Patent Grant
8933311
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a snare drum with reducing sound volume.
2. Description of the Related Art
Acoustic drums are musical instruments which generate loud sound. Depending on the venue where the acoustic drums are played, therefore, the sound volume of the acoustic drums are too loud. In some cases, furthermore, acoustic drums are adjusted to reduce the sound volume of the acoustic drums due to significant differences in sound volume between the other musical instruments. Conventionally, therefore, a head member of a surface where a player strikes are replaced with a mesh head, or a rubber pad is provided on a head member to reduce sound volume. An example of such conventional drums is a drum whose head member has a multiplicity of through-holes to reduce sound volume (for example, see Japanese Patent Publication No. 3835084).
This drum has a hollow cylindrical shell and a sheet-type head member provided on an upper opening of the shell. The sheet-type head member is equipped with a punched sheet having a multiplicity of through-holes. The drum having the head member produces smaller bounce at a strike on the head member than a drum having a mesh head member. Therefore, the conventional drum having the sheet-type head member is capable of reducing sound volume, resembling the feeling of striking a normal acoustic drum.
In a case where the head member having the multiplicity of through-holes and applied to the conventional drum is used as a batter head of a snare drum, however, it is hard to convey air and sound pressure to a snare side head and a snare wire even though the batter head is displaced and vibrated by strikes on the batter head with sticks. Therefore, the conventional snare drum can hardly generate sound peculiar to snare drum which should be brought about by the snare side head and the snare wire. Due to the multiplicity of through-holes provided on the batter head, furthermore, the vibrations of the batter head quickly decay, so that the air traveled to the snare side head and the snare wire will not persist to fail to realize natural sustain which should be realized by a snare drum.
Furthermore, behaviors of the batter head in response to a strike on the batter head with a stick vary depending on whether or not the batter head has through-holes. Due to the multiplicity of through-holes provided on the batter head, therefore, the conventional snare drum having the through-holes provides a player with feeling and touch which are different from the feeling and touch provided by normal snare drums. Therefore, the snare drum having the batter head of the head member having the multiplicity of through-holes is disadvantageous in that the snare drum can be used for practice, but cannot be used for actual music performance. Furthermore, the snare drum is also disadvantageous in that the multiplicity of through-holes provided on the batter head which will be struck significantly degrade durability of the batter head.
The present invention was accomplished to solve the above-described problems, and an object thereof is to provide a snare drum which can maintain timbres and feeling which should be provided by snare drums and can also reduce sound volume. As for descriptions for respective constituents of the present invention described below, numbers corresponding to components of a later-described embodiment are given in parenthesis for easy understanding. However, the respective constituents of the present invention are not limited to the corresponding components indicated by the numbers of the embodiment.
In order to achieve the above-described object, it is a feature of the present invention to provide a snare drum including a hollow cylindrical shell (11); a batter head (12) mounted on one end of the hollow cylindrical shell; a snare side head (13, 23, 33, 43, 53) mounted on the other end of the hollow cylindrical shell, the snare side head having a plurality of through-holes (13c, 23c, 33c, 43c, 43d, 53c); and a snare wire (14) adapted to vibrate on the snare side head. In this case, for example, the batter head is a surface which is to be struck and the snare wire moves toward and away from the snare side head. The batter head may have no through-holes. Furthermore, the through-holes may be arranged in a triangular lattice pattern.
The snare drum according to the present invention has the through-holes on the snare side head. In response to a strike on the batter head, therefore, the batter head behaves similarly to the batter head of a conventional snare drum to keep vibrating, while the snare side head and the snare wire vibrate with reduced amplitude but keep vibrating. Therefore, the snare drum according to the present invention can provide natural timbre and sustain of snare drum produced by a collision of the snare wire with the snare side head.
Furthermore, because the batter head is similar to a conventional batter head, the feeling and touch of striking the batter head are similar to the feeling and touch of striking a normal snare drum. In addition, because a conventional snare drum can be used only by replacing a snare side head with the snare side head of the invention, the tension of the batter head, the tension of the snare side head and the tension of the snare wire can be tuned in the same way as the conventional snare drum. As described above, the snare drum according to the present invention can reduce only the sound volume, maintaining natural timbre and sustain of sound of snare drum. Furthermore, the durability of the batter head will not be decreased.
It is another feature of the snare drum according to the present invention that the through-holes (13c, 33c, 43c, 43d, 53c) are provided only on an area of the snare side head (13, 33, 43, 53) which does not face the snare wire. In this case, for example, the area provided with the through-holes is an area of the snare side head which excludes an area facing the snare wire and extending in a radial direction through a midpoint of the snare side head to have a width approximately equal to a width of the snare wire. According to the snare drum having the feature, the durability of the area having no through-holes is equivalent to the durability of a conventional snare side head.
It is still another feature of the snare drum according to the present invention that the through-holes (23c) include a first group of through-holes provided on an area of the snare side head which faces the snare wire and a second group of through-holes provided on an area of the snare side head which does not face the snare wire, wherein a density of the first group of through-holes is different from a density of the second group of through-holes. In this case, for example, the area provided with the first group of through-holes is an area of the snare side head which faces the snare wire and extends in a radial direction through a midpoint of the snare side head to have a width approximately equal to a width of the snare wire. The area provided with the second group of through-holes is an area of the snare side head which excludes the area provided with the first group of through-holes. The density of the first group of through-holes may be less than the density of the second group of through-holes. Therefore, the snare drum having the feature can vary the advantageous effect of reducing sound volume and the advantageous effect on durability as desired.
It is a further feature of the snare drum according to the present invention that the through-holes (23c) include a first group of through-holes provided on an area of the snare side head which faces the snare wire and a second group of through-holes provided on an area of the snare side head which does not face the snare wire, wherein a diameter of the first group of through-holes is different from a diameter of the second group of through-holes. In this case, for example, the area provided with the first group of through-holes is also an area of the snare side head which faces the snare wire and extends in a radial direction through a midpoint of the snare side head to have a width approximately equal to a width of the snare wire. The area provided with the second group of through-holes is also an area of the snare side head which excludes the area provided with the first group of through-holes. The diameter of the first group of through-holes is less than the diameter of the second group of through-holes. Therefore, the snare drum having the feature can also vary the advantageous effect of reducing sound volume and the advantageous effect on durability as desired.
It is a still further feature of the snare drum according to the present invention that the through-holes (43c, 43d, 53c) are provided on a center area and an outer area of the snare side head (43, 53), wherein a density of through-holes provided on the center area is different from a density of through-holes provided on the outer area. The snare drum having the feature can vary the timing when sound generated by the snare drum decay, and can vary the degree of reduction in amplitude of the sound. Therefore, the present invention can realize the snare drum which generates desired timbre.
It is another feature of the snare drum according to the present invention that the through-holes (43c, 43d) are provided on a center area and an outer area of the snare side head (43), wherein a diameter of through-holes provided on the center area is different from a diameter of through-holes provided on the outer area. The snare drum having the feature can also vary the decay and the amplitude of sound generated by the snare drum. Therefore, the present invention can realize the snare drum which generates sound of desired decay and amplitude.
In the present invention, it is preferable that the diameter of the through-holes is 0.5 to 5 mm while the through-hole rate of the through-holes with respect to the snare side head is 0.5 to 6%. According to the present invention configured as above, a common snare drum such as a snare drum having a diameter of 13 inches or 14 inches can be a favorable snare drum which generates natural timbre of snare drum. Furthermore, the through-hole rate of the through-holes with respect to the snare side head indicates the total area of all the through-holes with respect to the area of a shell opening on which the snare side head is mounted. Furthermore, by providing various snare side heads of different diameters and different through-hole rates of the through-holes, a player can choose a snare drum of desired sound volume and desired timbre to realize desired performance.
Hereafter, a snare drum according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The shell 11 is made of wood (birch) and has functions of efficiently conveying internal air downward when vibrations occur and of reverberating the vibrations inside the shell 11. The batter head 12 is formed of a circular head portion 12a made of a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) film and a flesh hoop 12b which is a metal ring. The head portion 12a has a thickness of 250 μm, and has a slightly larger diameter than the diameter of the upper opening of the shell 11. The head portion 12a is kept circular by connecting the outer edge of the head portion 12a with the flesh hoop 12b, while the head portion 12a is stretched over the upper opening of the shell 11 by lugs 15 and an upper stretching portion 16 to form a surface on which a player strikes. The internal diameter of the flesh hoop 12b is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the shell 11, so that when the upper portion of the shell 11 is placed within the flesh hoop 12b, the outer edge of the head portion 12a is pressed against the opening edge of the shell 11.
The lugs 15 are vertically long members whose vertical length is approximately ½ of the vertical length of the shell 11, and are fixed at the center in the vertical direction of the outer peripheral surface of the shell 11. The lugs 15 are provided around the shell 11 at regular intervals. Each lug 15 is integrally formed of vertically symmetrical upper lug portion 15a and lower lug portion 15b. Furthermore, a screw hole is internally provided downward from the top side of each upper lug portion 15a, while a screw hole is internally provided upward from the bottom side of each lower lug portion 15b.
The upper stretching portion 16 is formed of a hoop 16a and tuning bolts 16b. The hoop 16a is shaped like a stepwise ring whose diameter is larger in a lower portion of the hoop 16a than in an upper portion. More specifically, the hoop 16a is designed such that the outer peripheral surface and the top surface of the flesh hoop 12b are covered with the lower portion of the hoop 16a, and the internal diameter of the upper portion is approximately the same as the internal diameter of the flesh hoop 12b. At an outer peripheral portion of the larger lower portion of the hoop 16a, engaging projections 16c each having a bolt-inserting hole is provided, so that as many engaging projections 16c as the lugs 15 are provided around the hoop 16a at regular intervals. Each tuning bolt 16b is formed of a thread portion which can be inserted into the bolt-inserting hole of the engaging projection 16c and can be engaged in the screw hole of the upper lug portion 15a, and a head portion whose diameter is larger than the diameter of the bolt-inserting hole of the engaging projection 16c so that the head portion cannot be inserted in the bolt-inserting hole of the engaging projection 16c. Therefore, the snare drum is provided with as many tuning bolts 16b as the lugs 15.
Therefore, the batter head 12 is fixed to the shell 11 by mounting the batter head 12 on the top of the shell 11 so that in a state where the engaging projections 16c face the lugs 15, respectively, the hoop 16a will be placed above the flesh hoop 12b to insert the thread portions of the respective tuning bolts 16b into the bolt-inserting holes of the engaging projections 16c to engage the thread portions in the screw holes of the upper lug portions 15a. By adjusting the tightness of the tuning bolts 16b, the tension of the batter head 12 can be adjusted. In this case, the upper portion of the hoop 16a protrudes above the head portion 12a of the batter head 12 so that a player can hit the upper portion of the hoop 16a with a shoulder portion of a stick S (see
The snare side head 13 is formed of a circular head portion 13a made of a PET film and a flesh hoop 13b which is a metal ring. The head portion 13a has a thickness of 75 μm, and has a slightly larger diameter than the diameter of the lower opening of the shell 11. On the head portion 13a, a plurality of circular through-holes 13c measuring 3 mm in diameter are provided, avoiding a belt-like area (an area hidden by the snare wire 14 in
Similarly to the batter head 12, the snare side head 13 is kept circular by connecting the outer edge of the snare side head 13 with the flesh hoop 13b, while the snare side head 13 is attached to the lower opening of the shell 11 by the lower lug portions 15b of the lugs 15 and a lower stretching portion 17. The lower stretching portion 17 is formed of a hoop 17a and tuning bolts 17b. The hoop 17a is designed such that the hoop 16a is arranged upside down while through-holes into which bolts will be inserted, respectively, are provided at counterparts of the upper edge of the hoop 17a. The tuning bolts 17b are configured similarly to the tuning bolts 16b, so that there are as many tuning bolts 17b as the tuning bolts 16b.
By use of the lower lug portions 15b and the lower stretching potion 17, the snare side head 13 is fixed to the lower portion of the shell 11 similarly to the above-described batter head 12. In this case as well, the thread portions of the respective tuning bolts 17b are inserted into the bolt-inserting holes of engaging projections 17c provided on the hoop 17a to engage the thread portions in the screw holes of the lower lug portions 15b. By adjusting the tightness of the tuning bolts 17b, the tension of the snare side head 13 can be adjusted.
The snare wire 14 is coiled snare wires formed by connecting both ends of a plurality of metal coils 14a to a pair of metal snare plates 14b. When the pair of snare plates 14b are pulled each other so that the snare plates 14b are away from each other, the coils 14a extend. When the pair of snare plates 14b are released, the coils 14a shrink to return to the original state. The snare wire 14 is mounted on the shell 11 by a pair of belt-like snare chords 14c, a fixed strainer 18 and a movable strainer 19. One end of each snare chord 14c can be detached/attached from/to its corresponding snare plate 14b. The fixed strainer 18 is fixed between two of the lugs 15 provided on the outer peripheral surface of the shell 11 so that the other end of one of the snare chords 14c will be fixed to the fixed strainer 18.
The movable strainer 19 is placed on a position of the outer peripheral surface of the shell 11 so that the position will be opposite to the position where the fixed strainer 18 is placed. The movable strainer 19 is formed of a supporting portion 19a, a snare holding plate 19b, a lever 19c and the like which are fixed to the outer peripheral surface of the shell 11. The snare holding plate 19b sandwiches and holds the other end (the upper edge of the snare chord 14c situated on the right in
For attaching the snare side head 13 to the lower portion (opening) of the shell 11, the user places the snare side head 13 so that the ends of the belt-like portion where there are no through-holes 13c on the head portion 13a will be aligned with the respective positions of the fixed strainer 18 and the movable strainer 19. The snare side head 13 should be attached to the shell 11 before the hoop 17a will be attached to the shell 11. For attaching the hoop 17a to the shell 11, a pair of through-holes provided on the hoop 17a will be aligned on the positions of the fixed strainer 18 and the movable strainer 19, respectively. Then, the snare wire 14 will be attached. More specifically, the snare wire 14 will be attached to the shell 11 so that the snare chords 14c passes through the pair of through-holes provided on the hoop 17a to be attached to the fixed strainer 18 and the movable strainer 19.
Compared with conventional snare drums having no through-holes 13c, the snare drum 10 configured as above can decrease sound volume generated by player's performance. Mechanisms of sound generation on the snare drum 10 and a conventional snare drum, and effects of decreasing sound volume will be explained with reference to
In response to a player's strike on the batter head 12 of the snare drum 10A and the snare drum 10 with the stick S, the batter head 12 is displaced and vibrates. As indicated by a heavy arrow in
By the collision, vibration components including high frequencies are excited on the snare side heads 13A and 13 to produce timbre peculiar to snare drum. After the collision, the snare wire 14 is displaced downward again, and is then displaced upward to collide against the snare side heads 13A and 13. Then, the snare wire 14 repeats the collision against the snare side heads 13A and 13. The snare drums 10A and 10 are able to generate struck sound including high frequencies peculiar to snare drum by the interaction between the snare wire 14 and the snare side heads 13A and 13.
The sound volume is largely affected by the largest displacements of the snare side head 13A, 13 and the snare wire 14. In the case of the snare drum 10A, as indicated in
In the case of the snare drum 10, as indicated in
Because of this phenomenon, the largest amplitude “a” of the snare side head 13 is reduced, compared to the largest amplitude “a” of the snare side head 13A. The reduced amplitude “a” results in decrease in the force by which the snare wire 14 of the snare drum 10 is pushed down. As a result, the largest displacement “b” of the snare wire 14 of the snare drum 10 is also smaller than the largest displacement “b” of the snare wire 14 of the snare drum 10A.
As described above, because the through-holes 13c are provided on the snare side head 13 of the snare drum 10, the largest amplitude “a” of the snare side head 13 of the snare drum 10 and the largest displacement “b” of the snare wire 14 of the snare drum 10 are smaller than the largest amplitude “a” of the snare side head 13A and the largest displacement “b” of the snare wire 14 of the snare drum 10A. Because of the reduced largest amplitude “a” and largest displacement “b”, therefore, the sound volume of the snare drum 10 is reduced. Furthermore, the timbre of the snare drum 10 is determined according to the vibration of the batter head 12, the vibration of the snare side head 13 and the sound generated by the collision of the snare wire 14 against the snare side head 13. By decreasing the vibration of the snare side head 13 and the sound pressure level of the sound generated by the collision of the snare wire 14 against the snare side head 13 to be lower than those of the snare drum 10A, the snare drum 10 can generate struck sound whose timbre is similar to the timbre of the snare drum 10A but whose sound volume is reduced.
As described above, the snare drum 10 according to the embodiment has no through-holes on the batter head 12 but has the through-holes 13c only on the snare side head 13. Therefore, keeping player's feeling and touch of striking the batter head 12 similar to those provided by the snare drum 10A and keeping timbre similar to that of the snare drum 10A, the snare drum 10 according to the embodiment can decrease only sound volume. Furthermore, because the batter head 12 has no through-holes, the durability of the batter head 12 of the snare drum 10 will not be degraded. Furthermore, sound generated by the collision of the snare wire 14 against the snare side head 13 of the snare drum 10 and sustain can be secured on the snare drum 10 as in the case of the snare drum 10A.
Because the through-holes 13c on the snare side head 13 are provided on the area excluding a region corresponding to the snare wire 14, the snare drum 10 of this embodiment can avoid degradation in durability of the snare side head 13 caused by collision of the snare wire 14 against the area of the snare side head 13 where the through-holes 13 are provided. Furthermore, because the through-holes 13c are designed to have a diameter of 3 mm while the through-hole rate with respect to the snare side head 13 (the head portion 13a) is 2%, the embodiment realizes the favorable snare drum 10 which can generate natural timbre of snare drum. Therefore, the snare drum 10 is preferable as a musical instrument for actual musical performance. In addition, it is needless to say that the snare drum 10 is suitable for practice.
As for the snare drum 20, because the through-holes 23c are provided all over the snare side head 23, the durability of the snare side head 23 is reduced, but the entire surface of the snare side head 23 can be used to decrease the sound volume. In addition, the snare drum 20 eliminates necessity for the user to care about the direction of the snare side head 23 for attaching the snare side head 23 to the shell 11. Therefore, the snare drum 20 facilitates installation of the snare side head 23 on the shell 11. The operational advantage of the snare drum 20 other than the above is the same as that of the snare drum 10.
As shown in
The snare drum 30 have the through-holes 33c having a larger diameter, which facilitates outflow of air. As a result, the amplitude of the snare drum 30 is lower than the amplitude of the above-described snare drum 10. In other words, the snare drum 30 realizes efficiently reduced amplitude by employing the enlarged through-holes in spite of the same through-hole rate. The operational advantage of the snare drum 30 other than the above is the same as that of the snare drum 10. As a modification of the snare drum 30 of the third embodiment, the snare side head 33 may have the through-holes 33c on an area which faces the snare wire 14.
The snare drum 40 reduces amplitude more than the snare drum 10. By providing a multiplicity of through-holes 43d on the central portion of the snare side head 43, more specifically, the snare drum 40 can efficiently decrease amplitude. The operational advantage of the snare drum 40 other than the above is the same as that of the snare drum 10. The snare drum 40 of the fourth embodiment may be modified such that the through-holes 43c and the through-holes 43d have the same diameter but have their respective pitches indicated in
The diameter of the through-holes 53c and the pitch of the through-holes 53c provided on the central portion of the snare side head 53 are the same as the diameter and the pitch of the through-holes 13c, while the pitch of the through-holes 53c provided on the outer area of the snare side head 53 is shorter than the pitch of the through-holes 13c. In this embodiment as well, the through-holes 53c provided on the central portion are arranged to form symmetrical two trapezoids with a space being provided between the trapezoids. In this case as well, furthermore, an area made up by the through-holes 53c of the central portion is nearly a circle whose diameter is 64% of the snare side head 53. Except the through-holes 53c, the snare drum 50 is configured similarly to the above-described snare drum 10. Therefore, similar components are given similar numerals to omit explanations of the components.
The snare drum 50 can achieve amplitude reduction similarly to the snare drum 10 because the through-holes 53c of the central portion are similar to the through-holes of the snare drum 10. Furthermore, the through-holes 53c provided on the outer area have more holes than the through-holes 13c provided on the counterpart of the snare drum 10. Therefore, the snare drum 50 can efficiently reduce amplitude of the outer peripheral head which is more likely to contain harmonics. By increasing the number of holes provided on the outer area, in other words, the snare drum can not only realize reduction in sound volume but also vary timbre. The operational advantage of the snare drum 50 other than the above is the same as that of the snare drum 10. As a modification of the snare drum 50 of the fifth embodiment, the diameter of the through-holes 53c may vary between the central portion and the outer area. As a different modification, furthermore, the snare side head 53 may have the through-holes 53c on an area which faces the snare wire 14.
By using a desired one of the snare side heads 13, 23, and so on of the above-described embodiments, the user can have the snare drum 10 which can generate user's desired sound. Furthermore, the user may prepare different types of snare side heads 13, 23 and so on so that the user can change the snare side head of the user's snare drum to have the most suitable snare side head. As a result, the snare drum 10 can be rich in expression. The snare drum according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments but can be variously modified within the technical scope. For example, the snare drum 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 may have a small minority of through-holes on the batter head 12 so that the through-holes do not exert influence on player's feeling and touch of striking the batter head 12, timbre and sustain of sound of the snare drum 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and so on.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-166708 | Jul 2012 | JP | national |
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| 11-219168 | Aug 1999 | JP |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20140026733 A1 | Jan 2014 | US |
