Perfect tuning

[ecktronic]

ANyone have any tips on how to tune a drum kit to perfection?
I am recording heavy rock music so need a good amount of slap but also want them quite fat without to much ring.
I am mostly interested in the Toms.

Cheers.,
Eck

[ez_willis]

Do one drum at a time. Start on the bottom head and adjust the tension screws so that the head sounds perfect when hit. Flip the drum over and do the top the same way. When you're done with that drum, go to the next one. After each individual drum sounds perfect, put them all together. The kit should sound awesome!

[ez_willis]

Originally Posted by ez_willis

Do one drum at a time. Start on the bottom head and adjust the tension screws so that the head sounds perfect when hit. Flip the drum over and do the top the same way. When you're done with that drum, go to the next one. After each individual drum sounds perfect, put them all together. The kit should sound awesome!

If you'd prefer, start on the top head. Either way, as long as each head is the proper tension relative to the other, you'll be fine.

[ecktronic]

Cheers man,

Eck

[K.P.]

this is a pretty good guide... although somewhat labor intensive

Drum Tuning Bible

[ez_willis]

Originally Posted by K.P.

this is a pretty good guide... although somewhat labor intensive

Drum Tuning Bible

Seriously, for me it was too much.

The only way I learned how to tune drums was practice practice practice.

Eventually, you get it right.

[trenttati]

ez-willis' advice is solid for getting the best pitch from your drums. Timbre (which is a lot of what you are looking for) is also heavily determined by the heads you are using on both sides, among all the other physical characteristics of the drums.

Try to get in a drum shop that tunes their kits well and pay attention to the heads on top and bottom and how they are tuned relative to each other. Get some heads that have the timbre you're going for and tune them over and over again until you find what you want...then see how they sound in your room, under your mics, through your signal chain.

I've been trying a lot of heads from all three big brands recently on a lot of different drums and playing them in a lot of different spaces. I find it amazing how a drum that sounds fantastic in one situation with a certain tuning can be useless in a different room, etc. Now I always have three bass drums, three snares and a selection of toms that I put a kit together for whatever the gig's specifics require.

Oh, and location of the kit within the room has a major factor in the overall sound that reaches an audience or your mics. Get out of the corner or back in, depending on what characteristics you are looking for.

[ecktronic]

Cheers.
THe drum tunning bible seems pretty sweet.

Eck