I liked the Yamaha and the DW the most. It's interesting that after the snares were revealed, the guys suddenly had clear opinions about each snare.

I get the sense that snare drums are a lot like sneakers. Some are only manufactured for a short period of time, and while they work great, they end up as collector's items. Others, equally good, don't end up that way, and are affordable for regular people. Even $500 for a snare is too much for my pocketbook.

It wasnt discussed much here, but the serviceability and functionality of a drum is a real important part of the value. Cheap drums are often really hard to deal with...poor lugs, flimsy t-rods, thin hoops, cheap heads, poor snare wires...which all make it hard to work with. Quality drums tune very easily and are not a fight. That is what makes them worth the money.

the snare test proves people are about names prestige putting more importance on money over common sense..This goes for most things people buy..

The most expensive snare I’ve bought is my Ludwig Supraphonic LM402-$750. It’s my main snare. I have lesser priced snares and they all sound great to me and through a PA. Some are fine as is and some I’ve made upgrades to sound great. Usually if you change the heads and/or the snare wires, almost any snare will sound great. Here’s my current list… DW “black beauty” COB- $300. Changed batter head. Gretsch Taylor Hawkins- $250. Changed snare wires. Mapex Copper Cat- $400. Great as is. Gretsch Catalina Club- $125. Changed both heads and snare wires. All these snares sound great and play well. Spending $1000 or more is ridiculous.

should do this again but blind folded so they can feel and hear in prime position

The biggest thing I think they missed on the steel snares is the articulation on the roll - the more expensive the drum the clearer it sounded

The Shells These dass are mostly well produced. So a big difference comes mostly through the absence of a even bearing edge, snare bed, good hoopes.

For me I struggled with the cheap/mid cost drums as mid ones seemed to sound worse while I was able to guess the expensive ones because they sounded the best to me.

0:06 yes, that one!

You guys should do a blind play test!! Blindfold the drummer and switch out the snare.

I've always felt you pay for feel and tunability. Being both how easy a drum is to tune and how wide of a tuning range it is. You can make any drum that is round and edges in decent shape sound good imo (especially in a mic'd up and EQ'd situation).

Tbh, with good heads and snares, and the right dimensions you can make any snare sound great Personally i have a harder time getting cheap toms to sound good

I LOVE my Zikit system!!!… I put it in a PDP concept maple, and it’s hands down my most versatile snare.

Confirmation bias is crazy! It's interesting that once you know the brand and model, listen for the qualities you expect from them instead of just listening to them. The one that withstood the confirmation bias for me was the DW design vs Gretsch. I always expect a warmth and "sturdiness" from Gretsch stuff, and expected DW design to sound "good enough". But even after the reveal, I still preferred the DW. Big props to DW for guarding the quality of their drums at every price range.

They’re talking themselves into believing they could discern a real difference. There’s very little some moon gel and a few minutes fiddling couldn’t tune out to make them identical.

I am not watching an hour of this to see which one of this is the best drum. I will figure it out myself.

I have several snares that I have collected and I tend to like them in different settings. One of them is a mapex that is kind of cheap and won’t hold a tune but it sounds great in a small room. I would say generally drummers have multiple snares for the purpose of what it does for their playing.

Tuning and proper damping would have made a huge difference. I don’t think any of those drums are that good?

Not for nothing, but I'm glad you guys are not sponsored by anyone in particular.. it allows for an honest review.

Good Heads, Good Tuning and a cheap Snaredrum can sound pretty good.

This is a great segment I had them correct but found myself nervous I was wrong. It is crazy how the difference is not as drastic as the price range.

ITS BACK ONLINE!!!!!!!!!!

Hey great video! Maybe next time we can get the sizes of the drums as well. Thanks!

I would love to see some focus on cheaper and even lesser known drum brands that offer great quality at a reasonable price.

What is funny is that just listening through my tv I liked the sound of the Yamaha the best in the first set. It was a little dry without the overtones as the others. I guess you'd rather have the overtones when you need them and tame them when you don't than not have the option to begin with.

Jared wouldn't have missed the opportunity at 34:10

The best comment is the audience will not know the difference or care. A few beers makes every drum sound good. Finally, it isn't the drum, it's the drummer. Skill trumps quality.

This channel has turned into a sitcom...way to go Oprah

I'm surprised no one has said, as in the guitar world, "the tone is in your hands" 😀.

This was a great episode!

I thought the chad smith had the more muffled sound lol. When they took the snares off the 3rd one sounded closer to the Yamaha anyway. That ping sound is what I was listening to lol.

@Drumeo yup, Juninho Martins (Vamper Instrumentos) and those kids are Brazilian. Vamper is a Rio-based company which makes those practice kits and pads.

You can tell if something sounds good. What happens at times is cheaper drums sometimes don’t tune as well or hardware doesn’t hold up as long if it’s not done right. Some snare beds or the edges are not smooth. But in expensive doesn’t always mean cheap or cheaply made. I have some great in expensive snares that I have used or set up in different churches. The pearl sensitone aluminum for 300 or steal for less than 250, man they are good, but also wood snares that are done right like design series and even some pdp to be honest they sound great, some tama slp or Ludwig’s less expensive line

I'm thinking of getting a $200 Ludwig acrolite. Just because it's cheap and sounds really good. Or the supraphonic 402. For around $600. Well worth it for an iconic badass sounding snare. A keeper.

always thought it. cheap drums are just as good as expensive. ill never pay more than 200 euro for a drumkit

I understand the idea that some snare sounds may be easier for sound guys to work with but that shouldn't be the bar for snare sounds because the snare sound defines a big part of the feel and sound of a track and just going with what's easy and "standard" doesn't promote creativity and unique styles. For example the famous snare sounds used on songs like Billy Jean by Michael Jackson. That's not a "standard sound"

K-Rad know what he's doing at @50:55 :)

The First is cheapest Second is most expensive Third is medium priced Wow, so the first was the mid priced snare, the second was the cheapest & the 3rd the most expensive. That Yamaha sounds the best of all 3 & it's the cheapest.

I got everything completely wrong, but I wonder if I'd had a slightly better chance if it was just coming through a camera mic or room mic?

I got the metal ones right. The Yamaha stood out at once as the cheapest. But I mixed up the DW and Gretsch, I just like the DW more. But still, the cheapest snare was easy to pinpoint.

There is a Yamaha aluminum snare that's an inexpensive snare that sounds pretty good as well surprisingly enough

I easily got the wood snares, but the metal ones, I only got the Dunnet

The problem here from an objective point of view is that none of the snare drums were tuned or sorry to say played well. I earlier watched a video from Drum Center of Portsmouth titled “The best beginner snare drums”. Every one of those drums sounded superior to any here simply because they were tuned and played well.

You hit the snare, your ears are 2 something feet away from the drum. You have a sound. You have a Sm57, an inch away from the head. You hear stuff coming off the speaker or headphones. Those are two different sound sources. The sound guy is thinking, how the sm57 blends with the overheads and hi hat mic.

#1 the Gretch metal is a 10 lug & it is not with the same Remo batter heads as #2 & #3 ! I would like to hear all with same batter, snares ... but #1 has over all tonal ring . maybe with a Remo trimring layed on top it will sound as beefy as #2 &#3?

Only reason i have more than 1 snare is because of sizes difference

I'm pretty sure I watched this video a couple days ago and then it was posted again today - but maybe I'm going crazy! Anyway, I love the Chad Smith snare! I was lucky enough to win one at his clinic back in the late '90s/early 2000s. Thanks, Chad!

I got the 1st round right without seeing the drums first two play-throughs. Give me a cookie. No. 1 I thought sounded like Dani California oddly enough. No. 2 sounds so cheap. Like my high school snare that my math teacher didn’t care that I took home for 2 days. No. 3 sounds like… beautiful. When he dampened it, I thought the Chad Smith snare sounded the best.

Surprisingly I got all of them right...can I get a job at drumeo please? ;)

funny, i thought the cs sounded the cheapest even w 10 lugs. i was right about the 3rd tho.

the chad smith sounds phenomenal

Lmao, that was great and i love the yamaha metal one the most, shows you how misleading everything can be! I admit i noticed it sounded more inconsistent? still liked the sound tho. The wood batch sound all nice, but dw i liked more in the end, suprising.

I got the wood snares correct, but the metal ones i chose the same as the 2 who chose the same.

Wish you guys would have had a noble and Cooley steam-bent solid shell you should hear the way they sound they're pretty nice

About the snares, unless you're a drum tech for Dave Grohl, it doesn't matter. I was making this comment as you guys mentioned the snare pad I saw Buddy Guy throw his wallet on it in an old video lol.

If they did a buzz roll or do more playing that first time lol

I got the wood one’s perfect, but was off on the metal ones

Re: The Drum Wallet - could you use them on toms? (Pocket = racks / wallet = FT)

How's this Kit working out so far? Ive been looking at this on Amazon. Just haven't pulled the trigger.

Need this before i go to the UK Drum show...keep my wallet still heavy xD

Wonderful video!

Thats a preference thing on the sponginess, todd suckermann has almost no tension on his live kit. His tech was surprised that he tunes it that way. He also uses ambassadors on everything

Professional level- snare drums are the most expensive when it comes to snares drum .

i would say 2nd or 3rd

I knew the third was $$$$$.

Enough talking already!! 10:39 The guesses!! 15:03 The answers!! 16:58

Lmao unthought the dunnett sounded the worst

i put my phone or wallet on my snare..for me it seem to calm it down a bit..

Good stuff

It was the middle one

To be fair, the heads should have been the same for each category..

Honestly couldn’t or didn’t want to spend and hour on this. 3 minute video max.

A drum is ONLY worth what someone is WILLING to pay for it…

My question is.... What is a good drum sound???

I guess it makes sense to use the snares heads but I would have preferred to see all drums using the same brand of head to even out of the tone. This wasn't easy but it was easy to guess the worst wasn't the best. I super good on knowing I didn't think the chad smith drum was the best; good to know my blind ears are still as good as I think they are, thank goodness I didn't think his drum sounded good. Turns out I have no experience owning expensive drums therefore I don't care to hear them I suppose. Also the middle weight drums always come around and being that they almost sound identical to the expensive drums (maybe not in room) I'm good on owning the middle priced drums. I agree that owning one good snare is better then owning three. Also, guy, you need to lose the aluminum snare fetch really.

The price cannot make a drum mix with the other instruments in a mix , match the sound of the drum with how in needs to sound in the mix and that has nothing to do with price,does the mix need tin can ,plastic bucket , rubber bucket,or hollow log sound , that’s all that matters

The genius of Tre cool please🙏

40:29 I'm air drumming now. And surprisingly, my hands have suffered some damage, air drum Hard on your hands. cause slap your Palm, your hand your stitches well. I made a 28 g drum stick for air drumming super fast. No hand damage air drummers. Sorry man, I hope I never have to set my drum. Set up again done it too many times I took to air drum like a fish out of water.#aerodrums

I think 1 sounds the best on test 1. Not even half way through the vid and i don't know if i have shit taste or not lol.

It looks as if you were trying to fix the result, 2 of you believed that the cheapest was the most expensive and that is the result and that's it

What's the point of having "tight transitions" if you then slow the show down to talk about the transition every time lol

the mapex sounded better 2 me, then 1, then 2..

wont give away my sjc snare..

I called it

I like the wood drums better.

Cheapest sounds like #2

I knew the Yamaha was 2. Sounded horrible. Probably tuning.

Being serious, i guess those two never seen many comparisons on head to head on youtube, because you can easily tell the "weirdness" on the harmonics, if all of them were heavily dampened would be hard to tell. No lying i have got the correct answers, but we do have to say that the "playing", tunning and head quality says a lot. And yes, we drummers can be too "picky" on equipment and the general audience doesnt give a crap for those specific stuff. A bad drummer can make a good snare sound bad and can make a bad drum sound good. i would love to see Benny Grebb playing a shitty kit (just an example).

I am not a drummer, not even a musician, but my husband is a drummer. Got better results than you. Got all brass right, knew right away what was the cheap wood one.

Better hardware higher price. Sound has nothing with the price only with a drummer!

THAT YAMAHA SNARE IN 1O LUGS WOULD EMBARRASS THAT DUMBNNETT SNARE IT'S THAT GREAT MID LATE 8O'S & 9O'S THOSE BEING MADE IN JAPAN WERE AT THEIR BEST QUALITY THEY MADE BACK THEN

I appreciate you guys, but 60 minutes is WAY too long for this subject. I dunno, maybe is a generational thing.

Drumeo has a drum department? Makes no sense. 🙄

4th

second xd

First

Meow