. But that was with my old heads and even with my new heads i still get that noise but not as much.

[Seafroggys]

there are ways to reduce the buzz...tuning, new heads, new snare wires, etc.

but yeah you'll never get rid of it. I barely notice it anymore. However, there are times (as described in my last post) where it is insanely loud and obnoxious.

[GooseFilms.net]

tune the snare heads further apart or the tom heads closer together

[dpakman91]

to try to get an idea of which way to go with the tuning...currently, if i turn the snare wires off, the snare is tuned higher than all 3 toms. therefore, which way would i want to go with the snare and tom tuning? tune the snare reso even higher, and then tune the toms lower?

also, on the toms...is it mostly batter or reso that will create the buzz on the snare?

[Half Life]

I can't seem to understand how the buzz is giving you so much trouble man. I have a Pro M kit too, same sizes also if I'm not mistaken and I have NO trouble with the buzz whatsoever. It's all in the tuning and when the snare and a corresponding drum are *close* to the same pitch, your going to get that buzz. All I'm going to suggest is what I've seen Jim say on many occasions. Tune each drum to sound good or what you feel sounds good, and leave it. Whatever it is that you might do, don't go bonkers with tape/muffling. That'll just kill the drums overall and make them sound dead regardless if the buzz is there or not.

[FockerTheLopper]

Its supposed to happen, that means that the drums have life! When your playing a song you won't hear it and if you silence it then you won't hear nothing!(including the snare over the music!)

[Aaron]

imaginary rep for HL..

tune your drums to where you feel they sound best, because of their dimensions, the sweet spot of the tuning should put it where you'll have no buzz..

[Half Life]

imaginary rep for HL..

^Material rep for you :thumb:

[dpakman91]

Its supposed to happen, that means that the drums have life! When your playing a song you won't hear it and if you silence it then you won't hear nothing!(including the snare over the music!)

i already explained that it is heard when playing a song.

[Aaron]

^Material rep for you :thumb:
why thank you.

TS, play with ear plugs and see if its there, its a good indicator of whether its crossed the line from good to bad buzz. buzz is an indicator that its not choked/too low IMO.. and in its tuning range.

[dpakman91]

why thank you.

TS, play with ear plugs and see if its there, its a good indicator of whether its crossed the line from good to bad buzz. buzz is an indicator that its not choked/too low IMO.. and in its tuning range.

yeah, in my second post i said that i still hear it clearly with ear protection.

[Aaron]

one technique i read if you have serious sympathetic buzz problems is to tune a "space" for your snare. if you have 10 and 12", tune them up slightly and your 16 down more so that theres abit of a buffer-space you can tune your snare into..