A common joke that seems to pervade forums and social channels is that mixers spend hours perfecting the perfect snare, sometimes working long into the night. True or not, often there’s a search for the holy grail snare. One decade that seemed to offer unforgettable snare sounds was the 80s, here are our 5 snares that defined the 1980s, and more latterly, shaped modern pop music production.
The Linn Snare
Heard on everything from Prince, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, to classics like Don Henley’s Boys of Summer, the Linn Drum owned the music production landscape in the 1980s.
Several iterations appeared, but up until the Linn Drum, most drum sounds made by drum machines were woeful, or not exactly realistic. The Linn Drum offered real drum sounds and programming, which meant it made its way onto tons of tracks in the 80s.
With the advent of me-too sample drum machines, samplers and in more modern times the ability to use samples in DAWs, the need for something like the Linn Drum is less likely. However, as one of the first ‘sounds like a real drummer’ devices to appear on the market and it’s ubiquity in 80s music production, it deserves a place on this list.
The 808 Snare
Way, way, way, back, before many people using the 808 were a twinkle in their Dad’s eye, or even their Dad was a twinkle in his Dad’s eye, Roland introduced the 808 drum machine, around 1980 to be exact. It was meant to be a competitor to the Linn Drum, although at the time one reviewer described the 808 as sounding like “marching ants.”
The most shocking thing about the 808 was that it was a commercial failure, with Roland only selling around 12,000 units, it was discountinued in 1983. Those reading this now will be shocked at these facts, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Now an 808 goes for several thousand dollars, even though we were trying to give them away in the 1980s.
Fast forward to 2022 and there’s hardly a pop artist on the planet who hasn’t used an 808 snare at some point in their recordings. Notable mainstream pop tracks include Beat It by Michael Jackson, I Want To Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston, One More Night by Phil Collins, and of course, Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye. Expand out and you’ll find countless Hip Hop and R&B tracks using the 808 snare. This is one machine that went from failure to legend, however most people using the sound have never, or will never, own the real thing.
The 909 Snare
In much of the same ilk as it’s forerunner, the Roland TR909 was the follow up to the TR808, and not having learnt any lessons, was another commmercial failure, selling around 10,000 units. It was said to be because people preferred the realism of the Linn Drum.
Some huge hits were made with the 909, including Soul 2 Soul’s Back to Life, Good Life by Inner City, Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic, and Vogue by Madonna.
Just like the 808, the 909 also benefitted from a huge dose of vintage gear nostalgia. 909 samples are likely to be sitting on the hard drive of every music maker on the planet.
Russ’ most heartbreaking gear story is that in the late 1980s he sold a boxed mint condition TR909 for £50! They now sell for over £5000.
The Gated Snare
A sound that in many ways needs no introduction and for many of us who were there at the beginning of the Gated Snare sound, it was, a seminal moment.
First discovered, not as some may think on a Phil Colllins track, but during the recording of Peter Gabriel’s third album. This ‘happy accident’ of a snare was created at the Townhouse Studio when Hugh Padgham, the engineer on the session, left a talkback mic open and heard what we now call, the gated drum sound.
Soon after AMS released a reverb unit, the RMX16, this included a preset called ‘Non Lin 2’ that emulated the gated sound. It wasn’t long, before the sound was appearing all over tracks in the charts, these included; Some Like It Hot by the Power Station, Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer, Let’s Dance by David Bowie, and of course Intruder by Peter Gabriel.
It wasn’t long before almost every digital reverb included gated reverb patches. The rest, as they say, is history. The gated snare is still used in music productions and deserves a place in this list.
The Explosion Snare
We discussed the name of this snare on the team and settled with the explosion snare, however it’s perhaps better heard than described. The snare sound was heard on everything from ballads to MOR and soft rock. It would be easy to think that this was the result of the influx of Lexicon reverbs in the 1980s, however, as far back as 1968 you can hear what some may regard as an over-the-top snare on The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel. This is what the producer of the track says is the origin of that sound, according to Wikipedia;
“The song has only one drumbeat, and played during the 'lie-la-lie' refrain. The session drummer Hal Blaine created the heavily reverberated drum sound with the help of producer Roy Halee, who found a spot for the drums in front of an elevator in the Columbia offices. The recording of the drum was recorded as the song was being played live by the musicians. Blaine would pound the drums at the end of the "Lie la lie" vocals that were playing in his headphones, and at one point, an elderly security guard got a big surprise when he came out of the elevator and was startled by Blaine's thunderous drums.
Hal Blaine recounted the recording process, "There we were with all these mic cables, my drums, and a set of headphones," says Blaine. "When the chorus came around — the 'lie-la-lie' bit — Roy had me come down on my snare drum as hard as I could. In that hallway, by the elevator shaft, it sounded like a cannon shot! Which was just the kind of sound we were after."
Fast forward to the 80s and the advent of digital reverbs and suddenly tracks were flooded with huge explosion snares, for example; I Have Nothing by Whitney Houston, Here I Go Again by Whitesnake, and If You Love Somebody Set Them Free by Sting.
In many ways, the sound is created by flooding the snare with tons of reverb, often a chamber or a hall, and in some cases with significant amounts of pre-delay. The aim is to create a massive snare sound.
Bottom line, these snare sounds are so huge and in some ways, over the top, but they just work.
Summary
Well there we are, 5 snare sounds that have shaped modern pop music. Any list is bound to have missed something, if you are reading this and shouting at the screen saying “how could they miss this?” Let us know in the comments below.