Dub/Reggae Snare

  • Thread starter Thread starter drummersteve
  • Start date Start date
D

drummersteve

New member
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
 
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
 
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
 
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 :p ) 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 :p , 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 :rolleyes: :p :rolleyes:

/respects
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
The little drum intro to Buffalo Soldier (If were talkin the version on legend that everyone knows) is a triplet on a snare followed by two floor tom hits. The snare is muffled, high pitched, and dry. I can tell you that carlton barret (Drummer for BM&W) often stretched t-shirts over his drum heads to muffle the sound. I can tell you from experience that it gets the job done, but you'll have a lot of t-shirts with hundreds of tiny holes. There are products that you can buy for this purpose that work just as well. The most crucial thing you can do on any snare to get that sound is to HIT NEAR THE RIM. Any reggae drummer will tell you that for fills and intros, never hit the middle of the snare. Tune your snare high, and make sure the snare is tight. A more shallow snare like Piccolo snares work well for this purpose. Wider snares are good because you'll have more dynamic control between the middle and edge of the drum. As far as the reverb or any effects like that its just a matter of properly micing your snare and running effects through it. Also, as a previous poster mentioned, incorporating timbale into your fills makes for classic reggae sound.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top