How We Tune Our Snare Drums - Drum Center of Portsmouth
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- Опубліковано 11 січ 2012
- How We Tune Our Snare Drums
We've been asked how we tune our snare drums for the demo videos. Here's a brief explanation.
It's been a long time since we posted this. Check out our new facility, huge inventory, and high quality drum video demos at:
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#snaredrumtuning #howtotuneasnare #drumcenternh
I like how Shane stops for a moment to admire the look of the drum. There's a man that has an insatiable appetite for snare drums.
Why the thumbs down? This is what makes drums and drummers unique from every other instrument, tuning. Being able to tune your drums to what you want to hear is a real privilege. I'm so glad that I don't have a book telling me EADGBE is the tuning for your drums, get it right or get out. Rejoice in your freedom.
Our thoughts, exactly!
I'm guessing the thumbs down are because the video is pretty useless, I'm sorry but it is
Precisely...GREAT POUNT
Point
One thing I learned from Bob Gatzen from when he owned Creative Music in Wethersfield CT was the concept of OPPOSITES. This works well with diecast hoops. I did the same thing as Shane does.....cross cross pattern to bring the tension up around the drum to get the tuning even at each lug. In many cases turning the opposite lug from the one you want to change will bring it where you need it. Beyond that I tune the bottom head 4 half steps UP from the batter. I’m some cases 5 half steps up. This concept works with 98% of any drums I’ve tuned. The other 2% either needed a refresh of their edges or destined for the fire pit.
People need to chill out. All the video title and description says is how WE tune our snare drums, because people were asking. This is not a text book tutorial.
Thanks for the heads up on tuning Shane. Most guys try to make this rocket science.
All this is so right, no mind blowing mistery in the tuning technique, just a few basics. Thank you for all the videos, always sounding good and showing all the passion drummers share with drummers. If I have the chance to come to Portsmouth (I’m a frenchman!), I will sure make a visit!
Merci, Laurent!
Damn, people! If this vid doesn't help you then move on to the next one. He isn't here to teach you how to tune your drums, he is showing you how he tunes. The snare drums he reviews always sound good so it works for him. If it doesn't help you then look on the right of your screen and choose one of those and see if that one helps.
This is great, short and sweet and it works. I really like your snare drum video's the low medium and high turning. It gives me a true view of that snare drum
I can't wait to visit your drum center.. I just moved to southern NH so you are just up the road.. Thank you for this video.. I learn more and more still after 53 years
Welcome to the area! We're looking forward to your visit!
Soon thank you.. I wanted to mention one small detail.. The stick under the snares works best if both ends of the stick are on top of the rim.. Don't mind me lol.. I am a detail freak ;)
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who noticed the dog in the top left hand corner from 3:13 to 4:08
As always love the channel and you guys make stuff simple straight to the point and easy for people learn.
Thanks Shane, right out the 📦 box the first steps to do and to keep your snare tuned with adjustments.
There is a Pug next to the floor Tom LOL
I stayed in Portsmouth NH this summer it was beautiful
It is really nice on the NH seacoast.
finally a video where it does not cut scene's just show everything real time thank you !
There are a number of variables that could affect the snare wires. Tuning is a big one, if your snare drum is tuned too closely to one of the toms it can make the buzz worse. Trying tuning it higher or lower than the your rack toms. The room acoustics can definitely cause more issues on this. If certain frequencies are hyped in your room then that can make it worse. Try moving where the kit is in the room, try to stay out of corners. I hope this is helpful!
Tony
Something VERY important here. For this 14" drum he tuned the snare side head to F3. When John Good (DW) tuned it he brought it up to A#3. I have found greater satisfaction with tuning it lower, like Shane did, to F3 or G3. It helps with unwanted ringing.
Is that a guitar chord? 🤣 like common just crank the rod to your sound liking and youlle be surprise how good your tuning is your drum pitch wont matter once it blends to the other instruments when your playing the music
What a genius comment! Your ability to correctly write English lets me know all I need to properly process your advice. Please, may we continue this discourse? I find you so profoundly engaging!@@pour-g8677
...I made an Evans Hybrid into a rock. I just cranked it till I couldn't get anything more out of it. It sits in the sound from 13" or maybe even 12" snares... And it makes sense for marching and playing metal. I cranked up the bottom head as soon as I got the drum, not knowing that it makes a siiiiiiick crack noise. I haven't touched it since.
In the end...SOUND is ALL that matters...this snare sounds great to me! To ea his own...
I would love to see a video of you working on minimizing snare buzz from a tom / toms (I won't say "eliminating" because I believe that's impossible unless one removes an offending tom ;) ). I have my tricks - detune the lugs at the strainer bed, for example - but if you had some magic tricks I'm sure lots of us would like to learn about them :) thanks! Also I received a tom I ordered from you all, thank you very much! Great service.
Great video on tuning the snare,,thanks for posting !
When you did the raw tuning of the batter head, I noticed you went by the tightness-feeling of the screws for the last two screws. they felt lighter because they were the last ones and the pre-tension of their neighbours already provided much so they did feel lighter. You tuned them one turn too high and brought them down again in the tuning process.
Also, tuning all the lugs to even pitches does not work great on the resonant head of snares because of the beds that tend to drop the tone of the snare bed lugs even when you apply about the same tension. Don't foce the head to go too tight over the snare beds. If you leave the snare bed lugs at a slightly lower pitch (maybe a half tone), your snares will work better, try it out.
Also, I personally found that the last minutes I spend fine-tuning the drum make about 25% of the difference compared to the tuning you were okay with - which would be "detuned" in my world. It makes a difference if you can hear out all slight pitch diferences betwen the lugs. Also, bringing the bottom head into a harmonic distance to the top head and keeping an eye on the tonal distance makes sense for different vibes.
I'm aware that this is the method you do because it's fast, easy and you need to be efficient in the shop. Good video!
Great video! Thank you. Love the Mapex Black Panther drum as well.
This method worked great on my Sonor 3007! Good response and sensitivity. Great video!!
Good job bro snare sounds awesome especially at the end nice sound
Great tunning class
I thought that's what it was! I just purchased that snare from you guys. Can't wait for it to get here next monday-thursday!
I loved the reserved maple ❤
Killer snare sound buddy..🤘🤘
similar to what I do, did learn a little more about tuning, thanks fro the great video.
Well done sir!
Cool stuff guys!
@viktor7m This is the new black panther heritage, awesome drum, and yes it is a limited edition!
Tony
Really great, thanks!
They are medium tight. It depends on what sound you like, tighter is more focused and sharp. Looser tensions let you hear the drum more. I hope this is helpful.
I just purchased a mapex mpx 5.5x14 hammered steel
snare. I couldn't get it to sound right to me until I changed
both heads and wires. now it's sounding awesome. I have no use for dials or robots, everyone who has ever heard
drums before these devices were around would agree that
those drums sounded great. some people think that Buddy
Rich or Tony Williams would have wanted them, I don't think
so. drummers have managed to get great sounds from drums without the help of dials and bots. it seems likes
drummers today have been brainwashed into believing
these things are necessary, there not, but if you want to
spend $100.00 on something that is not as important as
heads and sticks it's your choice. for $100.00 I could buy
a couple sets of quality Tom heads and maybe 4 pairs of
sticks! I've seen drummers who would swear by these devices only to wind up selling them on eBay. remember
every drum is different each has it's own voice different
heads and wires can dramatically change the sound of a
drum. this is only my opinion, just because I have 52 years
of experience with drums don't mean shit.
kenneth kunie it helps to have a cheap pitch pipe app to tune to a particular note; you can get the worst drum heads to sound great with good tuning. I agree though; tunebots are unnecessary. moongel can also save you if you're lazy
Thanks for the video I found that easy enough to replicate🤟
Learn how to play the drums instead folks! The only thing one need to know is that the res head should be tighter than the upper head. Otherwise it rings like hell. 😄👍 I feel the man in this vid have a nice and relaxed attitude towards drum tuning. Good luck everybody!
AUWWWWW! wook at da widdle puppy!
That's one deaf puppy
i believe that snare you were tuning was the mapex black panther blaster. its maple with walnut reinforcement rings. its very loud too. i love mapex gear!
Hi there! More often than not we will keep the bottom head tuned the same.
Tony
I've always found that table top tight resonant head sounds pretty good with every tuning in the top head. Some better, some worse, but always usable.
That is a very common way of doing it, and I know people the have great results doing it that way as well. Thanks for the kind words!
Bella! Cool video Shane- always wondered how you get your sound.
hi dear Shane!!! When you tuning the snare Low, Medium or high tuning, do you chance the bottom head tuning, or just the top head??? thanks a lot of you friend from Brazil. Jonatas
4:05 the dog walking there like "I'm invisible" LOL
@xJOHNtheDRUMMERx That's Bella, she's the boss! It's Shane's dog, she loves drums almost as much as we do!
Tony
Can she still hear those high frequencies?
I have 2 pugs, kona and goji. They fall asleep next to congas when i practice. I dont let them in the studio when im playing drums so they dont get hearing loss. My last pug lost his hearing thru old age so he got to sleep between my seat and bass drum pedal❤
Great video ! Real , one key one drum bottom head crank and there you go !
We have them still! And yes we ship to Australia!
Tony
This a limited edition Black Pather Heritage 6.5x14, these were made for us only. They go for $229.99 and we do ship to Canada, if you are interested.
Tony
That snare looks pretty awesome. Which version of the black panther is it and how much does it typically sell for? I live in Canada so I probably cant buy it from your shop.
Shane, thank you. Ive been playing a long time and sometimes as we all do, i get in ruts and/or tunnel vision. Your snare tuning vidio was very well done and helped me out of a tuning rut. Was that one of your 4 legged employees i saw walking by at one point?
Hi Shane I'm curious,do you notice any big difference between a Remo and Evans heads ?
For example both being the same thickness and coated or clear ? thanks.
Simply excellent!
What is the model of that Black Panther snare? Looks like some limited edition...
What camera was used to shoot this video?
Thanks in advance.
Truly sounds great with just the mic on the cam
lol I live in Portsmouth England ! and googled Drum tuning portsmouth.
Yeah, just got that Mapex BP Heiritage from DC NH. Thank, guys!
Thank you! Enjoy!
do you have any suggestions on how to get rid of the ring from the snare assembly?? i finally got rid of the overtones but now the snare assembly rings/buzz when i hit the snare near the edges. ive been at this for 3 hours today!!
i like your video,, btw do you have any idea how to make snare sounds like fabrizio morreti?
Great reply :) What you've said couldn't be more true
i have a hard time tuning a pork pie pig lite snare with an evans reverse dot head.. any tips? I've tuned it a bit too high and i don't know if the bottom head makes a difference.
I have a Pearl Black Brass Sensitone 14 X 5 snare and have had it for quite a while. For example, say the snare wires are going east/west underneath. If I hit the batter head about 3 to 4 inches from the rim above the snare wires on each side of the drum, it makes a boinging sound with rattling. If I hit the batter head north/south on the head, it sounds fine. Is this typical of a metal snare? Also noticed that underneath on the side that the throw-off is, the head look lower from the top of the rim than the opposite side, no matter how it is tuned. Thought that might be the actual snare side head, but is that normal also? Hope I explained this clearly enough. Really love the sound of this snare.
Do you have any suggestions on getting rid of the aftertones on toms?
that nice tuning
Dankeschön!
Yes we do.
Tony
@scott111193 It's the same camera, but we don't use the camera mic anyways. It's two small diaphram condensers and this is the same way.
Tony
Snare-heaven.
hi, i would like to know what is the snare that larry mullen jr by u2 plays in ZOO TV in sidney performance, i know that he used to play with a yamaha maple custom but if you watch the numb an daddy's gonna pay for your crash car performance on zoo tv sounds very cool please if you know what snares he play i will glad with you.
kind regards from mexico
Can someone help? I've got a pearl EXR snare with 8 lugs. I've gone and gotten the wires and skins replaced a my local drum shop and I've got a REMO Ambassador as the bottom and a REMO Ambassador Coated on the top. I've gone to many videos trying to see how to tune it but it just doesn't sound right. Any advise?
lo que me gusta de estos redoblantes es que con poca tension tiene un buen sonido
I don’t crank the bottom head so hi I feel the snares buzz nicer on lol a medium tuning, but we all have our own sound so this is not a wrong way to tune just their preferred way. Snare drum lets you slack a little more on tuning the the toms do to my mind. This snare sounded just fine specially since I like a bit of overtones not all the way dry.
hey i want to buy a tama but i don't know which one. can you recommend me one? I am playing drums for four years now. Sorry for my english, it's not my mother language
It's never a bad idea to try to tune the snare in between the toms pitch wise, this seems to help in most cases.
thanks ...
Great video, guys. A little too underestimating tuning, but pretty much enough for people tomlay ground on!
my question is, how tight are your snare wires? Are very loose snare more for jazz? Would tightening either the snare wires or the bottom head give the same result of a faster speaking drum?
oh men what kind of snare is in the opening song its awesome
What bottom head do you like (realizing it is preference) just asking cause I pooped a head once tightening it ... really didnt crank it that crazy it was a really thin diplomat just like to hear what you like on the bottom Thanks Jim
How tight exactly is the snare side head in comparison with the batter head? Should it be tighter? And HOW TIGHT?!?
Great vid by the way
hi i have questin...i have problem with snare wires...when i hit snare,some of toms starts "ringing" and snare wires are buzzing for a long time and it doesnt sound good...is it because bad acoustic of room or bad tuning ?
When you flip the snare up side down how do you get it to make that sound.
I have two snare drums both are 6x.5x 14 ludwig metal is medium tuned/ wooden snare is hi tones not to tight .thair accent’s snare drums 🥁🥁
I have done the same since day one
@gtrocksyosocks Yes it is, we got the kit in used.
Tony
Vejo esses caras tentando afinar tambores e fico indignado com o tamanho do desconhecimento!
Is that an Imperialstar snare and tom behind Shane?
about how many turns from finger tight, do usually take the bottom head up? also when you tune to a high tuning do you still have the bottom head tighter than the top? thanks so much! DrumCenterNH
TheCkiser I'd say anywhere from 3-5 full turns with the drum key. Maybe even more. I stop when the reso head feels like I'm pressing on a flexed muscle. And to your second question, yes. Reso head tuning is miles more important than the batter.
Replace the straps by cords.
Straps "pull" the plates centered, whereas cords pull only at the bottom side of the plates. This tilts the plates a bit and brings the snares tighter to the skin.
Thanks for the tip I’ve had a problem with my snare that it’s taken a while to fix and this helped..the ring is gone😂
Hi Bella !
Great video I bought my starclassic from these guys they let me compare the star maple , walnut starclassic birch bubinga and maple all together awesome shop they carry slot of high end drums great stock not sure how people buy kits off the internet worth the 45 minute drive for me only regret I wish I just bought the star kit not that the star classic is bad but price scared me
With the hundreds and thousands of drum tuning books and videos out there, save your money. It's just this simple.
super tight on top, medium tight on thebottom. thats how i always do it for a banging ass high pitched tone. perfect when you blast alot
The snare side head is tuned pretty high, and the top head changes. Not sure the exact tension, but it is definitely on the high side.
I like Shane and his store - I do a similar thing. The only thing is that the UT (Chinese Remo) heads suck...
The batter head should be primarily adjusted for harmonic tone of the snare drum. Generally, the idea is to get the harmonics that you want to hear into the mid-range of the sound, where they can speak most clearly.
If only I had such a shop in my town:(
good looking snare! juicy!! makes my mouth water!