Snare buzz!

[trickg]

Wow, I am beginning to think maybe I am just a difficult B@stard who just likes to argue; so far I disagree with more than half of the posts in this thread.

Firstly, I disagree with the notion of "just live with it"or "it makes your kit sound good". I agree it is not that easy to completely eliminate, but it is very easy to drastically reduce it, and with a bit (or a lot) of careful tuning you can come pretty close to eliminating it. As someone already said, there are many threads dealing with this so do a search. There are also many youtube clips offering help so search there too. To summarise that advice, they generally fall into 2 categories:

1. Change the tuning of your snare or your toms so that snare and toms are tuned differently, as sympathetic buzz is maximised when your toms are tuned close to your snare. Also tune your snare bottom head a third up or a third down from your top head, to shorten yoru snares resonance hence shorten duration of snare buzz.
2. Various ways to reduce the sensitivity of the snares to external vibrations, but with the draw-back of reducing your snare's overall sensitivity. For example, slightly detune the 4 tension rods nearest where the snare straps come out (2 on each side).

Secondly, completely disagree with the advice to just crank it. In fact cranking the bottom head increases sensitivity hence can increase sympathetic buzz.

My thought on snare buzz, particularly when tuning the snare, is that first and foremost, I want my snare to sound great. That means that I tune it where it wants to go and where it's dialed in. Unfortunately sometimes one of the toms is tuned at a point where it causes the snare head to vibrate due to sympathetic vibration, so there's a little buzz. I'd rather just deal with it than to tune my snare somewhere else where it isn't dialed in as well.

Secondly, cranking the snare side head doesn't necessarily increase sensitivity - what it does is increase the vibrating/resonating frequency. There actually comes a point where it's tight to the point that it vibrates less, which is probably why some people are suggesting to crank it.

Again, from a practical perspective, unless you are in the recording studio, what difference does it make?

[lovetheblues]

My thought on snare buzz, particularly when tuning the snare, is that first and foremost, I want my snare to sound great. That means that I tune it where it wants to go and where it's dialed in. Unfortunately sometimes one of the toms is tuned at a point where it causes the snare head to vibrate due to sympathetic vibration, so there's a little buzz. I'd rather just deal with it than to tune my snare somewhere else where it isn't dialed in as well.
....

Agree. But there are few things that you can do: Firstly, you can then change the tuning of the toms slightly, after the snare is tuned. Secondly you can tune the snare just slightly up or down, but still keep the relative tuning between top and bottom heads the same so it is only a trivial change from where you had it tuned, and thirdly you can try some of those techniques e.g. slighly detuning the t-rods near the snare straps, as they will only make a minor change to the tunig of your snare, barely perceptable, but might make a big improvement in sympathetic buzz.

....Secondly, cranking the snare side head doesn't necessarily increase sensitivity - what it does is increase the vibrating/resonating frequency. There actually comes a point where it's tight to the point that it vibrates less, which is probably why some people are suggesting to crank it.
....

Yes, agreed, if that previous poster meant you should crank it so far that it is beyond the tuning range of the head, but no one wants a snare sounding like that; it just sounds dead (and you'll damage the head). But before that point, increasing the tension of the reso increases sensitivity, all other things being equal; of course yes you are right, it also increases the frequency.

[nickd]

The snares will buzz at some point anywhere that harmonizes with its pitch, you're chasing your tail with snare buzz. Also cranking your head and snares is detrimental to your sound.

[scooterdavis]

Noooooooo don't do that! That will kill your snare sound!
Learn to live with the buzz it makes your kit sounding alive!

Running your snare reso tight gives more sensitivity to the snare, It's going to make it sound tighter. Cranking the snare wires down too tight will choke the snare sound, but leaving the reso too lose with sound like crap. Just my opinion

[12metalworX4]

Just play a small snare.

[Mman]

There are times when snare vibration can be a real problem and not just in the studio. I do a lot of acoustic gigs with jazz trios and quartets in small rooms. If the vibration is particularly bad it can really be heard and distracting...not just to me but to other players and even the more sophisticated listener. Playing fours or a solo in this situation can be real distracting.