I had a revelation today

FattMusiek

FattMusiek

New member
After years of playing and recording drums, tuning finally clicked with me. For years I turned the key until I was in the ballpark of where I liked how it sounded and felt, then muted overtones as necessary with moon gels. Inspired after reading an article in Recording magazine regarding drum recording, I pulled out the key and concentrated. I discovered what overtones I needed to listen to and tuned my snare so that the top head's lugs are all the same tension and thus the same note. I found that you have to disregard to overall ring and focus on the note that the stick's contact with said lug makes. The bottom head was left imperfect, but I achieved a crack I didn't think my snare was capable of. I'm excited about the future because of the infinite possibilities.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I didn't waste too much of your time. Feel free to share your tuning experience and tips.
 
It's not online as far as I know (just searched google). I got the mag free at the Recording Arts school I'm going to, Omega.
 
the art of tuning OMIGOD it never ends & changes (drastically sometimes) depending what room you're in

I've been playing & tuning for 22 years (I know I'm only 25!!!!!!!) & there always seems to be a better way of achieving the sound, I've taken to tuning with the cans on along with the track so I'm hearing the changes within the track as it's playing

when the cans are off it may sound nasty to the ear BUT............. it sounds right to the track.......................
 
a great website on tuning is the tuning bible, just type "tuning bible" into google, and youl get it, it explains not how to get the sound you want, but why you get certain sounds when you do different things. It goes into great detail as well.
 
chester said:
a great website on tuning is the tuning bible, just type "tuning bible" into google, and youl get it, it explains not how to get the sound you want, but why you get certain sounds when you do different things. It goes into great detail as well.
Click to expand...
Read it.

A lot of people recommend that for reading, but I think "great" is overstating it a bit.
 
I have a friend that has a snare tuning technique that I thought was weird at first, but totally works.

He loosens the batter head until it's barely hanging on... NO ring at all.. really 'flappy' sounding. And when you hit it, it sounds like ass. BUT, it fits in the mix really nicely. I wouldn't do that for every song on a record, but it's good on a song that needs a really fat backbeat. An example of this would be here:
http://myspace.com/nowheremantucson
Song: Heart is Cold.
 
snares are always so finicky to tune :-) I think I've owned 10+ snares in the past 10 years, trying to find the "right one for me". I finally bit the bullet and bought a '72 Ludwig Supra. My prayers were answered. I slapped some 42 strand snares on it, and called it a day.

For tuning, I always crank the bottom head until it screams for it's lawyer. Tight tight tight. Ludwig snare side heads tend to be a tad thinner than Remo or Evans so you can get a little more sensitivity out of them.

Top head, I then tune to whatever sound I need. Low for the fatback sound, and I can crank it for a nice pop when I need it. Fiddling with the internal muffler (some hate 'em, I dig 'em) helps control ring, or add when I need it. Tapping each lug though has always been mandatory for when when I tune to make sure there's an even tension.

Don't you just love it though when you hit it for the first time and you immediately just go YESSSS!!!!!! :cool:
 
I've always tuned my snares as if it were 2 different drums. I tune the left side of the head with more tension then the right, producing a brighter tone on the left and and darker looser tone on the right (Which is excellent for the rimshot). I'm not talking about a drastic difference in tension though, but just enough to add variety. I too crank the snare-side head until it screams for mercy, with the snares fairly tight as well. I wan't it tight and defined with almost as little resonant decay as possible.
 
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