The inspiration for that snare sound was Al Jackson Jr.. He was the drummer on most of the stuff recorded at Stax and on a lot of Al Green records. He used to take out his wallet when he sat down at the drums and set it on top of his snare. He never changed the heads and used a Ludwig 400 snare. I believe they used an RCA 77DX ribbon mic on it. Also, on most of the Al Green records you can hear that there is also a congo drum hit on the 2 and the 4. I didn't realize there were two drums being hit for quite a while and was really perplexed by the monstrous snare sound. Al Jackson Jr. is at least seven feet tall in my mind.

The snare was the 6 lug Ludwig brass snare they have at Electrical with one of those muffling rings on it to give it the dry 70's sound. I think having only six lugs gives it a deeper, thicker sound, plus it has those old fashioned rims. I wish I owned one just like it!
http://www.electrical.com/item.php?page ... /219-0.jpg
The mic was a Shure KSM141 on top and a SM98 on bottom.

Jeff Deff, thanks for the information. I love that record. I know it's the playing and the music that make me like this record but it's great to have information about the recording process itself.

Javier Ortiz

ok, that snare should be paid royalties or something.
I have never heard a snare sound so good straight off the bat.
I thought it was something Steve was doing to make it sound like that, but no,
its the snare.
only difference is I'm using an Altec 175

Thanks so much for the information.

I do believe something was done to the snare when it was mixed. I think Steve expanded it using a dbx expander and then compressed it with an 1176. I don't think there was any EQing. So there was some help by way of engineering.