snare sounds

do you guys know any tips on making your snare drum sound good?

TUNING!

http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/id3.html

I upgraded mine a little by getting new heads and new snare wires. Which heads would depend on what sort of sound you're looking for... I like kind of a dryer sound so went with an Evens Genera top and a Remo Ambassedor bottom... It cut down on the ring and gave me the nice dry sound I was looking for.

What kind of snare do you have? What type of Music? What sort of sound do you want?

i play like indie rock alternative type of music... im kinda looking for a medium-high pitched sound with a SLIGHT ring but not much of a ring... but not like a dead sound

Try one of these:

Remo Ambassador

Evans G1

Aquarian Texture Coated

I mostly prefer the Aquarian mainly on snare because the coating lasts a lot longer than the other 2.

On a related note: Will a 2-ply coated cut down on some of the ring that a 1-ply seems to have? I like to have some ring, but my 1-ply head is just a tad too ringy

i personally think that cranking the resonant head nice and tight gives a lot of life and energy to any snare. the batter head is more a matter of what feel you're going for, how high pitched you want the drum, and how much projection you want. You really just have to break out that drumkey and get your hands dirty, and you really only need to keep a few things in mind when tuning:

1. make sure the head is evenly tensioned, either by pressing the area near each lug with your fingers to see how much it gives, or by listening to the pitch differences between those different areas, or even by feeling how much each lug resists turning (although that's a little less accurate.)

2. always tune up, not down. if you want to tune your snare lower, tune it way lower than you actually want it, and then bring it up a little.

the rest is all personal preference, really. I'd advise staying away from pre-muffled or muted heads like the Powerstroke 3, Aquarian Focus X, Evans Genera Dry, etc... it's not that they don't sound good, but why buy a head with a pre-determined amount of muffling when you can do it yourself and get it exactly the way you want it? There's like 10 billion different ways to muffle a drumhead. I just got this new steel snare, and its sound is a lot brighter and ringier than my wood snare. I wanted to cut down on the ring just a little bit, so i just took a little electrical tape, folded it so a little tab stuck up in the middle, and threw it on the edge of the head. It took a little experimenting to find the balance between really ringy and totally dead, but my point is, it only took a little electrical tape.

Oh, another thing i just thought of. The snare strainer tension can actually "choke" the sound of the drum if it's cranked too tight. Personally, i loosen the strainer until the snare rattles after i hit it, then tighten it up just enough that it doesn't rattle.

I'm no expert by any means, i'm still trying to get the hang of this stuff too. but, i definitely have found that a lot of lifeless sounding snares have had really loose resonant heads.

And to private viper- i switched from a remo coated ambassador to a coated emperor on my maple snare. i told one of the drum guys at guitar center that i wanted an open snare sound, and i was a little surprised when he recommended the emperor, but he was right- it's still quite open. the difference is very, very subtle. maybe try just muffling that 1 ply a little bit.

Using 2 ply head on snare will cut down some ring, but it won't give you the nice crack sound. I think it's better to use 1-ply head and put some tape on it. Studio-X is my personal choice for batter snare because it's got a built-in muffle ring underside and it sounds great with mic.

I got some good results using a Fiberskyn head on my Ludwig. It has a thick texture and tunes nicly

I like a pop sound over a crack. Remo Powerstroke 3 is a great head. Ringing also has a lot to do with shell material. Steel rings more than brass which is more that wood.