Need some help

O

onlydude

New member
Hello I have a question for all of the drummers.

O.k. I play Guitar and Bass. Recently I have been trying to get somewhat of a "band" together. I dont even know if you would call it a band but anywho. My friend who does not have very much musical talent bought a set of drums which he cannot play worth crap. The problem is the rest of us use his basement to play and practice so I have to help him. The problem is with his drum tuning. He obviously did NOT tune it correctly because of the way they sound. I was just wondering if you guys know a site or some samples or something of that sort and tuning instructions so I can help this guy??!! lol Oh yea I forgot to say that it is a standard drum set with a snare, 2 cymbals, a hi hat, a kick drum, and 3 other drums like the one featured here http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=perc/search/detail/base_pid/443579/

Thank you and hope you can help :D
 
Firstly, the heads stocked with the sets you buy online/in stores are CRAP. You CAN, however, make them sound decent with proper tuning (I had a stock kick head and LOVED the sound when I got it tuned nicely).

Before I show you sites (which you can find easily enough using google), here are some general tips for him:

-Be sure to muffle the front (batter side[the side you hit]) (and maybe back) of the kick drum until you're content. Normally people put a pillow in it and that sounds fine. I myself use the evans EMAD head, which comes with a dampening ring on it, as well as a blanket inside the shell, AND a seperate dampening pad against the batter head inside. I have the front head as loose as can be and I get a nice punchy kick sound with good attack.

-For snare - try not to choke the snares like a lot of new drummers do. Keep them somewhat loose to fit your style. Also, for some reason a lot of new drummers like using those dampening rings (on toms as well as snare) to eliminate most of the overtones. I like the natural sound of the snare without rings and with proper tuning you can get them to sound real nice.

-Toms are a whole other world. They all depend on what style you want.

-If you want head choices, I would go with (from a rock/punk/whatever standpoint):
Snare - Batter: Evans st dry, Snare: Remo off-white one (I forge the name, I'm not near my set so I can't be sure)
Kick - Batter: Evans EMAD, Resonant: Remo ebony ambassador
Toms - Batter: Remo white coated emperors, Resonant: anything 1-ply and clear


Here are some good sites I got off google:
http://www.acousticdrums.com/ad_frames/tuning_free_old.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/
 
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