Back on July 29 of this year, EARS, the Engineering and Recording Society, had a meeting at Jim “Tools” Tullio’s Butcher Boy Studio in Chicago for what was called “A Night of the Snare,” and I was invited to speak at it. I was given the opportunity to present the WFLIII Snare to a bunch of real sound enthusiasts, and wow, what a night it was!
Seven snare drums were recorded by some real pro Chicago drummers, David Moss and Larry Beers. Tools recorded the sound on his rare Neve 8078 console and made the WFLIII Snare really show what it could do.
So what happened after all the drums were recorded was we played back the sounds for a panel of EARS members, the drummers themselves, and the like, with no one being told which drum sound was which. Lo and behold, WFLIII came in second place! The snare drum voted #1 was a Bison wood snare with wood hoops. Bison is out of business, but when they were around, that drum went for somewhere in the $1,500 range. Mine is half that price, so, really, in my opinion, WFLIII came in first!
Afterward, we had a “photo op” with Ringo Starr and my father on the famous backdrop. The photo above was taken by John Christy (also pictured). It was a great night and I enjoyed being around good people with an EAR for drumming!
Keep rolling along,
William F Ludwig III