Snares on 'The Forgotten'

[Second favourite son]

I'm sure there's already a thread for posts like this, but I can't seem to find one. Feel free to move it if you can.

So I noticed recently that at the beginning of The Forgotten you can hear snares rattling in the background on some of the chords.  Has anyone else noticed this?  Were they recording as-live (rather than overdubbing) or have they simply left the snares in the room and forgotten to turn them off?  This would seem like a rookie mistake to me.   Have they, perhaps then, done it on purpose, and if so why?

[WhiteTim]

How do you turn off a snare?

[Second favourite son]

4 minutes ago, WhiteTim said:

How do you turn off a snare?

There's a lever on the bottom/side which allows you to loosen or tighten the snares against the drum skin.

[Maddie86]

2 hours ago, WhiteTim said:

How do you turn off a snare?

i'm actually really surprised that you don't know this.

[WhiteTim]

3 minutes ago, Kyle Serlington said:

i'm actually really surprised that you don't know this.

drums aren't really my expertise lol since I've never owned a drum set I never really paid attention to drums the closet things I deal with is the MPC or the drum sounds from a  Triton keyboard 

i think its the turn off part that got me like what cause I'm thinking like an electronic drums or a MPC 

[Jon Benjamin]

34 minutes ago, WhiteTim said:

drums aren't really my expertise lol since I've never owned a drum set I never really paid attention to drums the closet things I deal with is the MPC or the drum sounds from a  Triton keyboard 

i think its the turn off part that got me like what cause I'm thinking like an electronic drums or a MPC 

I thought he meant forgot to turn the snare off from the room mics as in muting. 

[Jimmy Strummer]

3 hours ago, Jon Benjamin said:

I thought he meant forgot to turn the snare off from the room mics as in muting. 

No, I'm sure Second Favourite Son's explanation is legit. It's how Lars Ulrich got that shite snare drum sound on Metallica's "St. Anger": turning off the snares as described above produces a more ringing tone from the snare drum, although in Metallica's case it sounds more like a shitty tin can than having a nice "ring" to it.

[ghesboro]

15 hours ago, Second favourite son said:

 Have they, perhaps then, done it on purpose, and if so why?

They might have done it on purpose cause you can only hear it at the beginning. I think if they had simply forgetten the snare on you could hear it throughout the whole song. But still I have no idea why they would do such a thing, it doesn't really make any sense. 

[Chin for a Day]

I have no clue what snares are on drums and really can't hear a difference.  I will just trust everyone that is there.  I will just say that I highly doubt that they would not notice a mistake before releasing the record.  The only thing I can think of was that they did it on purpose, or it was a mistake and they liked the way it sounded so they left it in.  Sort of like the gap in Elvis's Suspicious Minds.  That was a mistake, but they liked the way it sounded so they left it in.

[Siddharth_471]

I can hardly listen snare drum in the beginning but even if it is being played why you think it is a mistake? They must have used it as a background for sharp/treble sounding piano though I think using a bass drum in the intro would have been way more cooler.

[Jack [DF]]

I actually wouldn't be at all surprised if it were recorded "as-live", like OP suggested. Green Day's latest efforts haven't been the most well-produced affairs (the waveforms are fucking blocks - take THAT, Phil Spector) but a few select trilogy songs, most notably The Forgotten, actually sound pretty organic. I don't know much about their recording process, but if someone told me that they tracked the instrumental live then overdubbed vocals and guitar leads and strings and stuff, I'd believe it in a heartbeat. Hell, that's how Hey Jude was tracked, and I'll be a monkey's uncle if The Forgotten isn't a Beatles tribute in some capacity.

It could also honestly just be a mistakenly 'on' snare, as OP also suggested. A rookie mistake, sure. But if the take is good and the snare rattle doesn't distract, who the hell cares? Green Day might be a pop rock band, but their roots are still in punk and I've heard far worse background noise than snare rattle on punk records.