You can only choose 1. No half answers like “But they are both equally important”, etc… When it really comes down to it, if you could only choose 1 or the other, which would you say is more important?
Considering what you notice the most with many songs is that the snaredrum gets filtered out the most often and the bass drum usually keeps banging.
Trust the beat of your heart. If it sounds like a snaredrum, you need to visit the hospital 
It really depends on the genre and type of beat, but generally I’d say the bass drum.
haha clever 
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Just what i was going to say, but then i read “no half answers” in the OP.
/* edit */ …except in certain types of music, the snare is more important. (i’m the jackass who voted “snare” 
)
Snares:
Ain’t no shame. I’m a snare guy myself, but was just curious to get a majority opinion here 
Snare…
The snare is what makes it interesting.
Well, now that I myself have voted, we’re at an even 6 vs 6… Any more people want to come in and break the tie??
I almost voted for snare just for its sheer flexibility,
if snare was a video game character, it’d probably be the agile one,
bass drum being the brutish power one.
I voted for bass drum because of taiko’s. The performance looks
like it could translate well to sword fighting drills.
A properly built taiko is made from a single bored-out tree trunk. Imagine how big the rest of that tree was…
Dayum… Do they use giant redwoods or something?
If I understand it’s a big Asian relative of elm or willow.
Cowbell.
First time I’ve ever hit a +1 on a forum on the internet. Only took 20 years. Worth the wait, hahaha what a classic tune!! Great choice!
There’s a lot of good Techno that has no snare or clap. There is no good Hip Hop or Breakbeat that doesn’t have a snare. IT IS A CONUNDRUM!
Dayum, io… a Redwood is way bigger than that. Maybe bigger than you think? Been in that redwood forest in cali. once. It’s mind-warping and you leave feeling very small. Not just ‘wow, that’s big’ big, but weird big. Like, something is not right…
In the end they’re both just sounds that are used to create the rhythm. You can create rhythm with just a kick, you can create rhythm with just a snare. Put them both together and you can create even more rhythm.
but if you put it this way: would I rather make a song without kick or without snare.
actually I should try making track with just a kickdrum, that would be cool.
so, bass