Carpet or wood... Under the snare for recording.

[Quai34]

Hi Guys,
Just saved my area carpet from my son's cat pee and I can now think again about recording without smelling amoniac like crazy! I've read that, if you put some wood under your snare while the whole kit is on a carpet to dampen the resonance, it will be beneficial for the sound of the snare, tighter and crispier, did you experienced that? I have some hardwood floor left by the Cie who installed our wood floor but I will have to cut them to Try it and my wife doesn't want unless it really makes a difference, so, let me know,
Sincerely.

 

[Whitten]

The sound of the room overall will be a bigger factor.
I have never targeted one drum, but in general wood delivers more lively sound, brighter. Carpet dampens the sound, drier. I guess you could try both.

 

[Quai34]

I will try both but at least it gives me an idea of what sound I will get, I have to cut and adjust some hardwood piece of floor to put it under the snare and see if the rebound of sound on it is better for my under mic.
Thanks again.

 

[ThomasL]

I think I read about someone putting a slab of stone under the snare in the studio.

 

[sasallys]

I will try both but at least it gives me an idea of what sound I will get, I have to cut and adjust some hardwood piece of floor to put it under the snare and see if the rebound of sound on it is better for my under mic.
Thanks again.

If you are really going to try it and you are up for a little more effort, how about recording a sample of each and posting the audio here for us to compare?
If you want to make it more interesting, you could not tell us which is which...

 

[hsosdrum]

Buddy Rich always insisted that his drums be set up on two 4x8 plywood sheets, which his band always carried with them. He preferred the sound of his drums reflecting off of the wood. As shown in the photo below, they even used their own plywood on top of what appears to be a wood riser.

 

[unregisteredalien]

Buddy Rich always insisted that his drums be set up on two 4x8 plywood sheets, which his band always carried with them. He preferred the sound of his drums reflecting off of the wood. As shown in the photo below, they even used their own plywood on top of what appears to be a wood riser.

View attachment 586458

I recorded at a local place a little while back and the house engineer did exactly this.

Then again he also put a wallet on my snare, so...

 

[Cauldronics]

Hi Guys,
Just saved my area carpet from my son's cat pee and I can now think again about recording without smelling amoniac like crazy! I've read that, if you put some wood under your snare while the whole kit is on a carpet to dampen the resonance, it will be beneficial for the sound of the snare, tighter and crispier, did you experienced that? I have some hardwood floor left by the Cie who installed our wood floor but I will have to cut them to Try it and my wife doesn't want unless it really makes a difference, so, let me know,
Sincerely.

First, I hope your son sees a doctor who can figure out why he's peeing cat pee and.. yada yada never mind.

Another thing to try (although not really for a slappy, tight snare) is setting up the kit on 1/2" thick rubber cattle mats (also sold as appliance mats for more $) to acoustically decouple from the floor... unless it already sounds great. Of course you can also try a board of plywood over that.

I use two cattle mats and an Ahead drum rug. It made my kit sound fuller and more focused.

 

[hsosdrum]

I recorded at a local place a little while back and the house engineer did exactly this.

Then again he also put a wallet on my snare, so...

How much $$ did you swipe from the wallet? (Engineers who indiscriminately 'wallet' snare drums need to be taught a lesson.)

 

[Quai34]

The room is small though, 16.5'X12.5' and last time there were too much reverb so, I put 6 Primacoustic Columns 12X48X3" behind the kit and 4 panels at 24X48X3" on top of the drums k with 5" between them and the ceiling. On top of that, I have columns and diffusers in front of it and bass trap in corners. But a sick carpet under it, see pictures.
So, I had to fight a bit with my wife to make her accept all the change so now, we have long pieces of hardwood floor that was left by the contractors years ago.... And she wants to keep them that way in case the floor needs repair. but I would have to cut them in order to fit my stand under the snare,'thus, why I'm asking...If someone tells me yeah, go for it, I did it and it was night and days ok, let's cut, if not, well, I will save my time and my wife "energy".
That said, we have way more plywood that we put in the basement instead of carpet so, those should work as well.
Anyway, I will try it if I can and post some recordings to let you know, I will do it.