Drum tuning

[phantasm777]

each time I put on new skins I use a calibrator, or whatever it is called that shows me how much tension is on the skins as I tighten them. I forget the exact amount of tension but there IS recommended tension amounts per drum. I do that and take it from there. I know how high I want my 10 to sound and then take it a step down all the way across. one thing I love about drums is not having to worry about notes, chords etc.

however I do use my toms corresponding to some notes of the song, I did so in my last orig. somewhere before the middle. in some cases I use the toms for accent with it's specific tone, as well as cymbals, but more so the cymbals. having 6 toms surrounding me and one on the floor I do feel sometimes like I have a xylophone. not in tone or sound but each drum has a different sound - note. I do not tune by a key or note specifically, but will use a specific tom, or combination of specific toms to accommodate specific notes to accent on some songs, not always, though it is happening more and more.

as I do all my music, I do it by ear, and prefer it that way, so obviously the toms are note specific I am just not sure what notes, but never cared. like when I learn a song on bass or guitar, I just do it not much concerning which notes they are entirely, I just do it. it has always bee about "feel" to me and my ear to mind to hand coordination. that's how I approach any instrument or vox that I do.

I think the more drums you have the more the individual notes might matter, it depends on what kind of music you are doing and how good you are. I think drum virtuoso's definitely know the tone, pitch, note of everything they have in their kit. if not by name, by sound and know just where to go and when.

I saw somewhere your snare should be higher tones than your small tom. I do not agree, sure if you have a small kit like a jazz kit, that would be true, but if you have a lot of drums, some of the small toms will be higher then the snare. it all depends on the kit. I am a self taught drummer and no expert at all but I do what has worked for me and cannot speak for anyone else, especially not any pro's!

[Rata-tat-tat]

I agree 100% with Henny.... I cannot express how important a cymbal is to a kit... they are the most expensive part of the kit, but well worth the money if you want to acheive a good sound... not to mention some cymbals such as an earth ride can acheive various tones depending on where you hit the cymbal...

As far as tuning a drum... I'm pretty old school... I don't use any tension meters or anything electronic.... I will usually tune my bass drum by ear with an E on a bass guitar. This is not science... I'm just trying to get the tones to match. One thing that you also have to worry about is tension vs tone... You have to have the right amount of tension on the head in order to get the right amount bounce for the drum stick to perform properly... this is every bit as important as the tone itself... There's a lot of trial and error to get this perfect... You can also adjust the tone through the bottom head... There are so many ways to tune drums and my bet is that if you talk to 10 different drummers you'll get 10 different answers. I always start with tension first and work on tone last. I usually adjust all of the tension rods evenly around the drum to acheive tension... then I will go back and tweak the tone using only 1 or 2 of the tension rods to acheive tone. You have to be careful when tuning this way so that you don't create a wrinkle in the head especially on the larger diameter drums... It's really a balancing act. It's very time consuming so you might wanna pack a lunch if your about to tackle tunning a kit...

[Hook]

This is an interesting subject and I was wondering when we would hear from our resident drummers ( yea I've been lurking on my phone!) This reminds me of my 1st drumset I bought when I was 14, it was made by remo and it was pre-tuned. I had to buy specific heads and they clipped on rather than the screw/bolt system on most drums.  It sounded horrible!!!I have had this problem on many occasions with my tri-bongos. There have been many times when they just don't mesh with the key of the song and I have opted not to use them, in fact more often than not. I have thought many times to take them in to have them tuned in a more usable way, if that indeed is possible. I say that but I do use them live in my summer shows and never notice the problem, perhaps I'm listening a bit closer when recording.

There are so many ways to tune drums and my bet is that if you talk to 10 different drummers you'll get 10 different answers.

True dat!

Perhaps the answer to why drum tuning is not critical relative to other instruments is a combination of several things - varying pitch, inharmonic overtones, short duration, and probably a few other factors. But I can't help wondering if a large drum set tuned to concert pitch and played according to the key of the song might sound better than a drum set that's not tuned to concert pitch and is not played according to the key of the song. It would be an interesting experiment to try it.

Great videos 64 & I think you hit the nail on the head here. I always understood it as you were actually using multiple tones on a single head and creating a inharmonic. Kind of like , but not really, a piano has 3 strings tuned to different frequencies/tensions to make the one tone (once again I think that's what my piano tech/tuner buddy told me long ago) but rather than achieve an exact pitch you get something a little more vague that fits all keys.I feel like I once heard about a pro drummer that tuned the drums to each song for the album but perhaps it's just my imagination. I would be interested in exploring this with an electronic drum kit and see if they have tuning specs that can be changed in the brain. I wonder if that reasoning will be enough to convince my wife to let me buy a kit! Facemask where are you with your fancy new toy...
We also shouldn't go too long without mentioning a timpani, you use the pedal to obtain an exact pitch, I want one of those too!
Tune On! (or not...on)

[Rata-tat-tat]

One thing I'd like to add is that I mentioned "Tone" above... I think I should have said pitch... I kind of think they are one in the same when it comes to drums... (I could be wrong)... but a drums tone is based on the size of the shell and what material it is made out of .... commonly shells are made from Maple/ Birch/ Mahogany/Steel/ Brass or polymer's .... Pitch is the raising or lowering of the overall tone of the drum...

Perhaps the answer to why drum tuning is not critical relative to other instruments is a combination of several things - varying pitch, inharmonic overtones, short duration, and probably a few other factors. But I can't help wondering if a large drum set tuned to concert pitch and played according to the key of the song might sound better than a drum set that's not tuned to concert pitch and is not played according to the key of the song. It would be an interesting experiment to try it.

I think I may have learned the answer to this in mixing bootcamp... If you listen to a track and you are able to distinguish groove and pulse... I think this is where the drum comes in heavily... With groove and pulse you are not soooo much involved with tone or pitch rather the timing of the track. Therefore tones are not as concerning as an instrument that holds the melody of the track down. That's the guitar/ keys and vox job....

This however would not apply if you were a percussionist in say an orchestra or some sort of jazz ensemble... Imagine if you were to play the theme song to "A Space Odyssey" and the Timpani drums were not set to the right pitch... It would probably throw the entire song off balance and not sound right at all. Incidentally this can and has happened quite often... The Timpani drum uses a footpedal to adjust the pitch... and you can adjust it on the fly... therefore the pitch is very easily tuned or detuned to fit the song. It happened to me quite often in concert band when I was a young'n. You would spend quite a bit of time adjusting it prior to the performance and then someone would accidentally bump the pedal Arrrrgh!!!

[64Guitars]

Here's a similar discussion in another forum. The original question is about the software drum products from toontrack, such as EZ Drummer and Superior drummer. But they make some interesting points. I especially liked the point that if you play a C note and an F# using a bass guitar for one of the notes and a floor tom for the other, the notes will clash noticeably. This suggests to me that it can be important for the drums to be in tune with the rest of the band. At least, the drummer needs to know which drums not to hit, depending on what the rest of the band is playing, especially the bass guitar.

http://www.toontrack.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=107756

Also, I read on another site that DW drums are each designed for a specific note and that note is printed on the inside of the shell. This was from Neil Peart's drum tech who says that he tunes Neil's drums to the note printed on the shell, then Neil fine-tunes them from there to his own preferences. But, after looking on other sites, I suspect that the note is only meant as a guide for choosing the drums in your kit. So, if you want to buy another tom for your DW drum kit, for example, you'd tell them the notes of the toms you already have and they'd recommend which note you should add. They call it TimbreMatch. The Wikipedia page for DW Drums says: "DW pioneered the timbre-matching technique of grouping a set of drumshells together by listening to the note each shell holds before it is sanded. Each shell that comes out of the DW factory is stamped with the note of that shell on the inside."

[Rata-tat-tat]

Here's a similar discussion in another forum. The original question is about the software drum products from toontrack, such as EZ Drummer and Superior drummer. But they make some interesting points. I especially liked the point that if you play a C note and an F# using a bass guitar for one of the notes and a floor tom for the other, the notes will clash noticeably. This suggests to me that it can be important for the drums to be in tune with the rest of the band. At least, the drummer needs to know which drums not to hit, depending on what the rest of the band is playing, especially the bass guitar.

http://www.toontrack.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=107756

Also, I read on another site that DW drums are each designed for a specific note and that note is printed on the inside of the shell. This was from Neil Peart's drum tech who says that he tunes Neil's drums to the note printed on the shell, then Neil fine-tunes them from there to his own preferences. But, after looking on other sites, I suspect that the note is only meant as a guide for choosing the drums in your kit. So, if you want to buy another tom for your DW drum kit, for example, you'd tell them the notes of the toms you already have and they'd recommend which note you should add. They call it TimbreMatch. The Wikipedia page for DW Drums says: "DW pioneered the timbre-matching technique of grouping a set of drumshells together by listening to the note each shell holds before it is sanded. Each shell that comes out of the DW factory is stamped with the note of that shell on the inside."

One other thing to consider is stick choice... Sticks can also affect the "Attack" of the drum. Pitch pairing is also highly recommended... here's a good video from my fav stick maker Vic Firth.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcmf66XjT2c

[phantasm777]

I use vic firth American classic 5a's