Why is maple harder to tune that birch? or is it?

[capnkid]

I was talking to my local small music store dealer who is a drummer and he said maple is more difficult to tune? He said birch was the standard for recording (as we all have seen here millions of times). but he also with the good mics available nowadays maple is easier to record.

Could someone elaborate, and what brand or model mics would he be talking about?

 

[tilinmyowngrave]

I've never had to tune a maple drum, but I know that it is pretty easy to get good sounds from my superstar.

 

[Farview]

The way the bearing edge is cut has more to do with difficulty of tuning than the material. I tune dozens of drumsets and some are harder than others, but what they are made of doesn't seem to matter much.

 

[mikeh]

I agree the the shape and condition of the bearing edge along with the condition of the head & rim have much more to do with how easy or difficult tuning may be.

However, given that the tonal quality of Birch is slightly more focused than Maple (meaning Maple tends to project more lows than Birch, which tends to be more mid range) - I can only speculate that he was suggesting that it can be a little harder to dial in the lows on Maple.

There are soooo many mic choices these days that I would not even want to get into that discussion - I'm sure some reading in the drum room or the mic room will give you more info than you can imagine

 

[I M Green]

I can only speculate that he was suggesting that it can be a little harder to dial in the lows on Maple.

Yep! Maple shells react best to higher tension. Birch shells are good for that low 'Steve Gadd' tuning.