Drum tuning

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thebigcheese

thebigcheese

"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
I hate to say that I've been drumming for my whole life (I'm 18, been drumming since I was 4) and I don't really know the first thing about tuning. I mean, I can figure more or less what sounds nice, but I don't know anything about tuning. Any suggestions?
 
Second that. There's a LOT of information there, and it is well written, too. It has helped me a ton.
 
I suck at drum tuning mor than anything, but my drum sound a hell of a lot better since i got one of those drum head tension gauges. i think for people who know what htey are doing, they are just a reference, the ear fine tunes best, but for me with no skills whatsoever it took out the guess work and made my drum sound much better. The snare in particualr is much much better. I got the tuner gauge used for about $50.

Daav
 
Drum dial rocks,thats what I have and the people I play with notice how good my toms sound now..But drum dial doesnt make tuning faster I got it mainly to tune my drums good but I also thought it would make tuning faster it still takes time but the sound im getting now is 5 times better then trying to do it by ear....
 
thebigcheese said:
I hate to say that I've been drumming for my whole life (I'm 18, been drumming since I was 4) and I don't really know the first thing about tuning. I mean, I can figure more or less what sounds nice, but I don't know anything about tuning. Any suggestions?
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I rekon I'm pretty good a tuning drums so here is my method:

Assuming you are putting new heads on both sides of a drum:

Toms - Put the bottom head on first and tighten all the tuning bolts with your fingers till they just start to bite. Put the drum on the floor (carpeted floor) and using your knee, push down on the middle of the head with your full body weight. This will stretch the head and center it on the drum. Tighten all the bolts again till they just start to bite. Then using a drum key turn each bolt a quarter turn. Stretch the head again, turn the bolts another 1/4 turn, stretch the head, another 1/4 turn, etc, till there are no wrinkles left in the head. Tighten the bottom head about 2 or 3 quarter turns above the point where the wrinkles dissappear.

Repeat the above for the top head but don't tighten it quite as much as the bottom head. I usually have my bottom heads about 2 or 3 semitones higher pitched than the batter heads and this produces a great drum sound. Basically, I keep my batter heads quite slack with the bottom heads just a little tighter.

Tuning a snare drum is the same a tuning a tom, but you just have to crank the heads up a lot tighter than the toms or it will sound aweful!

Keep the heads quite slack on the kick drum - just above wrinkle point or a bit tighter if you want more of a boom sound.

Whatever floats your boat!

Phrase
 
Use Your Ears!!!

Yup! Drum tuning is all personal. A lot of it has to do with the kind of sound you like as that will affect your tuning. Also, how many drums you have will also affect your tuning. If you use a single ply head (my favorite and I use Aquarians) then your going to have a louder more resonant sound, therefore you'll actually hear the drum better from the top. If you use a double ply head then your sound will be more focused and closer to the head. *NOTE: Keep in mind that the real sound coming from a drum kit is from the reso heads and out from there. Hard to hear that when your sitting on the throne! Another issue to consider is how hard do you play? The harder you play often the better the sound...but it's a style thing too. All very subjective. I would encourage every drummer to buy Jeff Ocheltree's DVD titled TRUST YOUR EARS. There's a lot of merit to his methodology and philosophy on tuning drums as one of the most prolific drum techs ever.
 
PhraseMMX said:
Tuning a snare drum is the same a tuning a tom, but you just have to crank the heads up a lot tighter than the toms or it will sound aweful!

Keep the heads quite slack on the kick drum - just above wrinkle point or a bit tighter if you want more of a boom sound.
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I agree pretty much with everything else, but I think most people have their snare much too tight. Alot of times my 10" tom is even higher than the snare (but only for jazz). And even for heavier music I prefer to have it only slightly higher - one or two whole notes.

On the bass drum I have a closed resonant head, and with that I tune both sides much higher up and hardly any muffling and it will still sound deep and punchy. With an open resonant... yes, above wrinkle point.

I don't really care too much what heads I use, but I recently tried a clear ambassador on the snare side which workes much better for me than the diploman I used to have. Which is unusual, and it changed much more than I thought it could.
So try out stuff.

The only tip I have that is not covered by the drum tuning bible is, if you tuned up to the point where it kind of sounds nice, but the head is not in tune with itself. Tune up the lugs that are lower and then step on the head to lower the pitch again... Fine tuning takes alot of practice, and you'll save yourself alot of headache if you know when to stop.
 
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thebigcheese said:
I hate to say that I've been drumming for my whole life (I'm 18, been drumming since I was 4) and I don't really know the first thing about tuning. I mean, I can figure more or less what sounds nice, but I don't know anything about tuning. Any suggestions?
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http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/443805/

that will solve all your problems in tuning, its amazing. your drums will sound awesome, its so worth it
 
THAT'S the one I was just on line lookin for! Cheap and works great!

Good call man...... :D
 
I generally love Evans products, I normally use Evans G2 coated or clear heads on the top of my toms and I love the way they sound - I'm a huge fan of Dennis Chambers and I changed to Evans when I found out that's what he uses!

I have slight reservations about the torque key though. If some of your tuning bolts are sticking in the lugs due to lack of lubrication and some are not, (I often have to tune poorly maintained kits at rehearsal rooms / venues that supply the backline and sometimes tuning bolts are siezed into the lug! :eek: ) you might find that the key reaches its torque setting on some bolts before others regardless of how much tension they are applying to the drum head, if they are sticking. The Tama tension watch is probably more effective because it actually measures the tension on the drum head rather than the torque on the tuning bolts, but it's quite pricy!

The torque key should work fine if you keep you tuning lugs greased and your bearing edges waxed (a candle should do the trick) so the the head slides over the bearing edge evenly all around the drum, and none of the tuning bolts are stuck or siezed! ;)

I prefer to use my ears and a normal drum key to tune my kit though! :cool:
 
PhraseMMX said:
I generally love Evans products, I normally use Evans G2 coated or clear heads on the top of my toms and I love the way they sound - I'm a huge fan of Dennis Chambers and I changed to Evans when I found out that's what he uses!

I have slight reservations about the torque key though. If some of your tuning bolts are sticking in the lugs due to lack of lubrication and some are not, (I often have to tune poorly maintained kits at rehearsal rooms / venues that supply the backline and sometimes tuning bolts are siezed into the lug! :eek: ) you might find that the key reaches its torque setting on some bolts before others regardless of how much tension they are applying to the drum head, if they are sticking. The Tama tension watch is probably more effective because it actually measures the tension on the drum head rather than the torque on the tuning bolts, but it's quite pricy!

The torque key should work fine if you keep you tuning lugs greased and your bearing edges waxed (a candle should do the trick) so the the head slides over the bearing edge evenly all around the drum, and none of the tuning bolts are stuck or siezed! ;)

I prefer to use my ears and a normal drum key to tune my kit though! :cool:
Click to expand...

I never thought about waxing the bearing edge before sounds like a great idea. Already it has paid off for me to check out this forum.
 
I just followed the instructions that came with my Remo pre packed set, works for me, before that i just took a lot longer to get it done,lol. oh yeah and trust your ears, then have someone else play your kit while you stand back and listen.
 
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