HELP!!! How to lower stage volume of Snare ???

[EricLThomp]

I recently bought a really nice pearl free-floating maple snare to go with my Roland V-pros. problem is our sound guy, the band, everybody, is used to a really quiet stage volume. we have very little coming off stage. (nobody really uses amps, and have in-ear monitors, including myself). is there anything I can do to help produce less sound out front and pick up more microphone only sound? some options may be plexi-glass (which i don't really like the look of, and is a little pricey), and the solution i have been using, wrap and drape (free hanging, not touching the head) a folded up sheet around the bottom rim of the shell to kind of absorb the sound coming from the snare head. it's ugly though.

my goals here are: 1)absorb sound 2) look not too bad 3) not cost more than about $50.

any other ideas would be very helpful to me, thanks.

[Boingo]

Re: HELP!!! How to lower stage volume of Snare ???

Originally posted by EricLThomp
I recently bought a really nice pearl free-floating maple snare to go with my Roland V-pros. problem is our sound guy, the band, everybody, is used to a really quiet stage volume. we have very little coming off stage. (nobody really uses amps, and have in-ear monitors, including myself). is there anything I can do to help produce less sound out front and pick up more microphone only sound? some options may be plexi-glass (which i don't really like the look of, and is a little pricey), and the solution i have been using, wrap and drape (free hanging, not touching the head) a folded up sheet around the bottom rim of the shell to kind of absorb the sound coming from the snare head. it's ugly though.

my goals here are: 1)absorb sound 2) look not too bad 3) not cost more than about $50.

any other ideas would be very helpful to me, thanks.

I ordered one of those with a piano black finish. It was sweet. I was actually able to get rid of about 90% of the snare buzz and have it sound decent. It seems real ironic to have to do what you're doing. Other than the plexi shield, I don't think you'll ever be happy. I'm surprised you get an acceptable sound with what you are currently doing. Doesn't that remove the ring and really dull the sound?

[Rythmstik]

I don't see where you have many options, given your gigging situation. You can go with the plexiglass in front of the whole kit, or muffle the snare to death (so why bother with it?) but beyond that...? Maybe you could get a couple of sheets of plexi and try designing a smaller shield that would only sit in front of your snare, maybe something that attaches to your snare stand, surrounds only the forward half of the snare and extends, say, an inch above the batter head and 4-6 inches below the snare head? This is assuming there is room in your set up for something like that. Just a thought.... Good luck. Maybe someone else will have an idea. I suppose you could just tell your band to get used to it...

[fartnokker]

Sounds like you're fighting a battle with yourself here, man. I take it the reason you're going with an acoustic snare is that you weren't happy with the sound and/or playability of the electronic one. That's why I went that route, at least. Well, an acoustic snare drum is loud, period. If you muffle the drum to the point that it isn't prominent on a quiet stage, you've eliminated the "sound" portion of the equation.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish with the acoustic snare? You cannot have (a) low stage volume (b) acoustic snare drum, and (c) no sound barrier. That's life, my man.

The way I see it, you have a few choices:

- go back to electronic snare, or trigger the Pearl & use mesh heads.

- devise a sound barrier. Plexiglas is favored because it is transparent, so that it doesn't hide the drummer or the drums. This still won't help with YOUR stage volume, since you'll be on the same side of the barrier as the snare drum.

- convince your band to adapt to the sound. If you want a snare drum, it's gonna make sound.

- muffle it to hell and back, thereby negating any benefits of an acoustic snare sound. In effect, it'll be for looks only.

Sorry, but it sounds like you want mutually exclusive results here.