For drummers who tune to notes.

[question444]

As a singer/guitar player I am naturally "note-oriented" and tune my drums as such by listening to sine wave from a keyboard. I am curious as to your own preferred tuning configurations. What size shells/what notes/intervals between toms. I'm not interested in a debate on how to tune, I've already read all of that in old posts. Thanks!

[jamacian]

Sometimes I will tune to a songs fundamentals but usually I tune to whatever the drum sings at.

[89gtsleeper]

I've worked with alot of drummers that prefer 4ths, 5ths, and Octaves since those are considered the "perfect" intervals in traditional harmony. I myself like tuning to thirds and fifths. If you put them in order of highest to lowest...1,2,3,4. Then 1-2 is a third, 3-4 is a third, 1-3 is a fifth, and 2-4 is a fifth.

Also, sometimes I look to tune the highest tom up a little bit from this configuration so that the 1-2 is a perfect fourth, and the 1-4 becomes an octave.

[PhilGood]

I tune my drums to intervals rather than specific notes. I trust my ear to tell me if I like how it sounds, or if it doesn't seem right. I find that tuning to exact notes, pitches or waves on drums becomes pointless, as I've argued here many times to futility. The head stretches and the lugs loosen and the drum doesn't keep that exact note for very long. It's more important to keep the drum in tune with itself. The pitch at each lug should be the same and the drum should be tuned to the most sympathetic pitch the shell vibrates at.

Before someone jumps my ass about the whole "the drum should be tuned to a specific note" or "should fall within the scale" crap, let me just add that I had this very conversation one-on-one with Dave Weckl a couple years ago. He said he tunes his drums essentially the same way I do. I was also just prodding him to see if his answers matched my method. They did.

And before anyone calls "bullshit", here is a snip from that exact conversation:

http://www.monkeyworksinc.com/sample...tuningtalk.mp3

[question444]

Philgood,
I agree with all you say. I would call myself a beginner and the reason I am tuning to notes is mainly for reference. ex...'hmm, last time i recorded it was a 'c', i didn't like that, i'll tune it to 'a' this time'. But, I still end up tuning each head in uniform to the note, so the drum is still in tune with itself. I don't think tuning to a note is really disadvantageous to anyone, just not necessary for many.

[ez_willis]

Drums are a pain in my ass. Too many variables and stuff that can go wrong, and the learning curve is hellacious.

Still better than getting a drummer to record my tracks though.

[Seafroggys]

you cannot tune drums to notes unless both the bottom and top heads are exactly in tune with each other, which is next to impossible to do.

[ermghoti]

Wrong on both counts.

[PhilGood]

Originally Posted by Seafroggys

you cannot tune drums to notes unless both the bottom and top heads are exactly in tune with each other, which is next to impossible to do.

Well, you can, but if you are going to be one of the drummers who thinks this is the way to go then I recommend changing occupations and do something more productive.

Continuously bashing your head against a brick wall comes to mind.

[slidey]

Originally Posted by jamacian

Sometimes I will tune to a songs fundamentals but usually I tune to whatever the drum sings at.

snap

a drum IMHO has a sweet spot where it just seems to sound right & different songs require different notes whether deep & punchy or high & jazzy or both pending on the number of toms being used. When my full rig is in play I have 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 & 18 to play with & I tend to try & go from as high as possible without sounding rediculous to as low as possible without sounding flappy & then tweak & twean to the song using headphones

[Seafroggys]

Originally Posted by ermghoti

Wrong on both counts.

Negative.

Drums are incredibally complex sounding instruments. Tuning to Sine waves just seems idiotic to me, using an extremely simple waveform to tune an extremely complex waveform just doesn't seem like a smart thing to do. Telling me to hit my head against a brick wall doesn't help either. Every other drum forum I visit pretty much agrees that tuning to pitches just doesn't happen. The closest answer I have gotten in my research was the point I made, that to get the purest pitch both heads must be of equal pitch. It makes sense too. How does two heads with two different pitches magically produce one easily definable note?

Now, I do have perfect pitch, so I can hit a drum and think "Oh that sounds like a G" even though I know its not a G. I do agree on the fact that intervals can be tuned, but I personally don't see the point myself.

[lbanks]

Drums are tuned?!!

[Rick_Levine]

Originally Posted by lbanks

Drums are tuned?!!

Each drum's shell resonates more at certain frequencies. Finding these resonant frequencies for each drum makes them sing. A drum will generally have a set of frequencies that it resonates at that are major intervals apart (3rd, 4th). I like to tune the batter to a middle resonance, and the resonant head to a major interval above the batter. This really brings out the sound of a drum.

[ez_willis]

Originally Posted by Seafroggys

How does two heads with two different pitches magically produce one easily definable note?

The same way strumming 3 or 4 different notes on a guitar produces an easily identifyable chord?

[Elton Bear]

Tuning both heads to the same note causes all kinds of problems.

I'm not here to tell you you're wrong, Q444, but I prefer to tune the drums to themselves and not to a specific note, purely because you'll be in the wrong key when you do fills in certain songs and you can really upset the balance of the band...

[lbanks]

Even an old trick can learn new dogs. I never really thought to much about drum tuning.

[toddyjoe]

Elton, what do you mean when you say, "Tuning both heads to the same note causes all kinds of problems?" From what I was taught, this gives you the strongest fundamental tone with lots of resonance and sustain (if you like that sort of thing). I play more jazzy stuff so I tune most of my drums to get the best open, resonating sound possible with no muffling and no 1970's cardboard-box sounds. I could see where you would not want to tune both heads to the same "pitch" (if you can call it that with drums' complex waveforms) if you are into that more muted, thumping modern sound rather than open sounds. Resonating drums are also more likely to draw attention to a poor setup on your kit, i.e., loose hardware will rattle, cymbals that somebody riveted may be noisier, etc. Is everything I have mentioned what you are referring to as "problems?"

[PhilGood]

Originally Posted by Seafroggys

Negative.

Drums are incredibally complex sounding instruments. Tuning to Sine waves just seems idiotic to me, using an extremely simple waveform to tune an extremely complex waveform just doesn't seem like a smart thing to do. Telling me to hit my head against a brick wall doesn't help either. Every other drum forum I visit pretty much agrees that tuning to pitches just doesn't happen. The closest answer I have gotten in my research was the point I made, that to get the purest pitch both heads must be of equal pitch. It makes sense too. How does two heads with two different pitches magically produce one easily definable note?

Now, I do have perfect pitch, so I can hit a drum and think "Oh that sounds like a G" even though I know its not a G. I do agree on the fact that intervals can be tuned, but I personally don't see the point myself.

I don't think you got that I was agreeing with you.

[ermghoti]

I don't think you got that he was disagreeing with me

If you have perfect pitch, you're not going to like tuning drums to pitch, for the reasons you (frogs) cite.

[Seafroggys]

Originally Posted by ez_willis

The same way strumming 3 or 4 different notes on a guitar produces an easily identifyable chord?

ummm, you do realize that makes no sense whasoever. 3-4 notes (the right notes, mind you) make a chord. Two different 'notes' (let me rephrase....pitches) do not make a note. Use a little more common sense next time.

[ez_willis]

Originally Posted by Seafroggys

ummm, you do realize that makes no sense whasoever. 3-4 notes (the right notes, mind you) make a chord. Two different 'notes' (let me rephrase....pitches) do not make a note. Use a little more common sense next time.

STFU, dickhead.

[ez_willis]

Originally Posted by ez_willis

STFU, dickhead.

Let me clarify:

I'll use as little or as much common sense as I feel like using at the moment I post a particular message.

[PhilGood]

Originally Posted by PhilGood

Well, you can, but if you are going to be one of the drummers who thinks this is the way to go then I recommend changing occupations and do something more productive.

Continuously bashing your head against a brick wall comes to mind.

Let me rephrase this so I'm not misunderstood:

You can go ahead and try to tune the top and bottom heads to the exact same note as each other and get the drum to a specific pitch, but it will be extremely time consuming and in the long term, futile and pointless. If you are a drummer who likes to waste a lot of time tuning the drum to these moronic standards then be my guest, but your time would be better spent banging your forehead on a building made from kilned hardened clay rectagles.

Do I make myself clear now?

[mikeh]

The traditional and I believe logigal approach is to first tune each drum to itself (to achieve the best tone and resonance for each drum) - and then tweak as needed to allow a group of drums to work well together (both from a tonality aspect and to avoid buzzes, etc. This has nothing to do with specific notes - just with "tone"

I spent waaaay too much time at various points in my drumming life trying all the "new" ideas. Tuning drums to specific tones based on the actual dimensions of each drum (I actually bough a book with conversion tables) - or - tuning drums to 3rds, 4th, etc. - or - tuning drums to the key of a song (naturally this is a studio thing vs. a live thing). I even took all the hardware off of drums to determine the "ideal" tone of each shell. Hell, back in the days of the mega drum sets I actually tried to have each note in a scale covered - almost 2 scales (octabans, roto toms, concert toms and toms going from 6" to 18") - looking back on all this, my time perhaps would have been more productive trying to compromise a stucco wall with my forehead.

After all of that - I continuously kept coming back to tuning the drums to themselves to achieve the best tone resonance.

[mrface2112]

i tune my drums to a 4th apart. in my experience this is most easily accomplished by using drums that are 2 inches apart in size.....say 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16. using a 12 and 13 really makes tuning difficult.

and absolutely you can tune a drum to a note.

YMMV

cheers,
wade