Snare Spotlight - TAMA S.L.P Classic Dry Aluminium

There’s a new snare in the studio! Our latest addition is a drum that delivers you that classic sounding aluminium snare you’ve heard on all your favourite recordings.

Drum roll please…

Introducing the TAMA S.L.P Classic Dry Aluminium 😍😍😍

What is S.L.P?

S.L.P stands for Sound Lab Project and I personally think it’s an amazing line by TAMA covering lots of traditional and some more exotic snare drums. They are affordable drums designed to help drummers achieve a wide range of distinctive sounds. This makes them an appealing line of drums since many snare drums can get up to crazy prices starting from £500 up into the thousands! 🥺😭

This is actually my 2nd S.L.P snare so you’ll see them again in a later Snare Spotlight! Another point worth mentioning with the S.L.P line is that they don’t stick around forever, unlike many traditional snare drum models. The model in the next spotlight isn’t available to purchase any more, which is what made me finally bite the bullet on grabbing this one!

All set up with the Sakae Trilogy kit and Earthworks DM20 microphone 🤤🤤🤤

Why Aluminium?

Aluminium is a lightweight and dry sounding metal. Metal snare drums are generally louder than wooden drums but the dryness of the aluminium means that

A - it doesn’t deafen the bass player and

B - it doesn’t ring out forever.

Rimshots really have bite and cut through on this snare, and the combination of aluminium shell along with 8 lugs and triple flanged hoops make this beast theoretically hard to tame. But the sound is quite controlled and with some good old gaff tape or moon gels the sound can be shaped to exactly what you’re after in part due to the dry aluminium material.

A Nod to History

Aluminium snares are the most recorded snare drums in history, and you can see from the design of this drum it really does nod to the classic drums of old. The first and most noticeable of the design is the centre bead running all the way around the drum, very reminiscent of a Ludwig Acrolite I would say. The seamless 1.2mm aluminium shell also looks the part with a slight matt finish to it and a pleasing grey colour that changes tone in different light. The triple flanged Steel Mighty Hoops allow the drum some growl and the 8 lugs let it sing.

The TAMA S.L.P Classic Dry Aluminium

Piece of My Heart

This TAMA snare has a special place in my heart. It’s really small and trivial but the snare throw off, snare butt plate and lugs are all exactly the same as my first proper drum kit - a TAMA Superstar.

Check out this video where I put the snare through it’s paces at 3 different tuning

The Verdict

Setting this up behind the kit and playing with it has been an absolute joy. I absolutely love this drum in the high tuning range where it really does just sing and it will be able to cut through the mix in any style. Most at home in rock/pop this snare will sound great on your next drum recording, feel free to request this snare drum specifically when you get in touch!