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Snare With A Deep Bass Sound

Gary M - Thu, 08/05/2010 - 18:18 | 1,281 views

I play some country music, and I keep hearing this big bass sound on the snare on some of the slower tunes. How do they do they get this sound, is it with a mixing board, or is the drummer covering the batter head with something?

Thanks

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DISARRAY Says Re: Snare With A Deep Bass Sound

Submitted On: Sunday, Sep 26, 2010 - 9:18 PM

MIND YOU THE "NOTE" MAY BE HIGHER THAN YOUR LOOKING FOR, CHECK OUT THE ERIC JOHNSON STYLE VIDEO I POSTED AND SEE IF THIS IS WHAT YOU SPEEK OF WHEN YOU SAY BASS, OR BOTTOM END.

Jason_ Says Re: Snare With A Deep Bass Sound

Submitted On: Wednesday, Aug 11, 2010 - 1:57 PM

Of course the snare makes a difference, but I think this sound you speak of is a matter of the EQ settings on the board and other recording/live mic'ing methods. A lot of players I know will have a little low end added to the snare on the board and it makes a huge difference. A good example of this is Stanton Moores pandeiro drum. It just sounds like a tambourine till it's mic'ed and then it sounds like a kick drum with jingles on it.

Gary M Says Fat Snare Sound

Submitted On: Sunday, Aug 8, 2010 - 11:22 PM

Hey Coop...I've been doing some experimenting on my Yamaha 14x5 wood snare. I lowered the sound a bit, and cut out a piece of an old top batter head about 12'' solid circle in size with 2 small pieces graff tape to hole it in place, and laid it on the top batter head, and then put a piece of graff tape across the center of my puresound 20 strand snare wire,and I'm starting to get a fat sound.
Sometimes I place my wallet on the top batter head, and get a real muffled sound. I think this will work till I can get a good deep snare.

I really need two snares, one deep and one regular crack sound, for the different sounds of song's. The deep sound doesn't sound right on all song's to me. Do you use just the deep snare on all yall's song's?
Hey man thanks for your help, and you have a great sounding group, you can tell you guys have a ton of experience playing, keep whooping out that rock 'n' roll man.

GaryM

kentcooper Says Re: Fat Snare Sound

Submitted On: Monday, Aug 9, 2010 - 8:37 AM

Hey Gary, No I don't all was use the fat snare, depending on what I'm looking for, I use 61/2 x 14 sometimes. This is all studio stuff I'm talking about. If I were playing live, I would probably find a happy medium with my fat snare and just use it all night long. You know what some guys do when they play live? They set up another snare with a different sound right off to the left of there Hi-Hat so they can switch sounds as quickly as they need to, so maybe you could try that and see if that works for you. If your using the fat sound only on slow ballad songs maybe you would want to keep the fat snare off to the left and keep your regular snare in front of you. It sounds to me that you really only need the fat sound for those ballad songs is that right, is that what you want to do? Maybe give that a shot and see what happens. Well I got to go for now but let me know how things go for you and best of luck with your band. I to like Country Music a lot, I would like to hear some of your music someday. Talk soon, COOP

Gary M Says Snare Fat Sound

Submitted On: Friday, Aug 6, 2010 - 7:55 PM

Coop....Hey Man yall sound so good, yall got it going on. Thank you so much for your reply. I love the way your snare sounds, it has soooo much tone. I can see I'm gonna be looking for a deep snare, I've already been looking at a Pork Pie Big Black Snare, I think it's 61/2'' deep, I could be wrong about the depth on it.
So can I use our PA in a live setting and get a fat sound like that?
I guess I'd have to change snares on different songs, that would be a pain in the butt.
you've been a great help Coop thank you so much, and keep whooping on that great sounding snare.

Gary

kentcooper Says Re: Snare Fat Sound

Submitted On: Saturday, Aug 7, 2010 - 10:26 AM

Hey Gary, I'm glad I could help you in some way. I think that maybe you might want to just get a great sounding deep snare like maybe a little deeper than 61/2 more like 7 or more and just use that all the time. You might have to tune it a little lower than your use to, but you will have a better chance of recreating that sound your looking for with a deeper shell. What kind of snare are you playing on now? I was thinking that maybe you could try tuning the snare you have now a little bit lower just to see what it would sound like. You might be able to get a little bit more beef out of that one. Might be worth a shot. If it doesn't make it with the sound you want, I definitely would go with the deeper shell. I know you will get a fat snare sound that way. You also can use different head combination's. I personally like a Hazy 300 on the bottom of my snare, with Pure Sound 16 or 20 strand snare wires ( make sure they are made of copper ) copper has a much better sound that the regular wires. Your top head is going to be your own preference, I some times use a Remo Ambassador ( White coated ) or a Evans EC2 Reverse Dot depending on what I'm looking for. Let me share 1 rule with you about experimenting, and that is there are NO RULES when it comes to trying to find a sound you are looking for. TRY EVERYTHING and you will be surprised at what you will come up with. Well got to go for now, but let me know how things go with your new sound. Talk at ya later--- Coop

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Hey Gary, I'm glad I could help you in some way. I think that maybe you might want to just get a great sounding deep snare like maybe a little deeper than 61/2 more like 7 or more and just use that all the time. You might have to tune it a little lower than your use to, but you will have a better chance of recreating that sound your looking for with a deeper shell. What kind of snare are you playing on now? I was thinking that maybe you could try tuning the snare you have now a little bit lower just to see what it would sound like. You might be able to get a little bit more beef out of that one. Might be worth a shot. If it doesn't make it with the sound you want, I definitely  would go with the deeper shell. I know you will get a fat snare sound that way. You also can use different head combination's. I personally like a Hazy 300 on the bottom of my snare, with Pure Sound 16 or 20 strand snare wires ( make sure they are made of copper ) copper has a much better sound that the regular wires. Your top head is going to be your own preference, I some times use a Remo Ambassador ( White coated ) or a Evans EC2 Reverse Dot depending on what I'm looking for. Let me share 1 rule with you about experimenting, and that is there are NO RULES when it comes to trying to find a sound you are looking for. TRY EVERYTHING and you will be surprised at what you will come up with. Well got to go for now, but let me know how things go with your new sound. Talk at ya later--- Coop

kentcooper Says Re: Snare With A Deep Bass Sound

Submitted On: Friday, Aug 6, 2010 - 9:13 AM

Hey Gary, My name is Kent Cooper I have been playing and recording for a long time. In 1978 I was signed with CBS/Epic records with a band called "THE BOYZZ" from ILLINOIS a Chicago based rock n roll band. Just to give you some info on what you were wondering about. The fat snare sound, If you would like to hear some of the snare sounds that I have created in the studio,you can go to www.thewillingband.com and listen to some of our resent tunes we just got done with. The CD is out on i-tunes and i think still on amazon.com, the name of the CD is "UNFINISHED BUSINESS" There is different ways of getting fat sounds on a snare,but a lot has to do with how deep the snare shell is and the way it gets tuned. There is a lot of experimenting to do when it comes to getting a fat sound. I use a 8 x 14 Sonor snare that I have had for ever it's awesome for achieving the sound I want. But it also has to do with a great engineer who has the ear in the studio to know what to do when it comes to adding certain affects that will make it sound even fatter So I guess to rap it up you need to go deep with the snare shell and tune a little lower and experiment with the effects while you are recording. Dampening the batter head a certain way will also help depending on what kind of sound you want. I hope I helped you a little bit with some knowledge that I have gained though the years, let me know if there's anything I can do to help you,I would be glad too. Good Luck and let me know how it turns out with your fat sound. Talk at you later, Kent S Cooper PS call me "COOP"

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Hey Gary, My name is Kent Cooper I have been playing and recording for a long time. In 1978 I was signed with CBS/Epic records with a band called "THE BOYZZ" from ILLINOIS a Chicago based rock n roll band. Just to give you some info on what you were wondering about. The fat snare sound, If you would like to hear some of the snare sounds that I have created in the studio,you can go to www.thewillingband.com and listen to some of our resent tunes we just got done with. The CD is out on i-tunes and i think still on amazon.com, the name of the CD is "UNFINISHED BUSINESS" There is different ways of getting fat sounds on a snare,but a lot has to do with how deep the snare shell is and the way it gets tuned. There is a lot of experimenting to do when it comes to getting a fat sound. I use a 8 x 14 Sonor snare that I have had for ever it's awesome for achieving the sound I want. But it also has to do with a great engineer who has the ear in the studio to know what to do when it comes to adding certain affects that will make it sound even fatter So I guess to rap it up you need to go deep with the snare shell and tune a little lower and experiment with the effects while you are recording. Dampening the batter head a certain way will also help depending on what kind of sound you want. I hope I helped you a little bit with some knowledge that I have gained though the years, let me know if there's anything I can do to help you,I would be glad too.  Good Luck and let me know how it turns out with your fat sound. Talk at you later,  Kent S Cooper    PS call me "COOP"