Tuning that damn snare.
 

Looking for a simple snare sound. Essentially, I'd just like my snare to have a pop to it with no ringing. I'd like the drum to make it's sound for as small of a duration as possible. I suck at describing sounds if you couldn't tell...

Much thanks appreciated.

Emperor X head from Remo, and crank it up all the way

....ew....

Sounds like a coated powerstroke 3 is in order

If you want all pop with no ring thats the head to get

Tighten the living poo outta your lugs, I mean go down to the hardware store and buy a torque wrench and crank those babies!

Then put a square or two of moongel and your set.

That's the hack job way of doing it.

If you want to do it right and get the most of your drum study this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH_RoUQyv5A&feature=related

and others like it on youtube from famous people, like bob gatson.

Tight as all hell with the bottom head slightly higher. If it had a rank ring detune one a half turn.

This is true, nothing wrong with a little moon gel. Weckl's dampening toy is pretty slick too.

[QUOTE=Aaron;18947225]Tight as all hell with the bottom head slightly higher. If it had a rank ring detune one a half turn.[/QUOTE]

You can also just de-tune 1 lug for a "muffling" effect, use the lug that is farthest away from you.

Interesting idea...haven't tried that, intentionally at least :p.

Keep in mind that what you hear when you're playing alone is not always the same as what your audience/microphone hears or what you will sound like with others. Snare buzz gets eaten up by most other instruments VERY quickly, and open snares tend to project much better.

Many drummers get stuck in that play at home sound

It sounds great practicing on low tuned thumpy drums because you can hear every stroke with clarity. But if you are trying to project or get your drums sounding good live you want the exact opposite. As much ring as possible and crank the tunings up!

Even if you are close miced you want the audience to feel your drums which will not happen if you are tuned loose and muffled.

Very true. Some of the best sounding kits are tuned high - John Bonham, Stewart Copeland, etc. If you want that low sound, use big drums! Bonham's smallest was a 15, I believe, and his drums sounded amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTtnjzJnz-g

Tuning high is also a great idea for those on a budget...well tuned drums will project well enough to be picked up on overheads and you can easily get away with a 4 mic setup.

It's hard to go back once you've played large size drums

There is a level of satisfaction laying into big toms that just feels great

[QUOTE=Det_Nosnip;18948792]Interesting idea...haven't tried that, intentionally at least :p.

Keep in mind that what you hear when you're playing alone is not always the same as what your audience/microphone hears or what you will sound like with others. Snare buzz gets eaten up by most other instruments VERY quickly, and open snares tend to project much better.[/QUOTE]


Ya, I only do it in recording situations.

Live I want ALL the sound I can get. Snare buzz, overtones, everything.

You are competing against guys with volume knobs and electricity.

Nothing wrong with a little moon gel in the practice room though!

True that...especially if you're playing in a basement with brick walls!

[QUOTE=Det_Nosnip;18949619]True that...especially if you're playing in a basement with brick walls![/QUOTE]


Icky my friend!

I don't know about there, but here there is the "ReStore" from the habitat for humanity people.

They got all kinds of shit, but they have cubicle dividers for like $5.. make AMAZING sound dampening, also if you throw some casters on em. Easy movable sound walls.

I love the basement reverb

I used to have my drums set up in the basement and they sounded amazing. You need great ear protection though if you want to keep any hearing at all.

Yeah, headphones are non negotiable. I can't stand basement 'verb personally...WAY too trebly with all of the sound bouncing off the walls. I still remember the practice room I used to play in in college...now THAT was awesome!

Jos: I'll keep that in mind. I'm not putting anything up in here b/c we're still renting and looking to buy our own place within a year or two...once I'm somewhere that's mine, though...the dampening is going up!

[QUOTE=Det_Nosnip;18951282]Jos: I'll keep that in mind. I'm not putting anything up in here b/c we're still renting and looking to buy our own place within a year or two...once I'm somewhere that's mine, though...the dampening is going up![/QUOTE]


They are stand alone, cubicle walls you know? It's really easy to make feet for them. Hell, you could even just lean them against a wall if you were really lazy.

Oh, cool.

We actually just got some 9' tall ones to make a vocal booth with in our studio, takes maybe 5 minutes and BAM! Instant vocal booth.

Do you think you could pull off complete sound isolation with those? My endgame is to have a studio setup where I can play without waking the wife...I'm hoping to find a place with a basement den and to soundproof it to hell.

Complete would be very difficult

I do think you could get the sound down enough where someone on the upper floor would only hear it faintly. Getting the reflections down to a minimum with the reflectors, use some foam or blankets behind them and even the ceiling to cut them down. I think you'd be able to pull it off.

No, the panels only work as baffles and adsorbing sound with in the space they confine. Purely for treating the room. IE Great for a vocal or drum booth to dry out the sound, separate instruments for bleed purposes but won't do shit for actually deadening sound that leaves the space.

The only way to go completely sound proof is either some serious wall in wall construction - or a basement.

Basement is the best option because most the work is done. Unfinished is even better because you'll be building up over the structure ideally.

There is really nothing you can do to sound proof anywhere without serious permanent modifications. So if you are renting it's just better off to rent a lock out somewhere, prob cost you about the same in materials over the short term anyway.
Find a band to play with and split the lock out, now you have a 24/7 practice space for 1/3 or 1/4 the cost it would otherwise be....

If you own a place, that's a whole different ball game. There's lots of info online on how to do wall in wall construction, sound proofing, sound treating and everything else you could need to know about building a studio.

Where my band's studio is, we don't have neighbors close enough that the sound is an issue. All we are interested in is treating the inside of the rooms for our desired sonic environment. Could care less about sound escaping, because nobody's around to complain.

*Side note we just got a claw foot bathtub (for free) to put the amps into to record. Super cool natural reverb trick we had read about.


** I have heard that the sonic lead sheeting used in cars can truly sound proof a room without ripping the walls apart and such. However the cost is insanely high.

Well, like I said...we're looking to buy our own place within the next year or so, so hopefully that will be an option (although it's sounding a bit expensive). Of course, it also depends upon what we get...my guess is I probably still couldn't do it in a condo, even if I do own the place.

Might have to E-kit it

Probably not in a condo either, assuming it has no basement and at least 1 common wall.
Though you never know, layout and design could grant you a far away room good enough for the purpose.

In all cases building a home studio is not going to be cheap. I've been stock piling items for my studio for years and years. From chords to mics, to books on engineering, acoustic foam, guitars, drums, amps, etc
It takes no small amount of money to have even a moderate selection of instruments and tools for recording.
I just bought some more mics actually, but again, they'll just sit in their cases until the "studio" is finished.. probably 2-3 years from now. It was a great deal on something I knew I would will want later.

We're going to be buying a house pretty soon as well. With an eye on homes with larger basements to suit my purposes.
I've stock piled quite a bit of info on construction, layout, sound treatment, wall angling, control room setups, etc

Very much a long term project for me. But the goal is to have a place to practice, record and write music 24/7, in my own home, with everything I need and ideally, not even wake the misses.

But again, look into lockouts, they generally run about $1/sq ft.

Yeah, I'm looking for the same thing Jos. My plan is to set up a practice space first, then bring in the recording equipment. I've been collecting mics too...I figure I'm better off getting quality stuff then buying a whole pack of shit mics I'll eventually replace.

Our "best case scenario" is a townhome, which WOULD have a basement...we might even snag a single family home with all of the foreclosures going on. Right now we're renting a 2-flat with a basement where my stuff is which is actually a decent setup (horrible acoustics aside), and we're not planning on rushing into anything, so I'm hoping to get something decent. Nice thing about Chicago is it seems like it's the last remaining big city where you can actually live in it long term...

It's expensive though man, even without car payments you need to make pretty good money to live there.

Good thing I'm a greedy overpaid CPS teacher. ;)