How does the Ref snare sound?

[Phobiac]

Hey guys.....I love the concept behind the reference series drums...but i won't be able to afford a refernce kit for a long long time (other stuff to spend money on...i am guitar player first (don't yell at me lol!!) a recording engineer 2nd, and a drummer 3rd), not to mention i just bought a nice ELX 5 months ago. However i still have the stock snare, which i am axious to replace with something Bad ***.

I've looked at many diferent snare, and the Reference snare looks to be exactly what i am looking for....i know they won't be readily avalable for a while, but if anyone here was at NAMM or has contacts with Pearl or whatever and can give some info on how they sound...that would rule!!

Thanks Guys!!

[drummer111]

go to pearl drum.com and check out the refrence pop up and the namm pop up


in the reference page check out the fideo's then youll be able to hear the snare head on


then go to the namm video page and all the artist there are playing on th reference series drums .

[bombjack]

they appear to be really high pitched to me, well the one in Dennis' video does. I assume that's to do with the amount of plies. I want to check one out in person before I order cos i really did not like the snare sound on that video.

[Napolean5]

the high pitch is just there tuning preference

[opus138]

I can't imagine they are very versatile, but that's just speculation. I'm looking forward to playing one in person and fidgiting with tuning to see about that. Seems that at 2.5cm thick, it is made to crank the bejezuz out of the heads and kill small mammals within a 3 mile radius.

[bombjack]

the high pitch is just there tuning preference

Oh yeah, of course. I'm not familiar with Mr Chambers' output so I have no "reference" (sorry, ;) ) for what his snare usually sounds like. I do think the thickness of the shell must have something to do with it though as birch is in my experience quite a fundamentally high pitched wood.

[insane65]

I just spoke to a friend of mine a few minutes ago who went to NAMM and had a chance to play the Reference series. He said the snare drum has plenty of possibility to crack some skulls but also it was amazingly sensitive as well. I'm very excited to hear one of these drums.

He also mentioned that the Reference series was the most fabulous sounding set of drums he has ever heard.

[Cdn Reference]

I have a 6.5X14 Scarlet Fade (rest of the kit comes in Nov.) It's gotta a nice sharp crack and tons of volume. Excellent strainer setup. Tune it high or tune it low. It's up to you!!