Hart Acusnare

[Ken Taylor]

I'm interested to know if anyone out there is having the same problems with positional sensing on the Acusnare mesh pad as I seem to have. The Timbre change point on mine is right next to the rim and can only be brought out from there by tightening the snare outrageously high and setting the TD10 for 'Loose' in the advanced pad settings.

Ken.

[puttenvr]

I don't have a Hart Dynamics Acusnare (was actually planning to buy one) but I can imagine that Roland has optimized its positional sensing to their 12 inch pads. And that's why I am now doubting buying the 13 inch Hart snare

[sjg]

I have the Acusnare to use with my TD10, and have had absolutely no positional sensing problems with it at all. It really amazes other musicians when I play double-stroke rolls moving around the head and they hear the timbre change. With mine, at least, the timbre change is quite continuous from the center to the rim. During normal play, I dig into the rim all the time and the snare tracks it very well. It mirrors the feel of may acoustic snare very well, and that's a big part of why I'm so pleased with it.

At least one other member of the list has reported having some startup problems with their snare, so you might consider popping the head off and checking out the piezos for general health and proper attachment. It should *not* require extensive or bizarre tweeking to get the feel you want from the Acusnare. If problems persist, contact Hart and get them to swap out the instrument- yours is not behaving the way it should, to be sure, and they are very good at taking care of their customers when problems arise.

You do need to run the head tight, but I wouldn't call it "outrageously" tight. I've always run my snare heads pretty tight, so it seemed perfectly normal to crank up there...

[puttenvr]

Sjg, do you have the Acu Classic with real heads?

[sjg]

No- I have the 13" Series X with the mesh head. I'm a happy owner...

[Ken Taylor]

Thanks SJG I can only think that they have changed the configuration of the pad since I got mine a year ago, as at that time Hart didnt have an answer to the positional sensing problem then. Incidentally are you able to use the rim click with your Acusnare ? On arrival mine would only work in rim shot mode ie you had to hit both snare and rim to get a rim sound. Hart at that time said thats the way they sold them and no one had complained. Because I was used to playing the rim click with a PD120 up until then, I was sadly forced to do some 'BIZARRE' tweeking in order to allow it to perform like a PD120 with respect to the rim.

Yours Tweekingly.

Ken.

[sjg]

Ahh. I didn't realize that you were talking about rim-only sounds under the heading of positional sensing. To me, positional sensing is a stick-strikes-head deal. Since starting with E-drumming I have never thought about the rim click as even being related to the snare sounds, triggerwise. I don't know about the capabilities of the PD120, since I never seriously considered it: I went straight from a PD9 to the Hart.

Can I make the Acusnare do rim clicks: no. Rimshot mode only, for me- that's all I need. For clean rim clicks, I have a Pintech Nimrod that I've hung almost in contact with the rim, but just a little higher than it, on the far side of the snare. I can lay the LH stick down and play as if I was doing acoustic rim clicks and have the butt hit the sweet spot on the Nimrod, or (more often) I'll just shift positions and play on it with a full stroke in normal grip.

For the stick-on-head click, I'll occasionally get more head sound than I really want. But it is very nice to be able to get the right click sound by muscle memory, without having to *think* about whether I'm playing electric or acoustic. That's another nice thing about the 13" pad, since you have a lot of stick hanging over the far side. It's a great place for a couple of small triggers.

I actually use the rim click patch from the DM5, instead of a TD10 sound, since I usually just want that trigger to do nothing but clicks (and not follow the kit patch). Your mileage may vary.

I haven't tried to do anything with any rim-only sounds on the Acusnare, since I had the Nimrod first. I got it while still trying to play the PD7/9 setups, since I found trying to do a rim click with a PD9 to be freakin' _hopeless_. I just assumed that it would be either impossible or an unholy pain in the ass to get a traditional rim click to work on _any_ electronic snare without dedicating a pad and channel to it, so I never bothered to try. I already had the pad and channel.

With the Acusnare, the positional timbre shift with full strokes does track the impact position in a very natural and continuous way from head center to very near the rim. Rim-only is definitely another story.


[This message has been edited by sjg (edited February 21, 2000).]

[Ken Taylor]

Sjg,
Under the Heading of Positional Sensing I was talking about positional sensing not rim shots, which I mentioned as an incidental in my second email (Hence my earlier reference to timbre change points). I will contact Hart Later this week about the positional sensing thing as It sounds as if they have come with an answer. I'm seriously shy of tightening the snare head too tight as I had two black mesh heads come apart on on me within days.

Yours Slackly.

Ken

[Ken Taylor]

Sjg,
Under the Heading of Positional Sensing I was talking about positional sensing not rim shots, which I mentioned as an incidental in my second email (Hence my earlier reference to timbre change points). I will contact Hart Later this week about the positional sensing thing as It sounds as if they have come with an answer. I'm seriously shy of tightening the snare head too tight as I had two black mesh heads come apart on on me within days.

Yours Slackly.

Ken

[Gary]

Ken,
My Hart Accusnare reacts as yours positionally and is also about a year old.
If you already contacted Hart, what did they say? Have they upgraded the rim piezo since the early releases?
Gary

[Ken Taylor]

Gary
I haven't contacted hart yet but I plan to tomorrow.
To get a good crosstick function from the acusnare I had to add an extra piezo and change the internal wiring a bit.
If you want a cct and plans email me.
Ken.

[Ken Taylor]

OK, got an answer from Hart.
They now use a double mesh head. This will allow the snare to be tightened further and up the resonant frequency of the head. PD series of pads have a much higher resonant frequency because of their size. And as positional detection is based on these frequency changes as you get closer to the rim. A lack of control of this parameter in the TD10 means this is the only answer unless there is better control in the new operating system.

Ken.

[szvook]

Yes and Yes again!! My Acousnare performs the same as you have mentioned, finally some else beside me who does not the issues that are being reported, I was beginning to feel like the lonely guy who does not have problems with the set up. Hartdynamics RULE !!

Originally posted by sjg:
I have the Acusnare to use with my TD10, and have had absolutely no positional sensing problems with it at all. It really amazes other musicians when I play double-stroke rolls moving around the head and they hear the timbre change. With mine, at least, the timbre change is quite continuous from the center to the rim. During normal play, I dig into the rim all the time and the snare tracks it very well. It mirrors the feel of may acoustic snare very well, and that's a big part of why I'm so pleased with it.

At least one other member of the list has reported having some startup problems with their snare, so you might consider popping the head off and checking out the piezos for general health and proper attachment. It should *not* require extensive or bizarre tweeking to get the feel you want from the Acusnare. If problems persist, contact Hart and get them to swap out the instrument- yours is not behaving the way it should, to be sure, and they are very good at taking care of their customers when problems arise.

You do need to run the head tight, but I wouldn't call it "outrageously" tight. I've always run my snare heads pretty tight, so it seemed perfectly normal to crank up there...

------------------
szvook

[antinucci]

My Hart Acusnare is also working flawlessly... It took a tiny bit of tweeking, but it is great.

[szvook]

Originally posted by szvook:
Yes and Yes again!! My Acousnare performs the same as you have mentioned, finally some else beside me who does not have the issues that are being reported, I was beginning to feel like the lonely guy who does not have problems with the set up. Hartdynamics RULE !!