Any specific tips on tuning / snare adjustments that will help me get rid of nasty high pitched harmonics on a snare drum? If not, any secret muffling expertise that will not maim the drum sound too much? Also, is there anything room / drum position related that will affect this aspect?

Additionally, if anyone has the formula for the Nomeansno "Wrong" snare drum sound, do consider sharing it, cause that's what I'm going for.

Thanks.

Have you tried Gorilla Snot (tm)? This can be pretty useful. It's a little sticky square of gel and you can place the gel strategically on your drum head to dampen resonances. It's nice cause it's so small and won't completely mangle the tone of your drum. I think there is another product called Moon Gel or something, but I may be wrong. Anhyway, you can get some at your local music store
mike

that moon gel stuff is ok too - the trick is when you use it not to just slap it all on there. it helps if you lay it length wise with the majority on the rim, and that way you can sorta tune how much of the gel is actually on the head. a small bit - like a centimeter worth can be nice. there's also the loop of tape trick that works sometimes as well. (make a loop of tape with the sticky side on the outside and place that on the head) like everything, there's no right or wrong, and sometimes one thing works great and sucks another time. but you can try those two to see what you get.

i haven't had to do either as much as i've started pulling the snare mic further from the head and used more room mics - since your ultimate snare sound isn't gonna just be the close mic, but how it works with your overheads/ambients etc. that and of course you can just back up to the source of the problem and tune it out of the drum. that's actually the best idea. maybe a wood shell snare vs metal?

You obviously want resonance, but no ring. The ring comes from the imbalance of tuning on each lug. If you tune the head properly there won't be any ring.

Try tuning your bottom head low and your top head high (but tune each head to itself properly).
I don't personally like this sound but it will help.

just to reiterate from the previous post, You aren't relying on the close mics anyway.

Thanks a bunch. I did find something that may or may not be a moon gel similar (I wouldn't know, I don't think we have the original in Brazil), either way, it worked great.

We had already spent a long time tuning the drum to the best of our (limited) knowledge and experience, it sounded good in the end, but the ring was just a bit too much.

The amount of room I'll use will vary, since we range from slow sections to blast beats, and we need a usable close mic sound for the busier snare parts (which are more frequent than the more spaced ones).

We're hoping to start tracking tomorrow, btw. I have tons of pics, if I put them online I'll post a couple of links.

Bernardo wrote:The amount of room I'll use will vary, since we range from slow sections to blast beats, and we need a usable close mic sound for the busier snare parts (which are more frequent than the more spaced ones).

If you're talking about bringing up the volume of the gjpsted notes, here's a trick you can try:

Place a cardioid or hypercardioid mic behind the drummer, over near the floor tom at snare drum height. (Don Dixon calls this the "butt mic.") I like to use an Audio Tech 4050 for this. Make sure that the capsule is aimed right towards the top head of the snare drum and that the drummer is between the mic and the hi hats. Apply compression with a high ratio and an extremely fast attack and release. The Empirical Labs Distressor is the most effective box I've found for this. Combined with a close mic, this will clamp down on the transients from the actual backbeats while bringing up the volume of the ghost notes without too much hi hat in your signal. Plus, it will also add nice bit of ambience to the kit as well. Hope this helps.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

cgarges wrote:Place a cardioid or hypercardioid mic behind the drummer, over near the floor tom at snare drum height. (Don Dixon calls this the "butt mic.") I like to use an Audio Tech 4050 for this. Make sure that the capsule is aimed right towards the top head of the snare drum and that the drummer is between the mic and the hi hats. Apply compression with a high ratio and an extremely fast attack and release.

Considering the placement and compression, don't you get a lot of toms in this mic as well? I'm not opposed to bleed, but it seems like you'd get as much of the toms as snare this way, am I missing something?

Lobsterman wrote:Considering the placement and compression, don't you get a lot of toms in this mic as well? I'm not opposed to bleed, but it seems like you'd get as much of the toms as snare this way, am I missing something?

Sure you do, but it's more of an ambience thing. At a high ratio, you get the quiet stuff louder, which is great for snare drum gost notes (again, if you want a nice, ambient sound) and because the compression is taking off the transients, you should be getting more sustain from the toms. You can use close mics to accentuate the transients. It's purely an effect. Certainly not a be-all, end-all solution and it's a technique that I use fairly infrequently, but it's one with which I've had some luck. Everything's a give and take. Try it. If you dig it cool, if not, you're back where you started, complete with the knowledge that that particular technique didn't work for you that time.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

cgarges wrote: it's more of an ambience thing.

That's the part I wasn't getting.

Cool idea, I'll have to try it.

if all that doesn't work, use a different snare.
You shouldn't have to spend 4 days preparing a drumset, cheating sound waves, and making decisions to "fix it in post".