Natural Resonance Tuning Point For A Snare?

I was wondering if a particular size/depth/material of a snare shell causes it to have a natural resonance that it sounds best at.

I have two snares I've worked on tuning--a 8x14 pearl free floating maple (84 vintage) and an 8x14 Pearl Brass (Not Free Floating) from about 1980 or 81.

Now, with a Renaissance Emperor Snare Batter on the free floating, and a hazy ambassador on the SS, it sounds best tuned at about 83 snare side and 87 batter. Any higher and....it just doesnt sound as good, lower it is hard to dial in.

The Brass has a Hazy ambassador on the snare, and coated ambassador on the batter. With it tuned at 90 batter/85 snare, it is ok, but it sounds 'choked' the sound dies off quickly. And the center is almost dead. At 87/85 it is perfect. I've tried several times tuning these and I always end up at the same place.

On the free floating I took off the die cast rims and put super hoop triple flanged on it and the sound went from good to great. Lots of resonance but no false overtones when I tune it right. It really opened up the sound and made it easy to tune.

Does anyone have any idea whats happening? because I've heard a lot of 'tune the snare side as tight as you can get it, etc but most of what I've heard causes the two snares I have to sound choked.

I'm really happy with the free floater now, it sounds superb and tunes really easily. The brass one is still a bit hard to tune. Thanks everyone.

All drums have at least one "frequency" at which the drum responds greatest in terms of sympathetic resonance. All aspects of the drum have an influence on this, & non more so than overall mass. Whenever you add or subtract mass is changes the resonance profile of the instrument, no matter how directly or indirectly that mass is connected to the shell or heads.

In the case of your Pearl FF, it's already a very high mass drum. there's hardly any shell resonance element in the resolved sound. Changing the batter head hoop has simply removed some mass from the instrument, & most specifically, from the area most associated with the head. This has allowed the head to offer more higher overtones, & that gives you the impression of a more open sound.

The affects that you're describing have little to do with shell resonance in isolation. Choking is a symptom of overall drum characteristic that's made up of many components. It can be mass, venting, bearing edges, shell resonance profile, etc, etc. My only advice is to experiment with the elements you can change, & accept the ones you can't.

Yup.

As an addendum, I've never had a batter head tighter than a reso on a snare, but I don't own a Drumdial so I don't know how those numbers usually look. Make sure your snare wires are centered and at a good tightness on the brass drum, those may be contributing to the "choked" sound if they're really tight against the reso. Otherwise, I find that some of my drums sound choked with die-cast hoops as well. S-Hoops or Pearl's own Fat Tone hoops would help keep some of the rigidity while bringing down the mass.