Snare tuning

The snare's batter and resonant heads are seated and tuned according to the method outlined in the previous sections. The pitching of the snare batter head under normal conditions is completely the player's choice, I've heard it all. As a rule of thumb, I look for a pitch which is not an octave or harmonic of one of the toms so as to avoid unnecessary sympathetic resonance.

Resonant (bottom) Head

The resonant head of a snare drum is much thinner than a batter side head - do not mix them up! This thin-ness is the key to a good snare sound. Because of the [usually] higher pitched nature of the drum and the presence of the snare cables, there is a degree of 'choking' inherent in a snare. Choking occurs in conditions where the drum is tuned so tightly that it is an inefficient resonator, in this rare case, this is an acceptable and desirable quality of the resonant head of a snare drum.

This proximity does however breing additional difficulties. If a snare resonant head were to be allowed to resonate freely, the snare wires would be constantly buzzing. I recommend that you tighten the **snare side 'head' high**, or as one of the regulars on the RMMP drumming newsgroup said 'until it's screaming for its lawyer'. There is more on this later (**do not make the snare 'wires' tight**)

To compensate for the dip in the bearing edge on the snare side which accommodates the snare bed, you should slacken off each of the tension rods on either side of the snare wires a further 1/4 turn, this helps the snares sit lower against the drum skin and will help alleviate buzz. I have heard arguments to tighten also and have had varied results from both settings so the best advice is to adjust it until you get a sound that suits you!

Adjusting snare wires

We want to adjust those wires to (A) make them sound great and (B) minimise their rattling caused by other drums or instruments. Put the snare throwoff in the 'off' position and turn the strainer adjustment to about 75% loosened. Fix the snare wires to the throwoff & butt using cables or strips as supplied with the drum. Ensure that the snares hang cleanly away from the resonant head.

Engage the throwoff and adjust the tension so that the snares sound 'mushy'. Keep tapping the centre of the drum and adjust the strainer by tiny increments until you hear it snapping cleanly against the head. Stop! This should still be just above 'mushy'. The largest 'killer' of snare drum sounds is over tightening the snare strainer to try and offset unwanted vibrations.

Lets take a second to think about this. We have an instrument that works [in part] using the principles of resonance. We then go and put a really thin, ultra-sensitive drum head on this particular drum, ostensibly to help it become more sensitive, we then add some curly wires designed to vibrate against the ultra-sensitive head and then we complain when they start to do exactly what they are intended to do!

Sympathetic resonance

The final consideration is that of sympathetic resonance. This occurs when the fundamental tuned tone of one drum shares pitch with the fundamental or harmonic of another drum, another instrument or other sound. The effect is that the second drum starts to vibrate and sound itself. This is really noticeable with snares which buzz mercilessly, but I also experience it with my drumset toms in the studio. Another reason to tune your toms to a chord!

Tightening the snare wires will help to reduce the effect of resonances caused by other sources, but after a point it starts to make the whole drum sound lifeless, choked. On the other hand, under-tightening the snares will give you a drum with annoying buzzes from itself and from the drums and instruments around it -clearly the whole question that you should be considering is one of balance.

If you do find that a particular drum in your set is triggering the snare buzz, then that is something that you can tweak. You should try to eliminate it by changing the pitch of the snare and not the toms. Toms generally are tuned as a set to relative pitches with matched sustains, you don't want to readjust each tom. Using gut or sympathetic gut snares instead of wire snares can reduce the sympathetic buzzing.

Re-adjusting the tension on the snare wires also works within the parameters discussed above, but first you should try re-tuning the pitch of the snare batter head. Often 1/8 turn at each lug is sufficient, if you do tighten the snare side head, you will have to adjust the snare strainer to achieve the same degree of crispness as before.

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