Guitar Tuner on drums?

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tilinmyowngrave

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Can i use a guitar tuner to tune drums toi a specific pitch? If not, are there any drum tuners?
 
tilinmyowngrave said:
Can i use a guitar tuner to tune drums toi a specific pitch? If not, are there any drum tuners?
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Well, what you really want to do, is tune the drumheads to the pitch of the shell; that way, the entire drum resonates as one piece instead of a shell with two heads on it.


Tim
 
Tim Brown said:
Well, what you really want to do, is tune the drumheads to the pitch of the shell; that way, the entire drum resonates as one piece instead of a shell with two heads on it.


Tim
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... how do i do that?
 
i've seen it done with Timpanis ... but i suppose thats different, because they're intended to be tuned percussion.

might work.

Andy
 
Play the note on a piano, tuning fork of the note you want your drum to be.

Then tune it by ear to that.

If you cant tune by ear then use a tama rhythm watch. It measues the tension of the drum at different points. I'm sure someone somwhere will have posted somewhere on the internet the exact tension for a certain sized drum with a certain skin and it'll be an 'C#'.

So then you can just adjust the tension rods so the tama tension watch will be at the correct tension so the drum is at the right tension for it to resonate at a certain pitch.
 
tilinmyowngrave said:
Can i use a guitar tuner to tune drums toi a specific pitch? If not, are there any drum tuners?
Click to expand...

Drums such as toms, snares and bass drums are known as non fixed-pitched instruments. They aren't meant to be tuned to specific notes. Tympani and even Rototoms can be tuned to a specific pitch, but the acoustics behind the drums on the kit really aren't designed for that.

The best way to tell the resonant note for a drum is to suspend it with your finger inside the shell with the heads off and tap the shell. You'll hear one note that rings slightly longer. That would be the resonant tone. That doesn't mean you should tune it to that note, though. Two drums of the same size and wood can have different fundamental tones because of different wood and glue densities. Try to find a range of intervals you like.

There are drum 'tuners' per say, but I prefer to finger-tighten the lugs and then cross tension each lug with a key to get to the pitch I like. After I'm in the range I set the drum on the floor and put my finger on the exact center of the drumhead. Then I tap at each lug and check the harmonic of the pitch at each lug. I then go up or down until the harmonics are all the same. Once you've got both heads of a tom to the right pitch and harmonic, no overtones are present.
 
drummerdude666 said:
Why do you want to tune your drums to a certain pitch?
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Ionno. lol. I guess I'll just tune them to any pitch that sounds right to me
 
PhilGood said:
Drums such as toms, snares and bass drums are known as non fixed-pitched instruments. They aren't meant to be tuned to specific notes. Tympani and even Rototoms can be tuned to a specific pitch, but the acoustics behind the drums on the kit really aren't designed for that.

The best way to tell the resonant note for a drum is to suspend it with your finger inside the shell with the heads off and tap the shell. You'll hear one note that rings slightly longer. That would be the resonant tone. That doesn't mean you should tune it to that note, though. Two drums of the same size and wood can have different fundamental tones because of different wood and glue densities. Try to find a range of intervals you like.

There are drum 'tuners' per say, but I prefer to finger-tighten the lugs and then cross tension each lug with a key to get to the pitch I like. After I'm in the range I set the drum on the floor and put my finger on the exact center of the drumhead. Then I tap at each lug and check the harmonic of the pitch at each lug. I then go up or down until the harmonics are all the same. Once you've got both heads of a tom to the right pitch and harmonic, no overtones are present.
Click to expand...

Great Advice!
I have over the years gotten used to tuning by feel.
If you play around you can figure how one lug can bend the pitch so it's flat.
Try to keep all lugs the same tension, but go around again by feel and see if you can get more sustain.
I prefer to tune the top head a little tighter than finger tight to get the wrinkles out and then use the bottom to carry the tone.
 
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