Drum fundamental pitch question.

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AndyK12

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Hi, I've been getting into drums and own a pretty nice starclassic birch setup that's probably 1000 times better then I'll ever need. I'm finding that tuning the drums isn't a very intuitive process.

Is this correct; each drum has a fundamental pitch (so I've read) so the different tones available are achieved by having the drumheads resonate in ways which interact with the fundamental?

How do you find out the fundamental, just use a signal generator and sweep it until the drum starts resonating?

Thanks,
Andy
 
Any drum has a tuning "range" in which you get an acceptable amount of tone and resonance. In theory, if you removed all the hardware and suspended a drum shell - hitting that shell would reveal the fundamental pitch. But beleive me, it really is not worth being that anal (I've done it and it was not worth the effort).

Ideally, the tone at each tuning lug on a drum should be as close as possible - while this does not assure that the tension at each lug will be identical, it will make sure the drum is "in tune with itself".

Once each drum is in tune with itself - you can then tweak the tuning to get the drum kit as a whole to sound good (this is where the flexibility of a drum's tuning range comes into play).

Some people try to tune drums to specific pitches (4th or 5th) and sometimes having the snare and kick tuned to the key of a song - with the other drums in 4ths of 5ths - can actually work, but in practical application it is waaaay too much work.

I suggest you mute the bottom head (so the tone you hear comes primarily from the top head) and try to get a drum in tune with itself. Then mute the top head and tune the bottom head. Most drummers agree that tuning the bottom head slightly higher than the top produces the best results. In fact, trying to tune the top and bottom head to the same tone normally produces too much sympathetic vibration which is not a good thing.

Once that is done - try to tweak whichever drums you think you need - to make the kit sound good. At the end of the day.........trust your ears!
 
Another view of resonant freq. The volume, i.e. the cubic inches of air contained within the drum will have a resonant frequency just as a speaker cabinet does. This may contribute as much or more than the resonance of the wood. I usually find this by experimentation, but when you get close the drum definately sounds bigger and louder. There also seems to be secondary resonant frequencies more toward the extremes of tuning. So somtimes you can really make a drum sing at a really low (for the size of the drum) and really high tunings.

Melodic instrument players have it made, just turn on the ole tuner.

ac
 
I think that beyond the strictly mechanical process of getting relatively even lug tension that the subjective begins to creep in.

The sound has to be pleasing, by itself and with the program material, and there's no formula for that. It requires an ear.
 
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