Ep. 28 The Effects of Cranking the Snare Side Head

hey guys welcome back to sounds like a

drum and welcome to part 2 of our what

are snare side heads really doing to us

video in the previous one we talked

about going through a lot of pitches on

the snare side and what it does to the

sound of the drum without adjusting the

batter at all and now we're going to do

the opposite we left this bottom head

cranked and now we're going to see what

we can do with the batter head win it's

tabletop tight like this so for starters

this snare side head is it's too

extremely high

we chose a brand new head for this drum

just to make sure that the sound is as

pure as possible and not being

influenced by the head having been

played a lot and kind of stretched out

and stuff so now there were way up here

in the stratosphere why would we do this

well I think that most people tune the

snare side head very high and again this

is just my opinion and things people

have said to me I think they tune it

high because they're looking for

articulation and clarity and also

probably because someone told them that

that's what you do with the snare side

head and that is totally fair I have

done super-high tuning on snare side for

long stretches of my life when it was

getting me a sound that made me happy

and now especially doing more you know

studio situations and things that are a

little bit clinical it's good to explore

the options which is what we did in the

previous video now here we have the same

heads same drum and the batter head is

basically where it was at the end of the

last video and we're going to check out

this sound and then try to analyze

what's good about it and then go way

down from here and also go way up from

here the main thing that I noticed when

we cranked up a snare side head to where

it's basically choking out and I'm

making a pitch anymore or really

resonating much anymore is that there's

a certain loss of clarity toward the

edge of the head the center is

articulate and the edge gets a little

bit messy sounding when you play

articulate ideas kind of right

the edge and this is kind of a cool

thing if you want to do a lot of rolls

if you're doing maybe some like New

Orleans stuff and you want to have messy

rolls and then clarity and your backbeat

that's cool

if you want to have even response over

the whole head you have to make some

adjustments to make that happen which is

why I don't tend to tune that head this

high now the batter head right now is in

a medium-high range as it was before so

we'll give it a little listen with the

snares off and then give it a little

listen with snares on I hear some janky

stuff going on in the drum I hear the

wires moving around extra there's some

kind of funny overtones coming from them

those little sort of transients are

things that I associate with a snare

side head being tuned extremely high

because it's now vibrating at a very

high very small frequency and causing

those wires to do some kind of crazy

stuff and interact with each other in

weird ways if I was in a situation where

I had to use this tension for some

reason then I would probably go for a

higher tuning on the batter side to try

to match this sort of choked thing and

just sort of like steer into the skid a

little bit with it so this drum is tuned

high but I'm gonna go higher first and

see if we can get something that's a

little clearer and a little more inline

with the idea of a very high tuned snare

drum

[Music]

okay this is kind of extreme we had to

go higher than I thought to kind of get

out of that range of those ugly

interactions with the wires so batter

heads really not making a note anymore

it's pretty dead but this is also kind

of a cool sound it gives me sort of a

hip-hop idea or like a funk got a vibe

and even with a little muffling it could

be cool too so we'll do the same thing

listen with the wires off and we'll turn

them on to check it out as a sort of

important aside here it didn't change

the tension on the wires which I think a

lot of times when there's sloppy sound

and the wires that's the first place

that a player will go to try to get rid

of that racket

and end up just choking the drum even

more to try to get some of that design

and strange stuff to go away there's

still a little bit of funny business

going on the wires but it's a lot more

controlled right now I've also seen

people like tape the wires to the drum

and some other kind of stuff like that

to get them to not rattle around like

that it really is the tuning of the

snare side head that makes that stuff

happen and if you check out that

previous video you can hear it kind of

start to happen as we get it tighter and

tighter and tighter it goes away from

that thing of wolf and then the sound is

over to having some kind of strange

After Effects so yeah this sounds like a

gunshot and it's really loud in here and

it's cool and it sounds good

I for this sound I probably still

wouldn't tune the snare side this high

because the drum itself feels hard now

and it feels kind of choked out and even

in orchestral situations not so much

that I was doing them but I got to check

out someone's orchestral drum that they

were using at an extremely high tension

they still weren't really jacking up the

snare side head that much they tuned it

up for sure but they still want to be

able to play into the drum same as us

and so no matter what music you're doing

making sure that at the very least the

snare side head still has some give and

a little bit of tone in it is going to

improve the sound so now let's go the

other way I went up to get this about

almost half a turn like between a

quarter and a half a turn so I'm gonna

go down a ways and try and see if I can

get this to do kind of a fatback thing

which is gonna lead us into what I think

is the most important part of this

particular experiment that we're doing

[Music]

okay so the the reason that I'm excited

about this portion of the video is

because something that I have had

conversations about a lot with drummers

about the sound of the snare drum is

that they feel like the drum is making

too many overtones or too much tone

overall and they're getting a lot of

note and a lot of noise and a lot of

sustain out of the drum but it's not a

drum II sound it's like a pitchy kind of

sound that overwhelms everything and

then also the drum feels weirdly choked

when you just hit it in the middle and

you end up with a scenario where no

dynamic sounds good

the rimshot sound crazy if your strike

zone is larger than maybe an inch then

all your back beats sound different and

you can even have it clash with the

tonality of a track if you're not

muffling it so then the next step is

let's put a ton of tape and moon gels on

there and then it's still choked and now

it's dead and the wires are also not

having a good time interacting with the

snare side head and they're creating

strange overtones and so ugly stuff so

where we're at now is the tabletop tight

it's narrow side and we've lowered the

batter down a lot but it's not a pitch

that I wouldn't play the drum at it's

just gonna sound ridiculous with the

snare side head tuned like this

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

what we have here is too much promotion

of residents from the snare side head

it's causing extreme activation of the

batter head and the snare side head is

choked so we can't get it to move and

interact with the snare head at this

pitch and that means that what you're

ending up with is almost no fundamental

and a boatload of overtones you might be

able to hear them from my talking in the

mic I mean they're loud to me right here

because the bottom head is like trying

to make them come out and as much as

this is a broad sound it's not really a

nice punchy sound it's got a lot of

overtones and it feels like an effect to

me it almost sounds like compression

like this like this sound is compressed

and if you just take the snare side down

like a quarter turn from where it is

right now it'll completely change the

character of this kind of sound and it

will also make the drum clean

inarticulate from one side to the other

and in the middle so I guess the last

thing to do is just lower the snare side

a little bit and see if it does what we

think it's going to do

I just really quickly lowered the pitch

of the snare side head between a quarter

and a half a turn which is a significant

amount for a snare side head because of

the material that it's made out of and

already this sounds completely different

than just a minute ago didn't change the

batter head at all it's still kind of a

wild sound because we are tuned down on

the batter head and I don't have the

wire super tight but the feel of it to

the stick in the rimshot in the center

everywhere is a huge improvement and

that was just lowering the snare side

head between a quarter and a half of a

turn and these are the kind of Manute

adjustments that actually make huge

difference and if you know what kind of

sound you're looking for you can make

these tiny adjustments and get closer to

it so just as a final aside for this if

I was sitting down at this drum and I

wanted to have it do sort of a

middle-of-the-road thing that's gonna

work on a lot of stuff at this point I

would probably lower the snare side head

a little bit more and I would probably

raise the batter head a little bit more

because right now it's on the low side

it's got a big wide sound it's ringing

for kind of a while and that's again is

cool it's kind of an effect rather than

like as a run-of-the-mill snare sound so

as a last thing I'm gonna nudge the

snare side down just a little bit and

I'm gonna raise the batter head a

quarter turn and I suspect that that's

going to end up with a sort of thing

that I would want out of this particular

kind of drum

[Music]

alright it did what I thought I was

gonna do slight nudge down on the bottom

and a quarter turn up and there were a

couple of lugs that I know just a little

bit to even out the pitches because

anytime you change the bottom it's gonna

mess with the top a little bit because

they're talking to each other and here's

the final sign for the Supra today yeah

it's good it's just a knee it's it's got

a lot of tone in it but it's not too

much overtone the fundamentals pretty

strong with some slight adjustments to

the snare side head we could dial in

more articulation or more length of tone

in the wires which we're gonna address

in a future video I have some schemes

for that to kind of figure out how to

get more articulation or more fatness

out of the drum with different choices

down there but yeah sounds great and as

usual please like subscribe comment let

us know if you have any thoughts about

this if you have any ideas or questions

and talk to you soon