Tuning drums to notes

[Gabe]

No bottom head??? Thats like telling a piano player "oh yeah all those black keys... you can't hit those" or sax player "just don't hit those buttons near the bottom." The bottom head accentuates the drums resonance, hence RESONANT HEAD.

And what is everyone saying that drums don't sustain long enough to have a pitch? Think of any drum fill in any song. You could probably sing the fill if you knew what drums were being played. Drum sounds aren't just some noise with an envelope on them. They have pitch and that shouldn't be disregarded because it's too hard for you to tell what that pitch is.

try hitting the head and slightly dampening it afterward so you can muffle the overtones. By isolating the fundamental you can hear where the pitch of the drum lies. I try to tune my resonant head about a third above my batter, it gives the drum a very open sound that compliments the styles i play.

If you are into getting your drum sounds to sound like the ones your casio makes yeah disregard the entire history of the instrument and do whatever you want.

[Brian]

No bottom head??? Thats like telling a piano player "oh yeah all those black keys... you can't hit those" or sax player "just don't hit those buttons near the bottom." The bottom head accentuates the drums resonance, hence RESONANT HEAD.

That's horesepuckey dude, One, the shell of a drum is too long and chokes the note anyway and Two, try listening for yourself, once without the bottom head and the top tuned to perfection and then with the "resonant head". Just in added tone and note strength, how much time did it add to the note??

And what is everyone saying that drums don't sustain long enough to have a pitch? Think of any drum fill in any song. You could probably sing the fill if you knew what drums were being played. Drum sounds aren't just some noise with an envelope on them. They have pitch and that shouldn't be disregarded because it's too hard for you to tell what that pitch is.

You get no argument there.

try hitting the head and slightly dampening it afterward so you can muffle the overtones. By isolating the fundamental you can hear where the pitch of the drum lies. I try to tune my resonant head about a third above my batter, it gives the drum a very open sound that compliments the styles i play.

" I play and work to my own satisfaction!"
anyone British out there getting this?

If you are into getting your drum sounds to sound like the ones your casio makes yeah disregard the entire history of the instrument and do whatever you want.

Not all of it is good or based in reliable physics or will yield consistently reproducable results, so, use your head.

[Anthony Caruso]

Even if you tune the drums to notes, you'll still get one note ringing or droning through an entire song that may or may not have any relationship to the pitch center of the track for example when the drummer whacks the snare drum.

oh yeah? why is that exactly? and which note? does the flat 5th of the particular key always appear from a pitched rock drumset?

inserting "may or may not" allows you to not back up this totally ad hoc crap and renders your argument meaningless. if tuning a drumset produces one note that MAY have a relationship to the track, then what the hell is the problem?

besides, rock toms dont ring long enough to produce pitches, correct?

I think the original point that he was trying to make is that even if a song is in the key of C, and you tune the drums to pitches C, E, and G (a C chord), other chords in the song don't necessarily use those notes. For example, if the music is playing a G chord in that same song (which it will eventually, cause its the V [five], THE turnaround chord), the tom tuned to G is "OK" (and most likely so is the E) but the tom tuned to C is technically wrong...it clashes with the B in the G chord. And if that is ringing, there's gonna be a weird harmonic relationship between the current chord and that really subtle ring in there (and you can't tell me it can't be heard...it definitely can, it just may not matter). In other words, we're all effed unless we retune toms to relate to every chord change in the song. I'm not that anal. Anyone here want to try it and we can A/B?

[mcsquishytooshy]

ctrl+f
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[Brian]

pretty much, the post was " how do you tune drums?"

[drliebs]

I think the pitch of the toms can really help the cohesiveness of the sound of the song if the drummer plays his toms in a musical way. Lars Ulrich is a drummer who comes to mind...I am not so sure about kick and snare but toms tuned in a chord pattern to the root of the song can really make everything hit together.

What to do when you are in a different key or a song that has different keys throughout? Use one of the approaches above that sounds most like fukit.

Seriously though, if you use the natural pitch of the drum as a base point, you can help avoid dissonance of the drum heads being off from the natural pitch of the drum...or if you get too much ring, try getting away from the pitch of the drum but not in a way that increases dissonance. Both heads and the shell work together, or fight each other if you aren't careful.

[skabaconska]

You guys are ridicolous, tuning to the 8th mc 16th mc burrito of 8. You want it sounding warm put on some coated heads you want some slap put on some clear heads. Tighten the reso more then the batter, and your done. Just play around with it. I will never use a drumdial.

[Brian]

Yeah! Man! Dang y'all! No drum dials! No Tunin! Just smackem! Drum dials only work if your shell edges are level to the lugs and perfectly flat.

[skabaconska]

They also become a hinderance to your tuning it will become harder, and if you forget it before the gig. Uh-oh.

[markee2004]

Brian says:

"the shell of a drum is too long and chokes the note anyway"






Oh yeah! now I get it! I'm abit slow (and have only a very basic grasp of irony) and obviously had to consult Neil Pearts' web page on this one. but it explains that concert toms (even though they're exactly the same the as toms you'd find on a drum kit) are always tuned to a note but drum kit toms aren't, due to a visual illusion that drum kit toms are actually all 100 feet tall so therefore "choke the note". I think it has to do with some vague term like "note strength". But as long as you've been working in a 'professionall' studio for 30 years, recording shite bands, and have worked out your own really clever way of doing things through trial and error. I think you pretty much should have the final say on everything.

[Brian]

Brian says:

"the shell of a drum is too long and chokes the note anyway"

HeeHee

[MoreSpaceEcho]

You guys are ridicolous, tuning to the 8th mc 16th mc burrito of 8.

this is good stuff. i've no idea what it means but it SOUNDS good.

and what i ask WHAT are all those pedals for in the pic above? WTF? i mean i get that one is a second kick pedal and maybe another one is for the other hihat, but that still leaves 2 unaccounted for.

[Brian]

lower Cowbell and ching area, tambourine.

[Rigsby]

Brian says:

"the shell of a drum is too long and chokes the note anyway"

HeeHee

Nice cushions dude.

[ringocola]

what is the cymbal that looks like it's in some sort of frame high above the hi-hat? some kind of small gong?