Tuning drums to notes

[amishsixstringer]

Howdy. I have been trying to find a good way to tune drums to actual notes. I have tried using a piano or a guitar, but the tambre of the 2 sounds is so different it is hard to identify when the head is 'in tune'. I've tried using a guitar tuner with a microphone right up close to the head, but that seems like it doesn't work well either. Any ideas?

Neil

[dokushoka]

Piano works for me when I do it. But I just do the top head to the piano and the bottom head until it sounds "right" with the top one.

[UXB]

This can be very difficult if the shell is out of round, and many many are. Run your hand on the inside of the shell (next time you're changing heads) and feel if there's a flat spot on the joint. If this is the case, you'll probably be getting kind of a 2 tone blur.

I went through this for years trying to get drummers various kit in order, using those head tension gauges, you name it. I finally got edjamakated by a drummer who had his edges reground to minimize this, and that really helped.

Best,
H

[@?,*???&?]

From the "Acoustical Foundations of Music":

"The number of cycles required to ascribe a definite pitch to a tone depends on the frequency; at 100 Hz a sound must last at least 0.04 seconds, and above 1000 Hz it must last 0.13 seconds to give a sensation of pitch."

How long are your drums ringing?

[amishsixstringer]

Are you serious? You realize how difficult it would be, first to calculate how long a drum rings, and second account for the harmonics and dampning of a drum? That's just crazy stuff.


Neil

[thethingwiththestuff]

arent you glad we have a pro like jeff around? now i recalibrate the sustain of my floor toms at least twice monthly.

back on earth, i'm no terry bozzio but with my sizes and heads, my kit usually works out to a c major chord i think. someone above mentioned first tuning the top head, but i've always worked based on the bottom head being pitch and the top head being tone/attack.

tune to the shell's note first, then tweak a littlee from there against a guitar or anything as long as it's reliable. do the same for the other drums, tuning to near where the shell resonates, and then tweak a little to make 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, or 6ths depending on your sizes. the thing is, if you get too specific, you gotta retune when a song is in Bb, C#, etc....

[@?,*???&?]

arent you glad we have a pro like jeff around? now i recalibrate the sustain of my floor toms at least twice monthly.

back on earth, i'm no terry bozzio but with my sizes and heads, my kit usually works out to a c major chord i think. someone above mentioned first tuning the top head, but i've always worked based on the bottom head being pitch and the top head being tone/attack.

tune to the shell's note first, then tweak a littlee from there against a guitar or anything as long as it's reliable. do the same for the other drums, tuning to near where the shell resonates, and then tweak a little to make 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, or 6ths depending on your sizes. the thing is, if you get too specific, you gotta retune when a song is in Bb, C#, etc....

It's about tuning in pounds. Depending on head and desired tightness. Not all drums of the same diameter are gonna sound good throughout their recommended ranges. I'd rather have the kit sounding decent with itself than worry about pitch of drums. Duration of drums is way too short to bother with- timpani drums? Yes. Tune them to a note. Rock kit? Who gives a shit? Keep hittin' that pipe...

[heylow]

Howdy. I have been trying to find a good way to tune drums to actual notes. I have tried using a piano or a guitar, but the tambre of the 2 sounds is so different it is hard to identify when the head is 'in tune'. I've tried using a guitar tuner with a microphone right up close to the head, but that seems like it doesn't work well either. Any ideas?

Neil

Seriously, the truth is that it takes some practice. I have been tuning drums this way for a few years with a lot of success and there are still wierd days I don't hear em right.

I can use a guitar but I have a Rhodes I like to use better. I just kind of mute the center of the drums and lightly tap the lugs about an inch and a half or so from the hoop. I try to "visualize" the note before hitting it on the piano....be able to hum it. I find this helps to find it more easily than just starting to pound out notes at random....you'll lose it quick that way.

For speed, I have had people at the piano to give me a quick note to compare to. Sometimes this helps a bit....one can more easily hear variations with quick comparison.

I also wouldn't sweat trying to get stuff micro-exactly to notes either....headache-ville, man. I just use the notes as my "go-to" spots then it's more important for the head to be in tune to itself. Then from there, good with the second head and the drums together as an instrument. It's not really as exact as something like a guitar....for me anyways.

On a side note...it's a really cool way to get repeatable results once you get the hang of it but you have to be picking notes that actually make the kit sound good. Every kit is going to be different even the same kit will be different with different types of heads.

I'm in no way any kind of expert but these are some of the things that work for me.


Patience....


heylow

[heylow]

the thing is, if you get too specific, you gotta retune when a song is in Bb, C#, etc....

This is kind of a good point....I think a lot of people see tuning to notes as a way to play "in tune" with a song. I think of it more as a way to get repeatable results totally independent of anything else...a good baseline where I know the particular set of drums sounds good. If you need to tweak from there, so be it.

I think I'm adding to what you meant, anyway.



heylow

[thethingwiththestuff]

Keep hittin' that pipe...

oh, dont you worry about that

btw, i agree that it doesnt matter much that a rock kit be tuned to specific notes. i agree with heylow's approach. its a good guide for repeatability.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

Duration of drums is way too short to bother with- timpani drums? Yes. Tune them to a note. Rock kit? Who gives a shit? Keep hittin' that pipe...

shut up.

just because you can't tell what note a drum is tuned to doesn't mean no one else can.

my toms are a fifth apart. between F#-C# and A-E depending. kick is generally somewhere between D and F#. snares vary, but it's not like it's hard to hit one of those dreaded rimshots and figure out what the note is.

i use a bass as my pitch reference.

wait to hit the pipe until AFTER you've tuned them. trust me.

[Fletcher]

When I care enough to do my very best... I have the bass player play the I of the song... I tune the kik to that... then the IV, and the snare gets the IV... sometimes the V depending on the song [we could go through 7 or so snare drums to find the best sounding drum that tunes to the note in question], then the toms are tuned to sound good with the kik and snare... ringy if the song calls for it, dead if the song's arrangement doesn't permit ringing toms... usually a 5th between the rack and the floor or 4ths if there are 3 toms... 3rd's if I'm working with a drummer who insists on too many fucking drums... but there are damn few times when I'm working with a drummer with that many toms where I give enough of a shit to kill myself with frustration for the better part of a several hours tuning their too many toms.

[JASIII]

I like Andy John's approach. He determines the pitch that the drum shell [edit] BEST resonates at and tunes from there. The drums themselves determine how the heads will be tuned. Makes much more sense to me than trying to match the key of a song, or tune to set intervals, etc.

[rydberg]

On one of the last jazz session I did, I talked extensively to the drummer about how he tuned his kit. Not only is he an excellent player, he's very aware of how his instrument is tuned and how it reacts to other instruments. His tuning system involved every drum tuned to a minor or major third (or sixth) away from each other to avoid sympathetic vibrations from other drums. Whenever he hit the kick drum, nothing else would ring. Same thing with the snare. Made things real easy.


P.?

[thethingwiththestuff]

His tuning system involved every drum tuned to a minor or major third (or sixth) away from each other to avoid sympathetic vibrations from other drums. Whenever he hit the kick drum, nothing else would ring. Same thing with the snare. Made things real easy.


P.?

uh, i've gotta work on something for the next few hours, excuse me....