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Garth wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 3:50 pm The new ones do and they're not that expensive if you like them that much. I suppose because I am always buying used, I assume they're shit because they've been abused and broken by previous owners.

I've thought about trying a new one. But at that point I'm always thinking if I'm going to replace it, I should replace it with something better, instead of a replica that is probably made slighter shittier than the original was.

dontfeartheringo wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 11:19 pm As FM morespaceecho has pointed out, the ring of a snare drum is often lost in the squall of guitars, but it is what gives the drum presence in the room.

If I see someone with more than two moon gels on a drum, I'm judging them.

^and it had better be an emergency of some kind, like the ceiling is a weird height or there's a dog that won't stop barking at a sympathetic frequency.

I still show kids the bouncing damper trick---take a flat thing with a little mass to it, could be a credit card wrapped in gaff tape, whatever, wrap in in felt or fabric or some such, place it near the edge where it does The Thing right and tape it to the hoop such that it comes off the head when the player hits the drum, then falls back down to damp the kerrrang. Heavier hitters, heavier flat things. A little does a lot. Gives almost a gated quality to the softening, but if you don't overdo it it works well. Use two pieces of tape back-to-back to secure it to the hoop and you can "turn it off", too. People used to use wallets to do this, but I think they hated how drums sound.

I have a 5x14" 10-lug Pearl free-floating brass snare drum with die cast hoops from the early 90s I think that you can use both as one of seven rifles at an important person's funeral or in an Americana thing with brushes and a big old goofy felt kick beater with just a couple minutes of tuning. I love that drum and if you see one you should get it. I never remember to both "have money" and "look for other shells for it" at the same time, but they made all manner of shells; aluminum, copper, steel, different woods, maybe granite, who knows, it was the 90's, anything was possible.

I also have a weirdo 6.5x14" steel snare with beautiful brass lugs that someone in Germany made I think and gave to my pal Dave, and he gave it to me, and it does LOUD RIGHTNOW GOGOGO with a ton of low end real well and not much else. It's great and it weighs roughly 90 pounds.

echokiloromeo wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 5:26 pm

dontfeartheringo wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 11:19 pm As FM morespaceecho has pointed out, the ring of a snare drum is often lost in the squall of guitars, but it is what gives the drum presence in the room.

If I see someone with more than two moon gels on a drum, I'm judging them.

^and it had better be an emergency of some kind, like the ceiling is a weird height or there's a dog that won't stop barking at a sympathetic frequency.

I still show kids the bouncing damper trick---take a flat thing with a little mass to it, could be a credit card wrapped in gaff tape, whatever, wrap in in felt or fabric or some such, place it near the edge where it does The Thing right and tape it to the hoop such that it comes off the head when the player hits the drum, then falls back down to damp the kerrrang. Heavier hitters, heavier flat things. A little does a lot. Gives almost a gated quality to the softening, but if you don't overdo it it works well. Use two pieces of tape back-to-back to secure it to the hoop and you can "turn it off", too. People used to use wallets to do this, but I think they hated how drums sound.

I've done this with floor toms that sound great in every way except the length of their decay. Usually a small rolled up bit of paper towel on a paper towel "hinge". Works great if you can get it to stay put/have the presence of mind to check if it's in tact every now and then.

what you are describing above is like a bouncing-style or gravity-fed mute? It seems like something that could be built-out in a way that would be robust and controllable.

the design in my head would be something that clips to a rim similar to a Sennheiser mic clip and then has a spring or something with controllable tension so that the mute rests on the head but then bounces up upon striking the head, then slowly closes it as opposed to quickly closing it immediately. In my head I'm thinking of how a door at a public office building automatically closes? but obviously this would be orders of magnitude faster - by "slowly" I mean still < 1 second vs the milliseconds that it would dampen from something like a wallet. I think the biggest advantage to this would be for players that like to tilt their toms and sound guys that would like something that mutes the ring out in a more natural-sounding way than a noise gate. This would also keep toms from ringing or having sympathetic vibrations from other sound sources in the room.

Heading to the local 'inventors incubator' or whatever brb

Garth wrote: Tue Sep 13, 2022 9:46 am what you are describing above is like a bouncing-style or gravity-fed mute? It seems like something that could be built-out in a way that would be robust and controllable.

the design in my head would be something that clips to a rim similar to a Sennheiser mic clip and then has a spring or something with controllable tension so that the mute rests on the head but then bounces up upon striking the head, then slowly closes it as opposed to quickly closing it immediately. In my head I'm thinking of how a door at a public office building automatically closes? but obviously this would be orders of magnitude faster - by "slowly" I mean still < 1 second vs the milliseconds that it would dampen from something like a wallet. I think the biggest advantage to this would be for players that like to tilt their toms and sound guys that would like something that mutes the ring out in a more natural-sounding way than a noise gate. This would also keep toms from ringing or having sympathetic vibrations from other sound sources in the room.

Heading to the local 'inventors incubator' or whatever brb

Yes, yes, yes. Go make it!

The challenge will be combining the light touch of the materials I mentioned with the sturdier engineering you're thinking of.

Just adding a very enthusiastic +1 for wooden gretsch 6.5 x 14 snares.
I like the remo P77 on top and the ambassador hazy snare on the bottom.

It usually ends up with a moongel or two on it, it records perfectly, and in the 20-ish years that it's been my only fully functional snare I've never found the need to switch it out in a studio or been wowed enough by anything else to spend money on a new snare.

I'd love a black beauty (who wouldn't) but it's a lot of cheddar to justify.

mdc wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 9:23 pm It usually ends up with a moongel or two on it

careful! The moongel police are already giving you dirty looks and ready to write you up a ticket! Pretty sure you'll have to sit through hours of tuning videos on youtube for your community service...

Garth wrote: Thu Sep 15, 2022 7:12 am

mdc wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 9:23 pm It usually ends up with a moongel or two on it

careful! The moongel police are already giving you dirty looks and ready to write you up a ticket! Pretty sure you'll have to sit through hours of tuning videos on youtube for your community service...

You neglected to mention two gels on a head with a muffle dot so yes I have my ticket book out and am writing a citation for being FM Dave Grohl.

I don't have a drumming gig right now and just play by myself at home. My kit is set up with these low volume cymbals, my kick is stuffed full of pillows, and my snare and toms have these foamy muffle rings. I've kind of come to embrace cardboard-box tone and it's probably tightened up my own playing.

I was doing that for a while as a quarantine courtesy (and yeah, the lack of rebound is good for practice). But I found it more fun, and musical, to play normal tuned drums with brushes instead. Not swishy jazz ballad stuff either, like, really fuckin' going at it. I like it so much I want to find a lower volume group to do it in now.

(the Evans Calftone has been a great brush snare head)