Snare tuning

[harps2cool]

I know this must sound pretty newbie-ish.......buuuut I need some help here.

I've never gotten my snare to really sound like I want it to. My main problem is I can never get the snares to really pick up with soft hits on the drum. Would I get more buzz if the bottom head was looser or tighter? And how does the tightness of the snares themselves play into that? How can I get the top head to be tight enough to be able to get a nice bounce roll out of it without making the sound of it too high?

Any advice on how to get a reaaaally buzzy snare without sacrificing the pop would be extremely helpful!!

[Horus]

I think you'd get more buzz if you loosened the resonant head a little. That would also adjust pitch and you'd get more overtones (which I hate). To get the ideal pitch you want, just leave the batter head tight and adjust the resonant head.

[harps2cool]

I will give that a shot, thankya man

[dumbassdrummer]

Dont put to much tension on the snares. If you press them too hard against the head, they will choke, and of course, if they are too lose, they wont make enough contact. You have to find that perfect medium so just tinker with it until you get the most sensitivity you can get out of it.

[Pikeymikey22]

There's this trick I discovered whilst playing around with my snares:

Slightly loosen one side of the snares. They are held by string, and if there's a string coming from each corner, you can loosen one corner by moving the string in the clamp. Obiviously, if theres just one string at each end of the snares, you can't do this.

The snares will then be held against the reso head more firmly on one side than the other, they'll be slightly tilted. You'll get that initial snare sound and then still get a buzz after, as some snares are still left rattling after others have stopped. You can tune the heads however you want, so you won't lose pop.

Play around with this, you can get some nice effects.

[harps2cool]

I'd try that out but mine's just got the plastic strips on each end. Cool idea though, I'd have never thought of that!

[pitchfork]

Well if its not picking up soft hit's you are choking it, your snares are too tight, loosen them (you are choking the snare).
It could be that your snare isn't up to the job, most stock snares wont give you your sound.

[bstiffler582]

For a nice bounce you want balance between the batter and reso. For years I thought bounce was all in the batter so I'd over tighten it. You'll learn how to get the sound you want with time.