Favorite snare that you've recorded

[moderndrummer]

So new to the forum and starting to expand my gear to meet the reecording world. I realize that I could spend millions and still come up short but wondering from a producers perspective. Funk, blues, latin, jazz type of things.

vintage and modern welcomed


For me I was blown away how good this late 70's luddy HH bronze sounds 6.5*14 (the only size any luddy should be!). my favorite snare that I own.

Would love to hear from you guys who've been around forever and have gotten to see tons of classic gear

Thanks guys

Edit: timbales? I like the way some of the older green and gold badges lp sound. Brass is nice and warm but I would think for recording that steel would pop better?

[Musiclab]

Craviotto, Ford, and Pearl Masters custom.

[KickSnareHat]

My favorite snare I've ever recorded is my 5.5 x 14 yamaha maple custom vintage snare (c. 1999).This is the 4th item I'd grab if my house was on fire (after my kid, wife, and dog)

[C.r.a.p.]

For recording the Tama Mike Portnoy is the current favorite of my collection (supraphonic alu & brass, premier 1005, sonor hilite)

[chrisso]

Done plenty of recording.
I agree the HH Bronze is a fabulous drum.
My two favourites are Ludwig Black Beauty (preferably 1920's version), there is an alternative in the 1920's NOB drums which are cheaper - then in wood more or less anything by Craviotto. My two favourites being Timeless Timber and Dark Cherry. The 6.5" Dark Cherry sounds incredible and is not badly priced.

[ivmike]

For me, I love my Pearl Ultracast 5x14; I also use a Premier 2000 (chrome) 5x14 as well. Both of these snares sound great in recordings (and live).

[mef]

Brady 4x14, Pearl 6.5x14 Ultracast, and for bite OC 5x13 with 1" vents...

[NLC]

Premier Project 1 is hands down my favorite snare drum of all time, (good luck finding one) ludwig hh bb, i have an old leedy (broadway?) i love as well.

[biggator6]

Originally Posted by NLC

Premier Project 1 is hands down my favorite snare drum of all time, (good luck finding one) ludwig hh bb, i have an old leedy (broadway?) i love as well.

Funny.. I love Premier stuff - and the Project 1 is on my list of things to grab when I find them. Also the Heavy Rock Nine (one showed up pretty cheap recently - but was gone QUICKLY). I have two Premier snares.. a 5" Signia maple, which sounds phenomenal and an old Black Shadow, which has a great dry 'woody' sound.

My favorite is probably my Ocheltree followed by my Zildjian/N&C and my Signia.

[ivmike]

Originally Posted by biggator6

Funny.. I love Premier stuff - and the Project 1 is on my list of things to grab when I find them. Also the Heavy Rock Nine (one showed up pretty cheap recently - but was gone QUICKLY). I have two Premier snares.. a 5" Signia maple, which sounds phenomenal and an old Black Shadow, which has a great dry 'woody' sound.

My favorite is probably my Ocheltree followed by my Zildjian/N&C and my Signia.

I'm always on the hunt for a Black Shadow set from the 80s; I wanted one BADLY back then and didn't have the bread. They were lovely drums; perhaps Premier's best.

[biggator6]

Originally Posted by ivmike

I'm always on the hunt for a Black Shadow set from the 80s; I wanted one BADLY back then and didn't have the bread. They were lovely drums; perhaps Premier's best.

I got the snare (6.5") for about $100.. it was sitting in a store missing the throw lever - they thought it was some kind of broken marcher with the parallel strainer. $10 later, it was whole again.

FWIW.. puresound makes nice replacement wires for the flobeam system.

[chrisso]

The early 2000's kits were very good I think. Had a bit of an undersized shell (ala Rogers).
Craviotto also made a line of snares for Premier at that time. !!!!!!!!

[biggator6]

Originally Posted by chrisso

The early 2000's kits were very good I think. Had a bit of an undersized shell (ala Rogers).
Craviotto also made a line of snares for Premier at that time. !!!!!!!!

For real? I'm surprised I've never heard of this before.. any idea which ones?

As for the kits.. the mid 90's up through early 2000's are my favorites. Signia/Genista were about the pinnacle of Premier kits. Really sad that they seem to have kind of disappeared (again).

[edit]
Nevermind, Chris.. I did some looking. They only made 50 of them and they were over 1k euro each! Considering Premier has no US distributor (and has had one on/off for a long time now) I doubt many made their way over here.
[/edit]

[chrisso]

They were the 'classic' wood snares, but I think a special edition one.
Steve White had one. I think he had a role in connecting Craviotto with Premier.
Steve told me they were making and selling a few Craviotto made snares.
My memory fails me I'm afraid. I can't remember if it was two snares, twenty five snares, or a lot more.

[biggator6]

Here's the review and details.. great, something else on my 'look for these' list.

http://www.musicradar.com/gear/all/d...e-17485/review
"-)

[chrisso]

OK, 50, that sounds right.

[ivmike]

Originally Posted by biggator6

I got the snare (6.5") for about $100.. it was sitting in a store missing the throw lever - they thought it was some kind of broken marcher with the parallel strainer. $10 later, it was whole again.

FWIW.. puresound makes nice replacement wires for the flobeam system.

First of all... you lucky...

Secondly, thanks! I'm looking for a back up set of snares, just in case.

[chrisso]

It's remarkable that so far no one has dropped in to say how amazing Ajax snares are to record.

[NLC]

Biggator6-I love Premier drums as well! I have a rediculous collection of them which includes two heavy rock nine's (one all brass, one brass with birch inner shell) project one, black shadow, 2000 and genx. I also have a genx kit and a jelly bean 70's mahogony kit i pieced together. I toured the premier factory a few years ago-they are still in their original factory from back in the turn of the century. They have these amazing tube strobe tuners they use to tune their marimbas that are HAND MADE by only two people. At that point, there were only about 20 people who work there making all of their high end drums. It was awesome!

[biggator6]

Originally Posted by NLC

Biggator6-I love Premier drums as well! I have a rediculous collection of them which includes two heavy rock nine's (one all brass, one brass with birch inner shell) project one, black shadow, 2000 and genx. I also have a genx kit and a jelly bean 70's mahogony kit i pieced together. I toured the premier factory a few years ago-they are still in their original factory from back in the turn of the century. They have these amazing tube strobe tuners they use to tune their marimbas that are HAND MADE by only two people. At that point, there were only about 20 people who work there making all of their high end drums. It was awesome!

Nice collection!

[cgarges]

I did a session years ago with a guy who was out in a booth where I couldn't see him. He was switching snares a lot from song to song, but every once in a while, he'd put one up that would sound really exceptional and I'd always ask him what it was. Turned out it was the same drum almost every time- a late 90s Pork Pie maple shelled 6x13 with tube lugs. He was about to go out on the road for two weeks and he let me borrow it while he was gone. I immediately took it to the local music shop, put it on the counter, and asked for them to order me one exactly like it (even down to the throwoff, which Pork Pie had just changed).

Twelve or thirteen years later, I have the same experience with the drum I ordered. There is a long line of guys around here who want it and I can always tell when someone else has used it on a session, regardless of how well my memory's holding up. I can always hear it. It sits in a track so well and sounds SO nice and SO musical.

I've got another drum that's similar. Every time I pull out my old Rogers COB Powertone snare on a session, I always hear, "What drum is that?" through the headphones. Without fail, thi shas been happening to me for the last 16 or 17 years.

Of course, Noble & Cooley snare drums pretty much always sound great in a recording as well. And I've only ever recorded one Keplinger drum, but that one and the ones I've heard played live sound ridiculously good. Mitch Easter also has an especially nice old Slingerland 5x14 wood snare that's really cool, too.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Croaker]

Craviotto, Premier Signia maple and Supraphonic here, that covers it all for me. Chris turned me on to the Craviotto and I still thank him very much for that

[chrisso]

Aloha

[Croaker]

Originally Posted by chrisso

Aloha

aloha Chris,

cant tell you how many great drums tracks I have gotten with that Crav. I have had some pretty experienced drummers try it and just love it.

very versatile, tone to die for, you can open it up or leave it tight, has a great ring and crack. if I want something really, fat deep and lower sounding I go with the premier. of course nothing like a great drummer to make them really sing.

[biggator6]

Originally Posted by Croaker

aloha Chris,

cant tell you how many great drums tracks I have gotten with that Crav. I have had some pretty experienced drummers try it and just love it.

very versatile, tone to die for, you can open it up or leave it tight, has a great ring and crack. if I want something really, fat deep and lower sounding I go with the premier. of course nothing like a great drummer to make them really sing.

Jealous of the Crav.. I want one (and a N&C steambent).

Which size is your Signia? Mine is the 5" and it's pure crack - I've got it cranked up pretty good, though.. but it works there.

[Croaker]

Originally Posted by biggator6

Jealous of the Crav.. I want one (and a N&C steambent).

Which size is your Signia? Mine is the 5" and it's pure crack - I've got it cranked up pretty good, though.. but it works there.

Mine is 6 inch. Has that deep throaty sound. Great to slam on a ballad, great tone.

I was looking for a new kit for the studio about 4 years ago and i was going to have one custom made then I saw the signia kit on ebay. It had 5 toms, three snares and about 15 zildian cymbals and three hi hats with it. All the heavy duty hardware, stands and padded cases too. I scored it for 2 grand and it was the best thing I could have done. When I got it it was basically untouched, not a scratch on it. Guy hardly used it and had it in cases in his closet for a few years.

clips of the Craviotto in action here. Chris Thomas of The Willie K Band messing around with the kit doing a sound check on 1 and 2. Mike Buono tracking for Catherine Loyer on #3
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/6410220-post34.html

I will see if I can find some with the Premier

[Sean Sullivan]

I'm a big Black Beauty fan. 5" x 14" and 6.5" x 14" both are great. For wood snares, I love single ply drums. I think Noble and Cooley make some of the best I've heard. But, they are a little pricey to keep at the studio ; )

I currently have a Ayotte maple set I really enjoy. No wood hoops though. I haven't found the "sweet" spot yet but I recorded an album with them recently and was really happy with the results.

[Croaker]

Premier snare sample.

Drummer is Greg Marsh

[Jax]

My Craviotto 13x5 solid maple and my 14x6.5 Slingerland Sound King COB are my faves in recordings.

[Jax]

Originally Posted by chrisso

It's remarkable that so far no one has dropped in to say how amazing Ajax snares are to record.

I'm not familiar with Ajax, but I feel like I should be. Unless you were kidding.