Snare Calming Techniques for Recording

[soupking]

When recording drums, I understand it's typical to tape he drums.

Do people sometimes use older heads or other techniques to keep the snare from getting too crass or sharp?

[chrisso]

I wouldn't use older heads unless the session is for some kind of groovy organic music; soul or reggae for example.
The trick is to have a flexible solution so you can adjust the control.
New heads, plus tape and toilet roll. Or a donut ring. Or simply just a few bits of gaffa tape positioned around the batter head.

[joeq]

there's a million of them:

cut out a o- ring from an old head and just lay it on top of the actual head
commercial versions of the above o-rings are also available

moongel- goopy stuff in a jar, plop it on, pull it off to get the desired amount of muffling

sound control heads- esp the "dot" type. some have the dot glued on underneath, so as not to interfere with the coating and brush work. there are also hydraulic heads with oil inbetween two layers of plastic but those are more popular for toms, you don't see them on snares as much.

have the drummer take out his wallet and set it on the snare head

tape a small square of tissue paper to the head
same as above but use a sanitary napkin, tampon or pantyliner

glue a quarter to the head. unlike the extra-click technique for kick drum, do NOT put it where it will be hit.

place shredded garbage bag "confetti" inside the drum. it will bounce on impact and allow a short ring before it falls down.

tape a dead mackerel to the head. smelt, pike and trout will also work. or so I am told.

the only thing to avoid is cranking up any kind of internal muffler. The ones that come inside older drums and have a felt pad and knob you twist to tighten them. these are pushing against the head in a single spot, effectively detuning the head- no good.

I usually use the tissue paper or the moongel, as I am usually looking for just a little bit of taming. Place it near the edge and adjust how much contacts the head to fine tune the muffling.

I know I am forgetting some, they will come to me after I hit the 'submit' button.

[drmmrboy]

Joeq has some nice suggestions.

I like the confetti idea. I've used cotton balls before. Same kinda thing..

Or... tape that sucker up...

[Jax]

Originally Posted by drmmrboy

Joeq has some nice suggestions.

I like the confetti idea. I've used cotton balls before. Same kinda thing..

Or... tape that sucker up...

I suggest cotton balls instead of confetti.

Confetti is a bitch to clean up.

[PaulT28]

I find that a credit card or driver's license laying on top of the head is just enough muffling for me...still some overtones, but controlled nonetheless.

[soupking]

Awesome responses guys. Thanks!

[ToneBender67]

Joeq-

Those are some great ideas, a few I'd never thought to try.

I do use the internal muffler (tone control is the vintage term) on my Supra's (my "go to" snare for recording) and haven't noticed any detuning going on. Of course I turn it to where it just barely touches the head. I suppose if you were to crank it to where the felt pad is pressed hard against the head you'd have some tuning issues.

Soupking-

I'm pretty much anti-muffle (I usually use one felt strip on the batter side of the kick and the tone control knob on the snare, sometimes) but there are instances where you have to use it. I have a 7x14 Radio King snare that's a tad too lively in the studio, I usually just fold a napkin in four and tape it to the reso side of the drum. A lot of people tend to attack the batter side with tape and all sorts of other things, but try some muffle on the reso sometime, I find it works as well (if not better) and doesn't kill the batter head response.

Good Luck!

[Jax]

I wish I could get over the phrase "snare calming." Just an unfortunate combination of words to a rock drummer. Calm snare. lol

Anyway, yeah - good suggestions...

[Nu-tra]

Don't let Rip Taylor hear you say that!

Originally Posted by Jax

I suggest cotton balls instead of confetti.

Confetti is a bitch to clean up.

[Kroy]

I'm a drummer of 30 years.

I find that snare drum resonances are often to do with the tuning of the higher tom(s) - for me it's usually the 10inch tom. ie they resonate with each other. The trick is to find the optimum tuning with both snare and tom(s) that isn't going to cause the snare to buzz too long or loudly. Then what buzz is left can be tamed with an external damper on the snare, or sometimes tom(s) and/or I also use toilet paper/gaffer tape.

With adjusting the higher tom tuning, I sometimes try tuning one of the top or bottom (usually) lugs down, or up a bit. Or I just tune/detune each lug the same - a small bit at a time, remembering which ones I've done.

Often it's a case of experimentation - working in small steps and remembering what I've done so if it doesn't work I can go back to where I was.