Drummer Cafe Community Forum

While i was playing today i noticed that after i hit my snare, it gives a ringing sound after a split second. It sounds like the sound a triangle makes after the inital strike begins to decay. I was wondering, could this be due to the fact that my batter head is really worn? I am already planning on getting new heads for my snare, they are being shipped as we speak. But i was just wondering if its because of that or something else.

I hope i did a good job describing the problem. If i didn't just ask what you need to know and i'll respond. Thanks again in advance for all your feedback.

I used to have the same problem with my snare. What type of head are you using? If it is a 1 ply like a remo ambassador, aquarian satin tc, or evans g1, it will have A LOT more ring than a head with a dot, or a 2 ply head. You may want to look into some slight dampening. IMO, moongel pads are the best. I swear by them, and so do many others. They DO work, and best of all, they stick to the head and move with it, thus cancelling no resonance in the drum, but making the head heavier, thus reducing the percieved resonance, and in the end, slightly changing the overall sound. I use 1 moongel on the top portion of my snare. I use the Aquarian Hi-Energy, and an Aquarian Classic Clear Snare Side on the bottom. I think I have 20 strand snares, but I may have 24 strands. I'm not sure right now. It is a rockstar custom snare. It sounds very bright (especially for mahogany), and I REALLY crank my snare up high on both sides (more on the batter than resonant for obvious reasons). For that reason, there tends to be a LOT of high overtones, and the moongel pad helps to diminish the unneeded ones. My snare is still loud enough to be heard (heck, it's probably the loudest in my kit), but it still sounds poppy and focused, without most of those overtones. You should try them out. Look at your local store or at music123.com (or any other site that has them) and buy some. It's only a few bucks for a pack of 4 pads, and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Good luck!

What make and model of snare drum is this?  Metal shell?  Wood?  What batter head have you been using?

Yea, the new head i'm getting is a batter with a reverse dot, so i figured that would take care of what i need. It would probably cause moongels to be useless for me.

Well my snare is what came with my kit. Its a Pacific wood snare, the batter head is the stock head, so i'm really not sure what it is. When i bought it i was new into drums and so it kinda went over my head what kind of heads.

But it sounds like it is my heads and not the drum itself. I just wanted to make sure of that.

Yeah, a new head is a good place to start.

DW drums and Pacifics, being owned by the same company, use the same heads. They both use a specially developed remo ambassador. For the toms and kick, it is a clear ambassador with a brush coating around the outside of the head's circumference. This helps to diminish some of those nasty overtones you'd get from ordinary 1-ply heads. I still don't like them, though. On the snare, I'm not sure about the head, but I'm sure it's a fully coated ambassador. I tried an ambassador once on my snare, and it sounded very annoying. I didn't like it very much. It was very pingy. I think that may be the problem.

Cool...I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a steel-shell snare drum - those (especially the less-expensive ones) can often be a Pandora's Box of unwanted ringing.

I suspect you'll be happy with a reverse-dot head.  I usually use single-ply coated heads as snare batters, but I'll often use reverse-dot heads on drums that sound a little "pingy" with one-ply heads; they add a bit more body to the sound, but since you still have only one ply making contact with the bearing edges, you don't lose sensitivity, which can sometimes happen if you use a 2-ply head as a snare batter.

If you haven't done so already, I'd suggest investing at some point in a new snare side head as well, if you're still using the "stock" head that was on the drum when you bought it.

I've got a remo control sound reverse dot on my dw, and there's a fair bit of ring. Ordinarily I hate ring, but it just sounds right in front of the kit.

Moon gel usually does the trick though, i've used it on occassion, but it's no substitute for good tuning imo. I'm not any good at it myself, but proper tuning and a good head will get you the right sound.

Yup reverse dot should help

Try the Moongel. I have a single-ply snare head as well, and a piece of Moongel works pure magic on it. 10$ well spent!