The ballad snare

Larry

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
There's this one song my band does, as soon as I heard it I knew it needed a really deep low tuned ballad snare. I tuned my 6.5 maple drum down way low, actually tuned it to an A , the key the song was in (that took about a 1/2 hour to get it right) and recorded it. The recording came out really great. I swear tuning the snare to the root key of the song really sounds great, in this case anyway. But I want to get an old Ludwig/Rogers/Slingerland 14 x 10 marching snare cheap on eBay and use it just for that song. Has anybody here used a really deep ballad or marching snare on the kit? I know DW is offering one, anybody play it? I would probably need to mount floor tom legs to the snare to get it at a good sitting down playing height. Any experiences with really deep snares (10" and over) would be appreciated.
 
Here's the song in case anyone's interested. Couldn't you imagine even a bigger deeper snare backbeat sound on this? We captured some magic in the guitar players solo that day.
 

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sweet recording Larry.
that snare does sound sweet. Now you have made me wanna get one I can make sound like that!
why does this forum always make me want to spend money?!?!
this is terrible for my finances haha
 
The snare sounds great.

I usually play two up and two down. I've been playing with a floor tom on the left next to the hi hat lately. A floor tom that could double as a ballard snare would be really cool on that side. Probably what DW had in mind. I think the DW is a 16 X 10.

I would guess a shallow 14 inch floor tom would do the trick. Easier to find wires, hoops, heads, et.al.

Again, sounds great!
 
excellent song man but ya i definatley am longing for a really deep snare song in thereeeee
 
Anyone ever tune their two snare heads in fifths so it makes a power chord? Would that even work or be audible?
 
that snare sounds like a screw tape! if anybody doesn't know what that means its a popular houston rap genre where they take rap records and play them back slow and make a mix tape.

It would be fun to track a snare with the tape running fast and then when it played back at regular speed it would be deep.

I know the beatles did kind of the opposite they would track a tambourine at 1/2 speed and then when it plays back at full speed the pitch goes up and the tambourine player sounds perfect.
 
Screw tape...that's a new one on me anyway. I'm still trying to figure out if that is bad or good ha ha.

What I can tell you is that it's a Pearl Eric Singer Signature snare (10 ply about an inch thick of pure maple) with coated emps and ambassador snare sides tuned to a low A, recorded with Vic Firth 5A wood tips, an Audix I5, EQ'd with some reverb.

That whole song was recorded live in the studio using only a Tascam 2488.

I got that snare drum free when I bought a set of Pearls, special promotion, UPS'd to me weeks later.

I see that drum going for like 420.00 US now.

It's my #1 snare, sounds great tight too

Great story with that set of Pearls...The original set I bought was emerald green burst. Nice color, but after I bought the set I discovered the marine blue fade finish and loved it. A few weeks later I was in my local GC where I bought them and the salesman said to me "how are those Pearls working out for you?" I said Oh they're great, I just wish they were the blue color. Meanwhile, this 17 year old kid overhears all of this and asks me, "Did you buy the green Pearls that were just here?" So he says "I have a set of the blue ones, I got them like 8 months ago, never left the house, but I really wanted that green finish". So long story short, we traded drums, I got my blue, he got his green. Serendipitous

I still want to hear an even more cavernous snare on that song though.
 
You can find 14 and 15" Ludwig marching snares and shells in great condition on eBay all the time. They go pretty cheap a lot of the time too.

The great thing about those Ludwig re-ring shells from back then is they have no snare bed, so when you want to use that drum as a tom, or floor tom, you can, but the "snare" sound is still very useable (obviously, because it was made to be a snare :p).

Fusion has a 10x15 and he's had great luck with his "Fatboy" snare.
Maybe PM him and see what he say's about it.

I think the ballad snare is a pretty cool drum.
 
Very well played, Larry!

Does the snare really have to be that deep physically? I always wonder whether
this is as much a psychological effect as it is an actual acoustic thing.

I've heard wonderful low, deep and phat snare sounds achieved with 5-inch
snares like i.e. the Acro or Supra, maybe with a full Big Fat Snare Drum, or
the donut version. If you're not familiar with the BFSD, check it out! It's
basically a commercial version of the old cut-out snare head trick.
 
LarryAce, I admire your ability to understand what was needed for the song and you played just what was needed. Good job, sounds good.
 
A deep snare drum (8" or more) doesn't necessarily result in a low, deep tone, but it will never sound as crisp as a piccolo snare drum. A shallow snare drum (5.5" or less) can be tuned/adjusted to sound quite deep, but probably never as fat as a deeper snare drum.

I do recall playing an 8" deep Slingerland snare drum in high-school that sounded really nice, and fat, but I'm pretty sure it due to the overall construction and shell, not necessarily its depth.

I wouldn't consider a snare drum deeper than 8", otherwise you will have to customize a snare stand.
 
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