Drummers share your wisdom please

[cat shepard]

I may be the owner of a drumset beginning tomorrow. How do you tune them?

[spookstrickland]

I'm not Drummer but I really dig drums and pay attention when my drummer is talking and he taught me the most awesome thing ever.

The reason a lot of drummers can not get a huge Kick drum sound no matter how big the drum is or how they tune it or how they mic it is because they are "Burring the beater" into the drum  the beater should only contact the head for an instant then be released to let the drum resonate.  Lots of players just hold it there until the next beat and it acts a mute.  it was amazing to see and hear the difference.

Ok that's my 2 cents

Cheers man.  I wish I had a drum kit

[VOLVO)))]

Burying the beater, and letting it fly back are just different playing styles. I keep that bitch in the head, and my kick on my 24 sounds huge, AND so does my 18... It's just a matter of how you want it to sound. I want a sharp loud, round attack. I use wood beaters on both kits, too.

I tune by ear, and use one of those neat torque wrenches they make for tuning your drums. You set a specific tension, and just turn the lugs until it pops, pop it back, repeat. Then check for ripples...

[gatorsnot]

You can read all you want on the web but there is no substitute for someone showing you.  Even then it will take practice.  A drum dial can help a newbie but they cost about $50.

Here's a short interview on the subject.  Click on "FAQs" then page 2


http://www.dmattacks.co.uk/main_fr.htm

[RAGER]

Take your time.  You'll figure it out or you won't.

[cat shepard]

In the past when I lived in the same abode as a kit and no one was home, I would just take the key and adjust the lugs till it sounded good to me, usually adjusting the lug opposite of the one I just adjusted to  insure uniformity and that would work fine. This is MY first kit and I can't wait, hope to get it today. Thanks for the tips.

[Discö Rice]

Burying the beater in the head raises the pitch and chokes the resonance (Specifically, it chokes the fundamental frequency effectively killing your bottom end) slows you down (because you're not letting the springs in your pedals and rebound from the beaters work like they're supposed to), and drains stamina faster (it takes a lot more energy to fight the beaters and heads than it does to let them work like they should). Whether you're playing heel up or heel down it's important to use rebound to your advantage. Relax and embrace it. Also make sure your foot doesn't leave the pedal (unless you're switching between pedals, I guess), as that will also interfere with the cycling of the pedal.

Gator Snot's right - there's no substitue for someone showing you how to tune drums. However, tuning-wise there's a lot of info out there. A quick youtube search will land you almost anything you might be looking for beyond the basics.

[VOLVO)))]

I dont want my kick to resonate a bunch. I bury. I dont get tired anymore unless Im going straight at blasting for minutes on end.

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[fallen]

Loosen all the lugs and do them up finger tight. Then add a half turn to each lug in a crisscross pattern. That should give you a good fundamental low tone.

Now chances are one or more drums will have a bit of a ring to it. If the ringing gets excessive grab a piece of duct tape and stick a shorter piece sticky side to sticky side on the bottom and then stick this to the drum head right next to the rim and it will kill the ring.

You can do this in a few places on the bass drum head for an open sound or just toss a blanket in there for a more traditional dead sound. It's good to have a sheet or blanket around to keep dust off the kit anyway.

[fallen]

I dont want my kick to resonate a bunch. I bury. I dont get tired anymore unless Im going straight at blasting for minutes on end.

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This is how I learned. All the resonation comes from a full front head with a tiny hole and the front is muted by holding the beater. Even on double kick I played that way.

I think drum construction is getting a lot better and drum heads are a lot better and you don't have to do as much anymore to tame the overtones. All the modern drummers seem to play really light and let the beater float.

[hashbrowns]

This may seem like an obvious thing to say but COVER YOUR DRUMSET. I had a friend who played drums and never covered his. So depressing watching a perfectly fine drumset slowly turn into a piece of shit.

[Discö Rice]

I dont want my kick to resonate a bunch. I bury. I dont get tired anymore unless Im going straight at blasting for minutes on end.

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Clearly my experience pales in comparison to your machismo.

[VOLVO)))]

Experience or not, it isnt true to everyone. Keeping it buried also does wonders for my balance.

I just learned how to play a different way, is all.

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[apekillman]

Experience or not, it isnt true to everyone. Keeping it buried also does wonders for my balance.

I just learned how to play a different way, is all.

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You need to work on posture and strengthening your core trunk muscles.  This is a huge achilles heel for my playing.

[blackkrosses]

Please excuse my bluntness. It's is much easier to show a person how to tune drums than type out steps...

Get fresh heads. They'll make it sound like a new kit.
Put them on the drum and tighten all lugs to "finger tight".
Place half the drum on a pillow (to protect the rim) and do chest compressions to the middle of the drum head a few times to stretch it out. I actually put my knee into my kick drum and use all my weight. I've seen people stand and jump on theirs but I don't try that with mine.
Tighten everything to finger tight again and in a star pattern give all the lugs a half or whole turn. I like my drums tuned low but some drums resonate better at different frequencies so mess around for the best sound.
Place your finger in the center of the drum (don't press down) and with a pencil eraser tap the drum approximately an inch away from each lug. Try to get the tones to match tightening or loosening in a star pattern.
Hit that sumbitch. Does it sound sick or sad? You did it wrong, try again.
I usually tune my resonant (bottom) head a little higher that my batter head, about a 1/4-1/2 turn.

help?

[VOLVO)))]

Experience or not, it isnt true to everyone. Keeping it buried also does wonders for my balance.

I just learned how to play a different way, is all.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

You need to work on posture and strengthening your core trunk muscles.  This is a huge achilles heel for my playing.

I sit straight up, because I can't sit any other way, due to my throne having a back rest... I'm just big, and goofy, so I have a hard time keeping my feet rolling when I get passed using my whole leg.

[Pundan]

Please excuse my bluntness. It's is much easier to show a person how to tune drums than type out steps...

Get fresh heads. They'll make it sound like a new kit.
Put them on the drum and tighten all lugs to "finger tight".
Place half the drum on a pillow (to protect the rim) and do chest compressions to the middle of the drum head a few times to stretch it out. I actually put my knee into my kick drum and use all my weight. I've seen people stand and jump on theirs but I don't try that with mine.
Tighten everything to finger tight again and in a star pattern give all the lugs a half or whole turn. I like my drums tuned low but some drums resonate better at different frequencies so mess around for the best sound.
Place your finger in the center of the drum (don't press down) and with a pencil eraser tap the drum approximately an inch away from each lug. Try to get the tones to match tightening or loosening in a star pattern.
Hit that sumbitch. Does it sound sick or sad? You did it wrong, try again.
I usually tune my resonant (bottom) head a little higher that my batter head, about a 1/4-1/2 turn.

help?

Now I know why my drummer's kit goes out of tune very often. Thanks!

[blackkrosses]

Please excuse my bluntness. It's is much easier to show a person how to tune drums than type out steps...

Get fresh heads. They'll make it sound like a new kit.
Put them on the drum and tighten all lugs to "finger tight".
Place half the drum on a pillow (to protect the rim) and do chest compressions to the middle of the drum head a few times to stretch it out. I actually put my knee into my kick drum and use all my weight. I've seen people stand and jump on theirs but I don't try that with mine.
Tighten everything to finger tight again and in a star pattern give all the lugs a half or whole turn. I like my drums tuned low but some drums resonate better at different frequencies so mess around for the best sound.
Place your finger in the center of the drum (don't press down) and with a pencil eraser tap the drum approximately an inch away from each lug. Try to get the tones to match tightening or loosening in a star pattern.
Hit that sumbitch. Does it sound sick or sad? You did it wrong, try again.
I usually tune my resonant (bottom) head a little higher that my batter head, about a 1/4-1/2 turn.

help?

Now I know why my drummer's kit goes out of tune very often. Thanks!

Nice to know I was informative.
Now the tricky part is to find the nicest way to tell your drummer to change.

[chlorpromazine]

tune radially, and resist the temptation to tension too high
find equal pitch across all the tension rods, and start just above wrinkle tight
you really just have to develop an ear for it in the end

edit:
burying the kick beater is bad technique
if you want your drum to sound dead, dampen it
using your kick foot for balance is also a no-no
if your posture is straight up and down, then look at the height that you have your throne set to for balance

[blackkrosses]

if your posture is straight up and down, then look at the height that you have your throne set to for balance

This is extremely important. If you are uncomfortable in your stool you will play badly. I like to keep my thighs at a downward angle. Everyone has a different way of sitting but you're absolutely right.

[bass sic]

How many drummers does it take to tune a kit? I'll refrain from the rest of the joke because my own kit is badly out of tune.

[blackkrosses]

I get it.

...

[Peter Holland]

I may be the owner of a drumset beginning tomorrow. How do you tune them?

Gaff tape....or moon gel

[justJon]

I, personally, don't like taping, gelling, muffling the drums in any way. That "ring" can be tuned out, if it's an annoying overtone/harmonic, but a lot of the "ring" that sound guys/engineers/guitarists want to get rid of is really the true voice of the drum. They're not built to sound like cardboard boxes.

If you're close mic'ing everything and you don't like the ring, try some other mic'ing techniques. The ring is what lets the drum be heard above/among the other instruments. You're playing acoustic instruments that have to compete with whatever electronics the other guys in the band show up with. Don't muffle them!

[spookstrickland]

I, personally, don't like taping, gelling, muffling the drums in any way. That "ring" can be tuned out, if it's an annoying overtone/harmonic, but a lot of the "ring" that sound guys/engineers/guitarists want to get rid of is really the true voice of the drum. They're not built to sound like cardboard boxes.

If you're close mic'ing everything and you don't like the ring, try some other mic'ing techniques. The ring is what lets the drum be heard above/among the other instruments. You're playing acoustic instruments that have to compete with whatever electronics the other guys in the band show up with. Don't muffle them!

Tuning is the key and you don't always have to tune the top and bottom head to the same pitch either.  I played with a drummer that got a massive clear sound with out the ringing by doing that.