Snare Shootout - My Three Snares (audio)

A

astoebe

New member
Hey everyone. I spend so much time on here and on youtube deciding what drum pieces to buy I decided to contribute and do a shootout of my own for fun. I am a guitar player who has really grown to love the drums equally, so I am slowly building up my equipment.

I have most of the info in the mp3 of what the snares are, but just in case:

1) Yamaha DP Snare - from my starter kit/remo ambassadors/ stock snares
2) 1978 Ludwig Acrolite - aluminum/ambassador and evans 300/puresound custom 24 strainer
3) Mapex Saturn - maple and walnut/stock ambassadors/stock snares

All of them are 14"x5.5" and I used ProMark 7A wood tips. There isn't any EQ, no compression, there is some limiting, but it's equal on everything. Snare was miced with an SM57 right over the rim about 1" away pointing halfway between the rim and center.

The other equipment is my Yamaha DP kick and my Zildjian New Beat hats. I miced the kick with my ADK Hamburg 6-8" away on the side that doesn't have the hole (don't have a dedicated kick mic). I only have 2 channels, so that's why the hats are weak.

OK, I think that's everything! Here's the audio, hope you find it helpful down the road somewhere:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=694635&songID=7204029

Also, do you think I should tune my top heads higher? I like a fat sound, but I have been messing around with that a little...let me know what you think.
 
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i'd definitely say the acrolite sounds the best. i might tune it a bit higher, but i'm liking the fatness of it as is.

the saturn was my least fave--it has some unpleasant ring to it, but it still sounds ok.

the yamaha sounded pretty good, but not as good as the ludwig. nice punch to it.

man, you got a pretty nice kick sound going w/ that adk too! nicely done, thanks for the shootout. these are always fun. :)
 
astoebe said:
crap that was the most expensive! :)
Click to expand...

which, the saturn? keep in mind there are a lot of factors there too. who knows, different mic placement, head selection/tuning, etc. could make it sound much different. out of curiosity, which did you like the best of the 3?
 
i agree with you, the ludwig. but i do want to play around with heads on the saturn and change the strainer...i think there is some great potential with it
 
I liked the Acro the best and the Saturn second.
They all need a little help EQ wise, for them to sound right in a mix.
 
What kind of sound do you want? The Acro and Saturn sound good, but they're totally different animals. They both sound like they're tuned pretty low as well. In a busy mix I'm thinking they'll sound like ass tuned that low. Put some good heads on either the acro or saturn and you'll be happy. Throw the Yamaha away.
 
Nice shootout!

I'd recommend tuning the resonant head on the Saturn snare higher though. I have a 13x5.5 and 12x5.5 Saturn snares, which both sound amazing.

I might do a shootout when my newest snare arrives...
 
Sounded good to me.
Both the snare and the amp!

That is about as low as you can go with the snare tuning and it still work in a mix.
Once you get Bass in there it may start sounding like beating a cardboard box.
That is when it is important to have some ringing overtones to the snare to give it some life in a mix. When folks choke off their snare drums to be too dry it does not carry well in a mix (too me anyway) when you add more instrument tracks.

My own opinion obviously.
 
Hey Greg_L, by the way, what's wrong with the ambassadors? I've used some other stuff but I usually end up coming back to those.
 
Thanks Andrew for the shootout!

The Mapex and the Acro sounds ok, but there´s a metallic ring that you can help with fine tuning and some moongel...


(btw, I really liked the song too!)

Thanks again!
 
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