Put an Evans HD Dry on the snare because I wanted my drum to stop singing opera and start delivering deadpan one-liners. It worked… mostly. Now I’m spiraling down a rabbit hole I didn’t know existed, and I’m hoping the hive mind has either answers or a good intervention plan.
Here’s the weird, possibly valuable stuff I’m wondering about that goes beyond “it’s dry, bro”:
Do the vent holes actually change the air-spring inside the shell enough to affect snare-wire sensitivity at super-soft dynamics? Ghost notes feel slightly… delayed? Is that a real thing or just my brain compensating for fewer overtones?
If the vents act like a distributed resistive port, can we “tune the dryness” by partially covering holes with tape in quadrants? Anyone tried an adjustable ring of gaffer that you can rotate to move from “1970s pillow” to “modern studio tight” without re-tensioning?
Alignment party: rotating the HD Dry so a cluster of vents lines up with the shell vent-does that measurably change transient feel, snare buzz, or mic bleed from the hi-hat? Bonus points if someone has spectrum plots or at least a smug anecdote.
Brush players: do the little holes snag bristles over time or change the feel of long sweeps? I’m getting a slightly sandier scrape than other coated heads. Placebo? Coating formula? Tiny gremlins?
Cross-stick tone on die-cast vs. triple-flanged with this head: does the internal control ring and venting shift the click into “two-by-four on a countertop” territory, or can you still get a woody note without moon gels multiplying like tribbles?
Bottom-head pairing: with the top head choking itself (politely), does a thinner snare-side (Hazy 200/250) bring back wire sensitivity better than a 300? Or is it smarter to go the other way (300-500) and rely on the bottom to keep decay civilized?
Wire choice: 20-strand vs 42-strand with HD Dry-does more steel just fight the head’s built-in dampening, or is the extra sizzle exactly what offsets the top’s dryness?
Live vs recording: does the shorter decay actually let you run less gate on the top mic-and then turn up the bottom mic without the mix turning into the Sizzle Channel? Or do you just end up adding back the ring you spent good money to remove?
Humidity and edge stress: any long-term flaking or micro-tears around the vent holes? I’ve seen one head develop a little halo cracking near the vent line after a summer of sweaty gigs, and now I’m staring at every hole like it owes me money.
Wild idea: stick a tiny boundary or lav mic near the shell vent and use the HD Dry to tame top-head ring, then blend the “air puff” transient for extra punch. Anyone tried this or am I inventing a new way to annoy sound engineers?
If anyone has A/B clips of:
1) HD Dry with vents open vs half taped,
2) same drum/hoops with HD Dry vs a standard 2-ply (G2/Emperor),
3) different snare-side thickness with the same top head,
throw them in. I promise to pretend I can hear a 0.5 dB difference like the rest of us.
Yes, I could just use a strip of moongel like a normal person. But where’s the sport in that if I can overthink airflow on a drum like it’s a wind tunnel test for a snare Ferrari?