I'm getting ready to record some band demos in my basement studio and need to learn how to tune drums correctly. I'm the guitar player so I'm not familiar with 1) how to do it physically (to get the same tension) 2) what notes to tune the different drums to and 3) what 'tools' I need. Thanks.
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Drum tuning
- Thread starter ssseals
- Start date
Ian Morrison
New member
tuning
the only tools you'll need is a drum key.
the key to good tunning especially before recording is new heads, i dont know what kind of sound you want.. you dont nessicarily have to tune the drums to certain notes, just find a pitch you want. Or you could pull out your guitar and tune it to that.. depending on how many pieces you could tune them to minor thirds apart or something of that nature..
to match the pitch, you gotta go lug by lug. Once you "seat" the drum head, meaning place it on the shell and give it some good pressure in the center to insure it's place on the bearing edges.. use ur hands and get them all finger tight. then go opposite to opposite sides, starting from the right to the left, or the left to the right.. and give them a good three or 4 turns. Then goto each lug with ur drum key and tap it then tap another, until you have the same pitch on all the lugs.. there might be a little variation between the two lugs on some of them, every kit has a " magic " lug that seems to loosen faster or tension a little faster, its your job to find it.
Theres soo sooo much more involved, i am barely scratching the surface on this one. But essentially i would just go out and buy new heads get a drum key, seat the heads, give them some tension and then go from there till u find the desirable sound.
Remember to never ever tune down, always up. If you want to lower the pitch, strike the drum then go left with the lug about 2 turns then go up half a turn.. etc etc.. that is much better then just tunning it down and leaving it there.
good luck...
www.drumweb.com
theres a good resource on that site for tuning if you wanna read further.
the only tools you'll need is a drum key.
the key to good tunning especially before recording is new heads, i dont know what kind of sound you want.. you dont nessicarily have to tune the drums to certain notes, just find a pitch you want. Or you could pull out your guitar and tune it to that.. depending on how many pieces you could tune them to minor thirds apart or something of that nature..
to match the pitch, you gotta go lug by lug. Once you "seat" the drum head, meaning place it on the shell and give it some good pressure in the center to insure it's place on the bearing edges.. use ur hands and get them all finger tight. then go opposite to opposite sides, starting from the right to the left, or the left to the right.. and give them a good three or 4 turns. Then goto each lug with ur drum key and tap it then tap another, until you have the same pitch on all the lugs.. there might be a little variation between the two lugs on some of them, every kit has a " magic " lug that seems to loosen faster or tension a little faster, its your job to find it.
Theres soo sooo much more involved, i am barely scratching the surface on this one. But essentially i would just go out and buy new heads get a drum key, seat the heads, give them some tension and then go from there till u find the desirable sound.
Remember to never ever tune down, always up. If you want to lower the pitch, strike the drum then go left with the lug about 2 turns then go up half a turn.. etc etc.. that is much better then just tunning it down and leaving it there.
good luck...
www.drumweb.com
theres a good resource on that site for tuning if you wanna read further.