That Worship Snare Sound - an exhaustive look in how to get the worship snare sound

[@aidenfowler2245]

Thanks for checking out my video! I love how this topic of snare tuning got a 54 minute video dedicated to it. Ha! Great work man.

[@aidenfowler2245]

Oh! I also use a Ludwig black magic. No way I’m paying 800+ for a snare that’ll be mainly used for one sound haha.

[@TrewDrums]

Well thanks for you help on it! Your video was very insightful and helpful. And that is good to know. It looks like the manufacturing process is similar between the two. The main difference is the Black Beauty is USA made.

[@johnkavaudio4695]

Heavy muffling, deep snares, gates and white noise…hell, it’s the 80’s metal/heavy rock tones you’re after fellas! 😂

[@cjlarson4553]

Modern worship heard Steve Jordan’s snare on Vultures by John Mayer….. And thought welp that’s it forever

[@houseofjesseworship]

That final result sounded great! Fun journey!

[@TrewDrums]

Thank you! I hope you enjoyed

[@АлександрАртамонов-ф7ц]

This is the best worship snare tutorial 👍👍👍

[@brent3760]

I play on Sundays and i kind of just do my own thing. Play all of the popular songs, but I play using my preferred snare sound. And to me, its the way to go. Snap, crackle pop!! Just think classic snare sound. Medium to medium high, and single ply coated head. No muffling and to me, it works and works great. Jelps the back beat to be kore pronounced and moves people, rather tham getting to mushed out and lost on the mix. But, to each their own!! 😊

[@TrewDrums]

I totally understand that! And yes to each their own. Music is an art form so its important to remember to express yourself in your music.

[@AdamLivesayCovers]

Honestly, this is the video to watch on this subject. I’ve done this deep dive myself in search of finding “that” sound. This is a solid and comprehensive study on finding it that really punches above your sub count. Genuinely great work here man, keep it up. I’d love to hear what Teddy’s tuning frequencies were on his pass as well! I just swapped heads at the church yesterday and may have tuned a bit too high!

[@hugodylan9452]

I’m using your presets on Ableton, it sound awesome thanks for the 1h tutorial🙌🏼

[@TrewDrums]

I'm glad it was helpful!

[@david_brnckr7219]

Final Attempt Sounds Great!

[@TrewDrums]

Thank you!

[@kylecunningham1]

Great video! Super helpful and in depth. I’d love more videos.

[@TrewDrums]

Thanks Kyle!

[@collabworship]

Awesome video! Snare is so subjective and has so much versatility. It was cool to see a deep dive on all the little details that go into a specific sound (love it or hate it).

[@TrewDrums]

Thanks for your tutorials helping make it happen!

[@andykorb655]

Dude, this is so good! Thanks for this!

[@TrewDrums]

Glad you like it!

[@HendyBrah]

I want to see Teddy's full process :) Teddy Attempt #1 sounds the closest to me!

[@jasongarcia5727]

dude i literally went down this rabbit hole the past few weeks.

[@TrewDrums]

Did you learn anything cool that I didn't cover? I would love to hear how I could make it better.

[@miguelangelgallegomusic]

Awesome video bro! Great info in here! 🔥

[@TrewDrums]

Glad you liked it!

[@Frus77sh2]

Oh shit another fellow Dallas Drum player. Absolutely love my snare and all his work.

[@DbiPro]

It’s regular tuning with a mid eq boost and a compressor to pull out the snare and smash down the boosted mids.

[@Alexb53.]

thanks for this man!

[@TrewDrums]

Happy to help!

[@jesusfirstmelast]

So practically how do i now Apply this to a live sunday Service worship Setting with an x32 Mixer🤭? Because it seems to me that everyone is achiving the sound by Processing it with a mac.

[@TrewDrums]

In my experience, it is very difficult. We use a Behringer WING at the church I am at and it is somewhat achievable there. The best luck that I found is managing the wet/dry knob on your compression effects and then making a dedicated effects chain for the snare reverb and compress that signal in the effects return. But I am no expert. I am sure someone in this comment thread could shed more light on that particular subject.

[@jaredlowry970]

I really don’t understand all the hate in the comments. A dark fat snare is fairly ubiquitous in a lot of modern music. I get that tone is subjective but sheesh dude.

[@samuelharmoko250]

the problem with brighter cymbals and cracky snares is that they cut too much and can be disrupting and some people don’t get that

[@kyronnewbury]

Great work on the sound! It's always more work than we realize re-creating a sound we've heard. Also Omni Channel is amazing I find the worship drum sound seems like it was made by drummers who were yelled at by angry church members. Everything is very low pitched (cymbals included) and barely cut at all. It's all very unobtrusive lol

[@TrewDrums]

Thanks! That is a really insightful observation. I totally think you are right!

[@viinikellari]

Open fruity loops and use the default snare sample. That's the sound.

[@truelightshining]

Thanks for ask your time and effort!

[@TrewDrums]

My pleasure!

[@scottfahy5468]

Try using a DBX160 or a Plug In version in a parallel compression and add to taste. We use the Digico Mustard version on our snare drum for our FOH mix that also gets sent online.

[@TrewDrums]

Sound cool! I will have to try it.

[@3lvisplay]

My favourite drums and tunings are 14 x 5.5 aluminium snares, with cranked snare heads and batter head being the lower fifth of the snare head. And then a drum honey or not deppending on if you like the ring or not. I personally love the ring so I never muffle it

[@TrewDrums]

I have heard good things about drum honey. I will have to try it!

[@3lvisplay]

@@TrewDrums They’re great! I feel they give a better mute than moongels. And they dont bleed as much color on the heads

[@vadimmartynyuk]

great tutorial, all done with waves plugins which will make it easier to recreate in live situations

[@JaredReeves12]

Thanks for doing all of that research! I know alot of drummers that are chasing "that" sound so your research and video are very helpful 👍 unfortunately I play electronic drums in my Church, (actually it's alot easier finding that sound with modern E-drums these days! Lol) but I certainly appreciate the time and work you put into making this video, keep it up! 👍

[@TrewDrums]

Thank you! I was thinking about it after I posted this video and thought "This would have been so much easier if I just used an electronic drumset." You can just download the samples that the pros use and upload them to your kit. The only problem you really run into is the sound of the cymbals. E-cymbals never sound right to me. and also re-triggering.

[@JaredReeves12]

@@TrewDrums my thoughts exactly... I love the Roland VAD506 and the TD27 module I play at Church, and I love my Alesis strike pro SE I have at home... But both of those kits just completely lack in the cymbal department! I've been playing with the idea of switching to those low volume metal cymbals with the triggers built in. I've heard they are a huge improvement over rubber cymbal pads👍

[@romodrummer]

@@TrewDrums e-drums cymbals samples have never sounded good since the inception of e-drums. Its probably a round-robbin issue (the more u hit the pad a different sound comes out. they just cant get that round-robbening on the cymbals good enough as they do on the drum pads). Hopefully now the Roland bought DW they may come out with some technology to improve the cymbal samples in their future kits/modules

[@jeremythomas2865]

We may not like triggers or autotune for that matter, but they are both pretty industry standard nowadays. Watching many high-end mixers, they all use them too.

[@TrewDrums]

Or quantizing too, I totally understand their value and agree with how standard they are, but that doesn't change my thoughts that they feel like cheating.

[@johnkavaudio4695]

See “Pour some sugar on me” by Def Leppard and you’ll get the sound you’re after for worship

[@nkft1]

I kinda prefer the teddy first take without that much of EQ, Am I crazy for that? haha amazing video!!! just subscribed

[@audiovisualcoordinator4365]

Very good work man! I've found, much like you did, that for a drum tuned super low, your drummer has to be hitting really hard to get that BIG sound. If they're hitting inconsistent or too soft, it'll never turn out right. I know a lot of drummer will even play with the butt of the stick, just to get a little more mass and impact. For our church, tuning the top head up to about 270 makes it more responsive, and muffling with just an M80 has been our winning combo. We also use two mics on the top head, and Beyerdynamic m201 (sounds like a beefier 57) and a DPA 2011c, and changing the relationship between those two mics we can add more beef or attack as needed.

[@TrewDrums]

That's really cool! I have also seen people use the butt of their stick. I used to do that, but I found it gave a nastier sound when you play cymbals with your left hand. I do a lot of switching between playing right and left-handed, so that wasn't as much of an option for me. Looking at the frequency response of the m201 I can definitely see the beefiness compared to the 57 How do you process the audio?

[@audiovisualcoordinator4365]

@@TrewDrums both mics are processed pretty similarly, low cut around 100hz, big bump between 150 and 200, big cut between 300 and 500, and decent size high shelf starting at like 3k. no gates on the snare top mics. I want to capture all the ghost notes and stuff. biggest difference is in the channel compression for each mic. The M201 has a fast attack to accentuate the fatness, the DPA has a slow attack to let more of the transient through. Since watching your video, I have stolen the use of a gated verb on the snare. I wouldn't have thought it made a huge difference, but I am now a firm believer in the gated verb on snare. Again, great video!

[@TrewDrums]

Thanks! I am glad it was helpful. I will have to try that M201 out sometime.

[@DbiPro]

The power stroke 4 on top is VERY NICE on snare if you want to mess overtones 😊

[@TrewDrums]

From all the music videos I have seen it seems like that and the p3 are what most people use!

[@DbiPro]

@@TrewDrumsI have a p3 right now and I was disappointed 😔 gotta wait to get another head

[@jeremyontheconsole]

You gotta HIT the snare to also get that sound. watch Austin Davis play drums, homie smacking that drum

[@TrewDrums]

People do be hitting the drums pretty hard!

[@Pure_KodiakWILD_Power]

54 minutes certainly seems exhaustive 😂 I just crank all my snares high and tight, and throw down overlays ( like the big fat snare drum ) if I want to bring it down to some of those modern Worship or old school fat snare tunings.

[@TrewDrums]

I am glad you found something you like!

[@bpmdrums]

If you're going to go through all this research and experimenting, why not at least replace the heads that are supposedly too old?

[@TrewDrums]

Fair.

[@eyesolatedrock]

I find it curious that churches would start with a brass snare and mute all the ring out of it. I think i would start with a wood snare and use an Evans HD dry. I think people just think an $800 snare is better because it’s expensive so they get it, but it’s not the sound they want so they muffle it like crazy. If you have to use moongel and o rings, you either have the wrong snare or the wrong head or both.

[@TrewDrums]

I thought that was interesting too. I cut a portion of the video where I actually tried using a wooden drum and tuning it the same (I was actually using an HD dry as well) . It really didn't work well and the video was already pushing an hour, so I cut it. I'm no scientist, but if I were to guess people use brass and copper in this instance because it has a more articulate attack without sacrificing low end. I think that there is no way to remove overtones on a drum naturally without some sort of muffling. Even if you have all the lugs perfectly in tune with each other you would still get some ringing, which you could EQ out but it would change the character of the sound potentially in a negative way. I have seen a lot of larger churches also use wood snares. So, it is definitely possible to get the sound using a wooden snare! I really think the secret sauce is less in the snare and more in how it is processed but the snare is still important!

[@nathanwarnesmusic]

parallel compression & De esser!

[@andynaz5631]

Drums sound like 1980s Yes 90125, and Cinema Alan White.

[@DontMe__]

I've been on this journey too and I haven't gotten there yet. All I have to work with is a 14x5.5 brass snare drum so it's been extra hard. I think it sounds pretty close to your final attempt, but even then it's not quite there. In my opinion, it still lacks a little bit of body. GOAT snare sound for me is from Ish Melton. kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZnS9lGVqqNJpg9Usi=NggCgwmGthxb-v7z&t=126

[@TrewDrums]

Ish Melton Really is the GOAT when it comes to his snare tones.

[@charlesryan8476]

A gated verb helps

[@localdrummerweb]

Skipped to the tuning part. 54 mins to explain this is extensive but so is using $2k earthworks mics to capture a snare sound that I consider one of the worst trends in CCM. I’ve never listened to a single CCM record and complemented the drum sound 😂

[@user-qj2cq4dv3k]

What IS a record you’ve complemented the snare sound of then?

[@TrewDrums]

I wouldn't say the whole video was explaining it, but rather my journey in learning about it. What ended up sounding the best anyway was the $100 sm57, so you are right, price is not everything!

[@localdrummerweb]

Dierks Bentley's Black record comes to mind for a great drum sound. Also literally anything recorded at Sound City from the 60's-90's. I like a fat snare as much as the next drummer but to use it for every single song just because its popular? Ill pass. I mean don't get me started on tom grooves, that trend is just as bad in CCM @@user-qj2cq4dv3k

[@localdrummerweb]

No insult meant toward you. It's hard to beat an sm57. So versatile @@TrewDrums

[@TrewDrums]

sm57 really is the classic. I was working as an assistant at a studio recently and the mixing engineer had me set up 15 drum mics. Most of them were in the $2000+ range, except for the snare top which was a sm57. I don't think I will ever underestimate that mic again! The other exception to that rule is the EV868 bass mic. But I don't know anything about that one.

[@notforyoutube]

This video should be called, 1000 reasons to use Steven Sleep. Eight minutes in and this video is already killed me.

[@CAvivamientoEmmanuel]

.

[@DbiPro]

Well since we are on this topic. There’s a lady that does a how to compress snare video and she shows you her settings and eq and that actually does better to get your mic’s and pa speakers to give you that thick fat snare sound. Don’t preday the reverb.

[@TimBunch]

I'm curious about using a short pre-delay on reverb for snare. What was your experience with it?

[@DbiPro]

It works but you need to gate it so that initial smack doesn’t come out because it always makes the snare peak really nasty when people dig in. And lowering the gain doesn’t make it better.

[@DbiPro]

@@TimBunchI’ll check what I’m using and comment it here

[@chromebull884]

I have found as long as you have these 4 things will get you close enough and the rest is mostly mixing 1: 30 strand or more snare wire 2: medium low tuning 3: snare that is at minimum 5" deep and preferably made of metal 4: 2 ply 7 mil + 7 mil batter head muffled as needed If you have a single ply head try placing a cutout drum head on top of the batter head or buy a BFSD.

[@TrewDrums]

You summed it up great!

[@stixman7]

Like any one of our senses, we are all individual in our preferences. Granted there may be a general ground where a majority would choose, in these example, a particular sound, however, we are bordering on "anororak" syndrome here. There's a lot of time given to an area that is important, but surely not needed, in my opinion.

[@TrewDrums]

There is definitely a large matter of subjectivity and opinion here! I think it is a valuable skill to be able to replicate many sounds so when a client or leader requests a specific thing then us as drummers or sound engineers are able to provide.

[@miguelruiz8183]

Not a fan of this sound at all. No wonder why all these songs sound the same

[@stephencshapiro]

It's overstayed its welcome by many, many years.

[@DbiPro]

You have to learn how to change it on the fly. It’s not for every song

[@DbiPro]

Those examples were actually all different

[@Tillman0]

If you use a fat snare sound in church, you have an issue

[@grangerlofton8608]

That horrible, horrible “manipulative” sound.

[@user-hg4vj9tn1l]

I'm a schooled, musically literate drummer who has played Praise for many years at many different churches. The Praise drum sound is terrible along with quite a bit of the sloppy drumming on the recordings covered, especially from Hillsong. Please learn how to lock in with your bass player and enough with the 2 bar buildups... every SONG. Anyway, the drums sound like wet cardboard boxes that are heavy on the reverb, compression and gating. It's a shame for those of us who want properly tuned acoustic drums because playing at church is most rewarding.

[@TrewDrums]

Music is incredibly subjective, so at the end of the day, its all a matter of opinion. I am sorry you aren't in an environment where you get to play to the drum sounds you like.

[@grangerlofton8608]

I couldn’t agree more.

[@MrDuxfield]

Agreed. I'm coming back to playing after many years away. I'm playing with the kit the church bought. I've tuned it as best as I can. I've very quickly given up on trying to emulate the sound & tuning of Elevation or Bethel or whoever. My snare is tight, snappy & doesn't ring out long. It's not tuned down at all. My Pastor has no issues with it & neither does anyone else.

[@kddrums85]

As a worship drummer the only thing I find more annoying than this over copied snare sound is that ridiculous tom groove that seemingly every worship song has in it. It all needs to go away!

[@TrewDrums]

They do be playing the same tom groove on every song, don't they.

[@kddrums85]

Glad I’m not the only one! I wish the songs were written in more of a pop, rock or even country format with a steady 2/4 groove. The Tom groove gets on my nerves and then there is the endless building of eights and sixteenths only just to drop out. 😂

[@TrewDrums]

I think most people end up liking the kind of music that they either grew up listening to or was the most prominent during their spiritual formation. I think we are in a time right now where a lot of modern worship artists just enjoy that sound so they keep making it (or they do it because it makes them the most money, who is to say what their heart is). I will say there are some young folks now who are responding to the repetitive nature of worship music and creating things that are a little more "rock". Right now I am thinking of people like "Gable Price and Friends", "Rivers and Robots", or maybe "We the Kingdom". Do you have any Christian bands that make the kind of music you enjoy?

[@noahplaysdrums5212]

Some new stuff from bethel kind of switches it up. Go check it out

[@BOBNAR96]

Lots of effects

[@dusttalking6871]

Worship sound isn’t about the snare it’s about the player. But your examples just sound like a dry 80s snare sound. If you want your worship sounding cookie cutter like everyone else’s sound have at it. Modern worship music sucks, in cadences, arrangements, and most of all, LYRICS! All who do worship music should go back to the hymnal and Psalter to learn how to write songs that glorify the Lord instead of putting people in a trance or more hyped up than the coffee they drank. Ludwig Black Beauty is an excellent instrument because it’s versatile.

[@bananasplit25332]

Freqenswees

[@scrolldier]

Bruh, you all look the same too! 😅

[@TrewDrums]

😆