Big snare drums and recording

This past weekend, I was bound and determined to record using a Vinnie Paul signature series snare drum.

There's a good reason why most "studio" snare drums are less than 4 inches deep. The Vinnie Paul snare is a full 8 inches deep (read: a man's drum) and is the deepest commercially available snare drum (excluding marching snare drums) from a major manufacturer. Being a fan of big, loud and redneck and, given the fact the deep snare drums are currently out of style, I had to have this drum when I saw it.

I've used this thing live several time and I love it: Its loud, its big, its deep, its redneck and it wants to be hit very hard. If those are the minimum qualifications for any respectable snare drum, then we have problems.

Turns out to be a bitch when you're dealing with that kind of depth for recording, though. The mics pick up crazy overtones that are extremely difficult to get rid of and the the tone that is created due to the depth is also very evident through the mics. Since it would be pointless to use a drum that deep and crank the tension up on the head (and I tend to think high pitch drums are cheesy), you get a "slap back" effect when the top head responds back to the bottom head. At this point, air has traveled 16 inches down and back up and is rather "late to the game" for recording purposes.

On two occasions, I had to pull the heads completely off and start over with the tuning process. Never having been a fan of muffling drums, I was dismayed to put 4 long strips of Duct tape AND a Remo damping ring to make the drum manageable for recording.

I'll post up the result when they are available. In the meantime, I don't think any other snare drums will be engaging in a cock fight with this one.... it even has spurs!