SNARE TUNING

Re: ringing snare

What is the frequency of the ringing?

My vintage Rogers Dyanasonic produces a light 800 Hz-ringing.
The tone is from the shell and not from the heads(I use clear Ambassdor heads).
 
Re: ringing snare

DogBreath said:
Are you sure you tried searching?

Hey thanks. I swear I did. I must've used slightly different words, like snare buzz or snare noise, because I definitely find those now when I search for snare ringing. Guess its just one of those days. Sorry.

Morello said:
What is the frequency of the ringing?

My vintage Rogers Dyanasonic produces a light 800 Hz-ringing.
The tone is from the shell and not from the heads(I use clear Ambassdor heads).

How do you tell? Did you use a drum gauge or something?
 
Snare Drum tuning question.

I got my first kit over a week and a half ago. And my snare skin cracked along the side. The only reason I can see this happening is because I tuned it too tight. Now my new snare skin isn't sounding right and I know it is because of my inexperience in tuning. So far, I think if I tune it a little tighter is will sound better, but when do I know if I tuned it too tight. And I also heard, that if you tune the bottom skin tighter/looser it gives the snare more of a rattling. I think this is referred to as sustain. I've been working on this tuning "project" of mine, and I am getting as far as I can without tuning any more because I don't know if I can.
 
Re: Snare Drum tuning question.

I tune my snare pretty tight and I have never yet managed to split any drum head (without the aid of a knife).

Are you sure it's cracked? When you first tune a brand new head tightly many of them(Pinstripes for one) make loud 'cracking' noises as they stretch. This is perfectly normal and the head does not actually split.

If you can actually see a split in the skin, I would doubt that your tuning had much to do with it - I would suggest that it has been damaged or was defective in some way.
 
Re: Snare Drum tuning question.

Yeah, my snares wound up really tight and it doesnt show any signs of weakness... its possible that if you bought an entry level kit, and you are talking of the skin provided with it, that the skin was of "not such a high standard". This happened to me, with the skin I got with the kit, within a few weeks its was covered in craters and looked a bit like the surface of the moon.

Either way its a good excuse to go buy yourself a nice new batterhead =D
 
Re: Snare Drum tuning question.

Yes, it was infact an entry level head. And it the split was blatantly obvious, thanks for the answers guys.
 
Re: Snare Drum tuning question.

Try a high end head like Remo, Evans, Aquarian...
You can tune your snare drum tight, if you want...If the head still bends a little bit,when you push on it, then it is okay...I would tune the resonant head more loose and I like to tight the snares not so much.
 
Re: Snare Drum tuning question.

I tune mine very tight also and I've never had one actually "split" while I was tuning it. Weird... Ya, get a better head like a remo or evans.
 
Re: Snare Drum tuning question.

powerpak14 said:
I got my first kit over a week and a half ago. And my snare skin cracked along the side. The only reason I can see this happening is because I tuned it too tight. Now my new snare skin isn't sounding right and I know it is because of my inexperience in tuning. So far, I think if I tune it a little tighter is will sound better, but when do I know if I tuned it too tight. And I also heard, that if you tune the bottom skin tighter/looser it gives the snare more of a rattling. I think this is referred to as sustain. I've been working on this tuning "project" of mine, and I am getting as far as I can without tuning any more because I don't know if I can.

Powerpak14,

Here's my step-by-step tutorial on how to change out and tune up a drum head.
It's kinda long, so get comfy.
Read it all first, THEN do it (refer back, if you need to).



There's a few ways to "break in" a new head.
Over the years, I've tried various methods.
The way I'm about to describe has worked very well for me and is a much faster way of "breaking in" a head than most others:

1) Remove the old head.

2) Take a piece of cloth (old T-shirt works well) and give a quick wipe to the bearing edge, the underside of the collar and the glue ring of the new head and the underside of the hoop.

3) Place the new head on the drum and spin it on the shell.
Make sure it fits on and spins easily.
If not, return the head and get another.
If it does, continue...

4) Place the hoop in the head, insert the tension rods, tighten all rods finger tight (I like to use both hands, turning the 2 rods that are on the exact opposite sides of each other at the same time).

5) Take your tuning key and start applying tension to the head by turning the tension rods.
Use a STAR PATTERN to tension the head, so that it torques down evenly.
If you're drum is a 6 lug drum, look at the end of the drum you're working on and situate the lugs so that you have one lug looking right at you and the one opposite is looking straight away from you.
If you play "connect the dots" with the other 4 lugs, it should make a "box" shape.

6) Now imagine the face of a clock superimposed over the drum, with the number 12 being the lug looking away from you and the number 6 being the lug looking straight at you.
The rest of the numbers on the imaginary clock will be fairly close to the following lug positions;
The lug in the upper right hand side will be "2", the lug in the lower right hand side will be "4", the lug on the lower left hand side will be "8" and the lug on the upper left hand side will be "10".

7) Tighten the head down in 2 steps, or "patterns".
The first one will be:
12,6,2,8,4,10.
The second one will be:
6,12,4,10,2,8.
Repeat these patterns, in the order I just laid out, placing one complete 360 degree revolution on each rod (which I call "a turn") the first time around, then use 180 degree revolutions (which I call a "1/2 turn") there after, until you've put 3 turns on each of the tension rods.

8) At this point, the head is evenly tensioned and fairly taught.
You may have heard some cracking or "popping" at this point, and that's fine.
Place the drum on the floor with the head you're working on looking up.
Now, place the heel of one of your hands in the center of the head and give one very hard, sharp, quick push.
DON'T BE A WIMP HERE! PUT YOUR WEIGHT INTO IT!
You may have heard more cracking at this point or you may not hear more cracking at this point.
Either is fine.

9) Now pick the drum off the floor and place it on a soft surface with the end you're working on looking up.
That old T-shirt (folded) you used to wipe the drum off with in the beginning would work fine.
If your bed has a comforter on it, that would be perfect.
The soft surface will completely muffle the other head so that you only hear the head you are tuning, which brings us to...

10) Remove all of the tension from the head you're working on.
Use the star patterns I laid out in step #7, until you feel the tension on the rods get pretty slack.
By that time, you probably won't need to use the key anymore.
Keep loosening the tension until the rods are no longer tensioning the head (look for an obvious gap between the head of the rod and the hoop).

11) Start tightening down on the head again with the rods, using the star patterns I showed in step #7.
This time, you will tension the head to whatever setting gives you the sound you're looking for.
Once you start to feel a little tension on the head, start tapping it in the middle after completing each star pattern, to see if the head is tensioned where you want it.

12) Once you reach that point, stop tightening and tap on the head at each point that corressponds with a tension rod, about 1/4" in from the edge.
You can use a stick or your finger, it really doesn't matter.

13) Tap each point once and listen to the drum.

14) If you hear a nice, even sound that is the same pitch at all the points, you're finished tuning this head and you may skip to step # 21.
That head is now tuned to where you want it to be and it should hold that tuning for as long as you want it to.

15) If you hear a "wobbly" or "uneven" sound coming from some of those points, then the head is not tensioned evenly.
The sound you're hearing is known as distortion and is caused by the head creating several dissonant frequencies at once, due to the fact that it's seeing different tension in different spots of the head.
Dissonant frequencies are ones that do not harmonize with each other, thus resulting in the distorted sound you hear.

16) At this point, you'll need to "fine tune" the head.

17) Check around the head and see if that distorted sound isn't more prevelent at certain points more than others.
If so, try correcting those first.

18) Correct by tightening that tension rod, slightly.
Tap on the head once, at that tension rod, and tighten the rod as the sound decays.
You shouldn't have to turn the rod more than 1/4 of turn at a time.
If you do, then stop and tap the head at the rod that is on the exact opposite side of the drum and see if you don't hear the distorted sound coming from that one.
If so, do the same thing until the sound "evens out".

19) Tap around the head again and see if the distortion is still heard.

20) If so, do the same procedure at each of those rods as well.

21) Once you have everything sounding nice and "even", pick the drum up and hold it in your hand BY THE TOM BRACKET. NEVER HOLD IT BY THE RIM.
The combination of the weight of the drum, your grip and the thickness of the hoop may be enough to throw the head "out of tune" at this point, if the drum is held by its rim.

22) Hit the middle of the drum while holding it up.

23) If it sounds "good", you're done.
If you still get that distortion, set the drum back down on the soft surface it was on and tap around the head again to see if you didn't miss anything.

24) If it sounds good, flip the drum over and tap around the edge of the other head.
Chances are it may have been out of tune and you didn't realize it until now.

25) If the distortion is heard with either head, correct those problems and perform step #22 again.

26) If you STILL get that distorted sound go back and perform steps 23-25 and check the heads again.
If everything sounds good on it's own, then your heads are "out of phase" with each other (i.e., each head is tuned to a frequency that is dissonant to the other).
At this point, you'll have to pick one of those heads and retune it to a different pitch that will put the heads back "into phase".
Remember, the batter head sets the tone of the drum, the resonant head sets the amount of resonance of the drum.
The change will most likely not have to be that drastic and the sound of your drum may not change all that much.

27) Make the correction, perform step # 22 and see how the drum sounds.


...If everything sounds good, NOW you're done!

Chances are very good that you will NOT have to perform all 27 steps.
I just wanted to cover some basic problems you might encounter while trying to tune up the drum.

One of the most important points in tuning a drum, that most drummers overlook, is the "cracking" procedure.
You MUST find a way to form that head to the bearing edge, and stress the glue that may be holding the head material to the glue ring, or else you will stand a very good chance of encountering (unneccessary) problems with getting the head tuned up.
You can crank up the tension and leave it sit for a week, or use a hair dryer on it, or simply push down on the center of the head (like I do!).
Any of these procedures will form the head to the bearing edge (leaving it sit for a week works the worst, trust me on this one!).



One thing you don't wanna do is to push in on the SNARE SIDE head (that's the clear one on the bottom of the snare drum). It's too thin and doing that will leave a large depression in the head (it won't sound good).
Those heads are so thin, that you can just slap them on and tension them to where ever you like.


Hope you found this helpful.



Elvis
 
Re: Snare Drum tuning question.

Elvis said:
Powerpak14,

Here's my step-by-step tutorial on how to change out and tune up a drum head.
It's kinda long, so get comfy.
Read it all first, THEN do it (refer back, if you need to).

Hope you found this helpful.

Elvis

This is exactly what I did, when I recently changed all my heads & resonants. Just to add - Depending on how many Tom-Toms your kit comprises of.....after I did all the step as above .... say I start changing & tuning the smallest 8" tom as the 1st...when I repeat the above procedure on my 10" tom and after I had done it ... I put the 8" next to the 10" and hitting both toms to get a correct tone...(eg Do, re, me, fa, so - something like that).

When the 10" Tom is finished....I repeat the procedure to my next larger tom which is a 12". Likewise finishing the above procedure I put the 10" next to my 12" and hitting both toms to get the tone ..... re[eat the process ....changing heads/resonants for the the rest of the toms.

Then I mount it on the kit, place it in it's proper position , play each drum and listen to fine-tune everything as a final step....Done.

Bro Elvis, this is very good effort by you to explain every detail accordingly...great job & cheers !
 
Re: Snare Drum tuning question.

Thanks.
I had never found anything like my tutorial on the net (even the DTB doesn't have this procedure) and I felt it would be something nice to have, to give the people who are just starting out a clue on how to properly do it.
If anyone wants a copy, I'll be happy to email it to you. Just write me - [email protected]

Also, that's a good idea you had as well, comparing toms to get the perferred pitch drop.
I found that with most of the kits I've owned, I can simply set all the toms at the same tension and let their sheer physcial size differences create the pitch drop.
However a lot of people feel this isn't enough to create a sufficient difference in the sound of the individual toms.
I don't know. It's been working for me for about 20 years now.
Something to try out, I guess.


Elvis
 
Re: Snare Drum tuning question.

Elvis said:
Thanks.

Also, that's a good idea you had as well, comparing toms to get the perferred pitch drop.

I found that with most of the kits I've owned, I can simply set all the toms at the same tension and let their sheer physcial size differences create the pitch drop.

However a lot of people feel this isn't enough to create a sufficient difference in the sound of the individual toms.

Elvis

Comparing toms to get the perferred pitch drop is required as different drummers has different amount of tom-tom.... so depending on how many toms one has, all the toms has to be tuned in one-go...and I learned all these (like what you mentioned as per above) when I first bought my Yamaha Kit (8pcs) and the Yamaha's Guys did all these in my home eg. tuning ... when they deliver the Kit to me and show me step by step how they did it....exactly like what you have said.

You are correct when you say..." You can simply set all the toms at the same tension and let their sheer physcial size differences create the pitch drop "...I did this too....and what I did after this is just "Very Little Fine-Tunning" in fact...not drastic...
 
Snare tuning

I was just wondering how many people tune there snare drum by tighting batter head as tight as you can get it and tune the resonet head a little looser. it's a way of tuning that me and my friends have used for years. the guy i bought the drums from told me thats how he tuned them so that's how i did it and showed my other drumming friends.
 
Re: Snare tuning

i got my batter cranked, i cant remember the last time i messed with the resonant head.
 
Re: Snare tuning

Yep that's exactly my way of doing it, crank it up.
My own personal way of checking when my snare is just right is to play loads of drags on it to see has it got plenty of bounce.
Then I play this rudimental piece to check has the centre of the snare got the right bite.
Then finally I play Stanton Moore's RRLRRLRL grooves such as the New Orleans guaguanco and stuff to check on how the rimshots are sounding. I LOVE rimshots so a decent balance between ring and attack on my snare gives it the perfect sound, for me anyway.
 
Re: THE SNARE TUNING THREAD.

ok ive never tuned my snare before today and i screwed up the snare wires on the bottom. How do i put them back how they used to be?
 
Re: THE SNARE TUNING THREAD.

Beau,

What exactly do you mean, when you wrote, "... i screwed up the snare wires on the bottom..." ?

Are you saying you physically broke them?
That's almost what it sounds like you're saying.



Elvis
 
Re: THE SNARE TUNING THREAD.

Ok. New drummer to drummerworld. But, serious tuning question. I've mastered tuning the toms and my bass drum, but my snare is always the trickiest. I recently got a new Aquarian Modern Vintage Snare head and when i hit in the center, it sioursly sounds like a tub. When the snares are on, it just makes the ugliest noise. When snares are off, the bottom and top head produce a beautiful sound. WHATS THE DEAL? I'M BEGINNING TO SUSPECT ITS THE DRUM BUT WILL SOMEONE HELP ME?
Much Appreciated.
 
Re: THE SNARE TUNING THREAD.

drumzz2much said:
Ok. New drummer to drummerworld. But, serious tuning question. I've mastered tuning the toms and my bass drum, but my snare is always the trickiest. I recently got a new Aquarian Modern Vintage Snare head and when i hit in the center, it sioursly sounds like a tub. When the snares are on, it just makes the ugliest noise. When snares are off, the bottom and top head produce a beautiful sound. WHATS THE DEAL? I'M BEGINNING TO SUSPECT ITS THE DRUM BUT WILL SOMEONE HELP ME?
Much Appreciated.

what kind of snare is it? have you tried tightening your snares? (since the drum sounds

fine without them)
 
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