I’ve tried several different configurations for my snare batter head.
- A triple ply mesh head (Unlock lightning brand)
- A real snare head with an Rtom black hole over it
- An Aquarian super pad
- A db one snare head (with the Mylar ribbons on the underside)
- An Rtom low volume mesh head, by itself or with some fabric under it to try to improve the snare wire sound
I wasn’t able to get good triggering results with any of these. I really want a low volume snare, so I haven’t tried an Evans db zero. That would just be too quiet for me. The Rtom LV head is similar though, just thicker mesh. In fact that’s what I had landed on until today.
Today, my sabian quiet tone practice pad arrived. I placed one pickup element on it and tested. Just like all the other low volume options I’ve tried, I was getting a lot of wrong zone mistriggers. I tried retraining a couple of times, but didn’t see any improvement. I’d seen a previous post from someone on here implying they’d improved things by adding a 2nd pickup element, so I tried that and guess what? It did help. I imagine it would have helped in any of the other snare head configurations I tried, but I’m going to stick with the sabian quiet tone because it feels the most like a normal snare batter head. The db one probably sounded the closest.
Anyway, thought I’d share. The snare triggering isn’t perfect, but mistriggers are a lot more rare now with 2 elements. The zones I have trained are center, edge, rim tip, rimshot-center, and cross-stick. Oh and I’m using midi to control Superior Drummer 3 only for now. I don’t use any SP2 kits or sounds. I don’t think that matters though. If it improves midi triggering, I’m sure it improves SP2 triggering too.