I cut my own dampening ring from an old head, too cheap to buy a new head to cut up. The ring lays pretty flat and gives me a really fat, wet sound on my 5.5x14 Slingerland COS as well as my larger and woodier snare drums. I find that it's important to tune the bottom head pretty tight for gigs, particularly if your not mic'd as I'm usually not, or you run the risk of loosing any and all definition to your beat. So I tune bottom medium or a bit tighter, top loose, with muffling ring and/or moon gels.

Also consider stick selection. A light, small head stick like a maple or hickory 5a or 7a doesn't carry much punch. But a 5b or bigger, or I even like the Zildjian laminated 7a (small, round head, but really weighty from the lamination) give a much fatter tone, with light strokes or heavy strokes. This suggestion came from another VDF member a while back.

Good luck,

Brian

Just a heads up, but for phat wetness, apart from a luddy 400, check out Rogers powertone snares. They love being low and wet tuned. Also a deep Radioking submits loads of high mids.

Rings are well and good, but they only quell the harmonics & overtones that occur at the edge of the head.

A full-head overlay has a completely different, wetter, fatter, more pitched-down effect on the drum. Seriously, try it, and I guarantee you'll utter an appropriate expletive at the sound. There's nothing else like it, no matter how hard you try to tune and dampen the head, loosen the wires, etc.

Bermuda

Yeah. I did some testing of my own. Just as bermuda says, the ply overlay just sitting on the head gives that wonderful wet sound, very much like that recording of hot child. He's right about the e-ring, cuts the harmonics, but doesn't quite give the wet part of that sound. I cut several old heads, the best one was a circle of an old Remo Fiberskin, gloss on one side, and a heavy texture on the other, just set on the drum. I didn't have to retune or reset the snare tension. That is a cool easy alternative sound!

My go to for that sound is a 7x15 late 20's Ludwig and Ludwig nickel over brass.

Tuned low, minimal tension, light touch. Thin tea towel optional.

Aaron

Yeah a light touch with hot mic's can make great results.

Mic'd top and bottom, I might add.

You also might try using a tympani mallet instead of a stick.