[microsound] snare overtones composition

[Evan Williams]

Nice!

As a professional drummer who has an interest in microsound, I have thought a lot about this but never actually tried it.

Here are a few things you might like to consider:

1) a snare drum is a very complex resonator. You have the tuning of the two heads to consider - the tuning of each head to itself (each lug relative to the other lugs), and the overall relative tuning between the two heads. The shell also has a resonant frequency that will influence things, depending on it's design and what material it is made from. Add to that the number and tension of snare wires and you have a lot of variables right out of the box! It is possible that the current setup of your snare drum is not optimal for what you are trying to do.

To make the snaredrum as resonant as possible I would recommend putting quite a thin head on the batter side (the side you are supposed to play) and a proper snare-side head on the snare side. Tune them so each lug is the same note all around (ie. evenly tensioned right around the head) and then tune the heads to either the same pitch, or a specific interval apart (ie. a 5th) so the frequencies are mathematically related. Have the snare wires as loose as you can get away with so they don't choke the head. Consider that a metal snare drum shell will have more specific resonant frequencies than a wooden one. Lastly, sit the drum on it's side on a piece of foam so it is not coupled to the floor as this this will affect it's sustain.

2) When recording drums in a more conventional way it is common to use baffles between a mic and an unwanted sound source to help reduce bleed into the mic. A piece of foam can work well, or even a cardboard or plastic shield. You could make a large tunnel of some kind out of thick foam or pillows from the mic to the snare drum. You could also try putting the amp on the opposite side of the drum from the mic. The batter head will resonate with the sound pressure from the speaker, and pass that energy through to the snare side via the column of air inside the drum.

3) I've often wondered if you could physically couple a speaker to the shell of a drum and introduce sound energy that way.

4) I've also wondered if a drum trigger (a piezo / contact mic that sticks to the head or shell for triggering midi) could be used to either record the sound of the head resonating directly, or as a tiny speaker to introduce sound energy into the drum.

I'm quite a busy kind of guy but this really interests me, so I will try and set up some of these ideas and record the outcome. I can't guarantee how quickly I will get it done though. Feel free to try these ideas for yourself.

I wonder - for the sake of useful comparison of results - could you make a recording of your sine wave beeps available for others to use?

Cheers,

Evan

> 
> Message: 6
> Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:07:34 -0400
> From: AP Vague <apvague at gmail.com>
> To: microsound at microsound.org
> Subject: [microsound] snare overtones composition
> Message-ID:
> 	<CANuk-gU9unCgnAHr0SqU6dt6a6VBHobNoFrkP6Q8vE0L-g83vw at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> This<http://soundcloud.com/bluebirdrecordings/sir-baar-test-master-of-march>is
> my first test with using "straight" sine waves to activate a snare
> head.
> The sound is entirely sine wave beeps in rapid succession (from a laptop
> synth) played through a guitar amp aimed at the snare side of a snare drum.
> The mic is a cardioid dynamic mic pointed at the snares, away from the
> speaker to capture the resonant frequencies of the drum. This recording is
> six tracks, each recorded in the same manner, mastered by Sir
> Baar<http://sirbaar.bandcamp.com/>.
> Has anyone else experimented with this? Is there a better way to isolate
> the drum's frequencies from the speaker?
> Hope you like it.
> ~A
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> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 7
> Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2012 23:13:39 -0400
> From: Dara Shayda <dara1339 at hotmail.com>
> To: microsound at microsound.org
> Subject: Re: [microsound] snare overtones composition
> Message-ID: <BLU0-SMTP238787E1926FB4438E39394D1DA0 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> I love the work, let's say it is full-bodied and strong
> 
> D
> On 2012-07-17, at 9:07 PM, AP Vague wrote:
> 
>> This is my first test with using "straight" sine waves to activate a snare head. The sound is entirely sine wave beeps in rapid succession (from a laptop synth) played through a guitar amp aimed at the snare side of a snare drum. The mic is a cardioid dynamic mic pointed at the snares, away from the speaker to capture the resonant frequencies of the drum. This recording is six tracks, each recorded in the same manner, mastered by Sir Baar. Has anyone else experimented with this? Is there a better way to isolate the drum's frequencies from the speaker?
>> Hope you like it.
>> ~A
>> _______________________________________________
>> microsound mailing list
>> microsound at microsound.org
>> http://or8.net/mailman/listinfo/microsound
> 
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