Dub/Reggae Snare

[drummersteve]

Hi there people

im thinking of getting a second snare to add to my kit. But i want it to be a certain sound. I relate to this sound through sort of Dub/Reggae music. It has a very open sound, often a lot of reverb is put on it, and delay, to make it sound even more open and airy. It has more of a Tam-tam sound than a snare i think. Do you know what im talking about? if so, does anyone have any nice ideas of which snare to get to achieve this sort of sound. If not which snare in particular, what sort of sizes/shell material etc should i be looking for to achieve the sound i want? Thanks alot guys.

Steve

[Dr ZEE]

Steve, are you talking about adding a drum to get the 'sound' comonly played as intro/fill rolls/hits or actually snare-drum to 'play the drop'?

/respects

[drummersteve]

hi there
like at the beginning of bob marley - buffalo soldier, and probably almost all of his tracks, and all reggae songs for that. where you have a little roll on the snare before it all comes in. that sort of tam-tam snare sound im after. thanks =)

steve

[Dr ZEE]

Steve, I don't know for sure how reggae-masters did their thing. I can tell you what I've made to get this sort of drums... well, maybe not exactly what you are after...but sort of In general you can take "any drum" with single head, try to use single-ply head , tune it up-tight, experiment, muffle/mute it if it's 'too-ringy-singy'
I have few drums to sort of 'make this sound'. By experimenting I've placed a single ply head (which is actually black CB-700 reso-head from 10" tom ) on 10" roto-tom , then I have some old Reuther 12" tom ...I have an old ludwig-rocker head on it, and then I've "converted" a steel 14x6.5 snare drum into "timbale" ..which is not , but that's what I call it ...- so it has no snare side head/nor snare, ten-lug to tight up the head (i have there black-dot remo weather king), this one I tune kind of low, but it can be tuned up higher...
I think what you can do is to get couple of cheap/used toms and/or snare drums (size between maby 10" to 14") ...experiment with heads/tuning and find the sound you really want... there's just so many variations you can get...huh, especially when it comes to dub-production

/respects

[heroics321]

have you come close to this sound by disengaging the snare on the snare drum? that's the only sound i have in my head right now from what you are describing. maybe a small, steel piccolo side-snare would get the sound you are after.

[ProductSteam]

I play dub music in a band. I am not an expert on reggae drumming but I can tell you what I do and what I have heard out of every reggae song I have ever heard. To get that sound, you can use any drum, Steel 14inchers are the norm for the reggae drummers, but even on my 12 inch maple snare, it sounds great. play the sides near the rim, never in the middle. All reggae guys will tell you, never play in the middle for rolls and fills. That's the sound your looking for. Tuning tight (not too tight) will get it better. I DO NOT recommend a single ply head on a snare, this is the drum you hit the most, so it should definitely be 2 ply. You can use muffling, but you want the ring.

Hope this helps!

myspace.com/soulmindsindub

[Supercreep]

Dude - it's a timbale, not a snare.

[ProductSteam]

No need to get upset, well if he is talking about a timbale, then i am sorry I do stand corrected. but what I talked about is true. Just listen to all the old reggae recordings.