I’m fairly new to the instrument of the drums and, for any of you far more experienced than I, I have a query.
My snare has a ring that lasts for a few seconds after the initial sound from the snare etc… and i’ve never heard that ringing on other drums. Is it normal? Or, what can I do to get rid of it? Or should I just ignore it.
My SO is a drummer, and she’ll put a strip of cloth between the drumhead and the inside of the drum (strapped down by the drumhead itself) to help deaden the ringing sound. You can try this on the bottom drumhead first, if the idea of a strip of cloth isn’t all that visually appealing. But it does work.
This is a problem most people have to some extent with snare drums. They have a lot of overtones. If you can avoid muffling the drum, that would be good. But sometimes you can’t.
Before you try muffling, try tuning. Take the snares off and see if you get a nice clear sound, or lots of interference ringing. Try tuning the bottom head to a slightly lower frequency than the top. Make sure you’re using a coated top head. When you first put a head on the drum, tighten it up and then stand on it to fully stretch it out. Try loosening the snares off a tad. Or tightening them.
If all this fails, go with the least muffling you can get away with. An alterative to the strip inside the drum method is a small T -shaped piece of gaffer tape on one of the heads near but not touching the rim. Trim the stem of the tape to get the desired result.