Arrgh..Please qucik help with tuning toms...

[jraffertyuswest.net]

I have a frustrating time tuning toms, here is why. Every tutorial I have read says to tap the head near each lug and tune them evenly. The problem is, I can almost always hear MORE than one tone when I tap near a specific lug. I hear a high one AND a low one. Which one should I be listening to? Also there have been times when two lugs both sound higher AND lower than each other depending on which tone I listened to. Talk about frustrating. I have tried placing my finger gently in the center of the head and this barely helps. (also I muffle the head I am not tuning on a pillow, the multiple tones are being produced from one head and tapping near ONE lug.)

 

I am really amazed that all the drum tuning tutorials I have read do not address this issue. I have experienced it on several sets of drums. Pinstripes (especially ebonies) and Dots seem to be the worse. Occasionally I come across a bottom head on a tom which is totally clear and tunes easily in about ten seconds because each lug's corrosponding note is exceptionally clear and obvious. A few times after exhaustive sessions, I have tuned drums to a degree that I was very pleased with them. This turned out to be more trial and error than anything. I know if I could figure out this overtone problem when tapping near a lug I could put this tuning nightmare behind me forever.

 

These questions are asked as they relate to tuning for studio recording not live. Thanks for any help you might be able to give on the subject.

-Josh.

[felix stein]

You have to develop your ear to hear thru the overtones to the fundamental of the lug location.'

 

For some people it is easier than others.

 

Finger is a good method...take the drum off the tom Holder (I don't need to do this since I am the great felix stein) and put the thing in your lap.

 

tap the shell with your knuckle while muting both heads (keep pitch in your head) pick up by rim and do the same thing (keep pitch/pitches in that fried noggin of yours.

 

Now see if you can get your heads and lugs locations close to shell pitch...If the heads sounds better a 3rd or so above or below it, don't sweat it. Use the very first pitch or dominant one the lug location throws off as a reference when you tap...forget about the other shit that is going on sonically

 

you could have a bad head, bad bearing edge or stressed out drum...don't be afraid to use tape and don't be afraid of some ring...have someone else hit it and get away from it so you can hear the "cut" with out the overtones...

[Prof.Sound]

Hey Josh,

 

As the author of one of these guides (Drum Tuning Bible) I can really understand your problem. When writing the DTB, I had to struggle with the thought of how does one really get to understand the concept of hearing the tones, and then teach it - hands off so to speak.

 

Many have thought my free guide useful, because its designed to teach in great detail, not only how, but why. This really isn't a promotion of my work but a basis to say, you can do it but you really need to set aside about 3 hours or more with one drum, removed from the kit to get a good knowledge. You may even need to invest in an ear traing program, they are available for your computer cheap.

 

It is essential, until you know what to listen for, to remove both heads and start from scratch. The reason is, until you understand the inter-relationship between the heads and the phase cancellations that occur, tuning with two heads on from the beginning will throw you off and make all those other tones you hear much worse. Once you do this several times, you'll understand whether to tweak one lug, the batter or resonant head to get your desired end result.

 

Not everyone hears pitch the same. Piano tuners are taught from the beginning to pick out the beats or cycles in the wave. Pianos have two and three strings on many of the notes. They too need to isolate the strings on one note to enable them to tune. Otherwise, they get sympathetic vibrations of adjacent strings that cause a cancellation in the fundemental note wave. Much the same a phase problems cause the bass to become absent in the mix or jump out, this same phenominum happens in tuning the drum.

 

So a key component to understanding is to isolate the problem, and then deal with it. For this reason, I teach that you have to remove the drum from the kit and set it on a rug, pad or your drum throne to kill the other head from resonating and then begin the sequence of tuning. The pitch raises by virtue of isolating the one head and it does make it easier to hear the tones. I'm not going to rewrite it all here again because I already did that at the site.

 

But once you isolate the sound to one head, the rest sort of falls into place. As for tapping, I always suggest this:

 

Tap very lightly with the drum key, not the stick. Pick a point around 2" inside the head at each lug. Make sure you tap the same strength, otherwise the pitch changes. Pick out one elemnt of the sound you hear, there will almost never be one tone heard, listen for that tone at each lug, make them all the same, never tune down to a note, always tune up. Raise the drum from the padded surface, whack it once real hard in the center with your stick while holding it from the tom mount. Retune if required.

 

The rest is in the link, I hope I've helped in some small way - you'll get there.

 

[ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: Prof.Sound ]

[k1neta]

Prof. Sound's Drum Tuning Bible has been of great help to me, and lots of others for that matter, I'm sure. I strongly suggest you at least read through it. Mostly, I found it useful in the sense of understanding the why's and how's of drum tuning.

 

Good luck.

 

Kenneth

[larrytkennedyexcite.com]

Ditto on the praise for the Drum Tuning Bible and for the Prof's suggestion of placing the "bottom" head on a rug or pad while tuning the "top" head (you reverse them).

This isolates the head you're tuning to a large degree, although you have to get used to hearing a higher-pitched sound due to the non-resonance of the "bottom" head.

 

Another useful suggestion comes from Peavey's magazine - placing a finger in the center of the drum while you tap near the tension rod - this also helps reduce the resonance and the "extra" sound of the drum.

 

Two final suggestion, once you get the top head tuned, experiment by tuning the bottom head a bit higher, a bit lower, and as close as is possible to the same pitch as the top.

Also, lay the toms on their sides, in order from smallest to largest, and tune the top then the bottom heads to follow a progression of pitches that sound best to you. This step will make the toms sound better as you do fills around the kit.

 

OOPS - I lied, ONE MORE suggestion. Use good heads, top and bottom. The heads which come with some kits - even some good kits - are not capable of being tuned well.

To be nasty, Premier's resonant heads are simply too thin to produce a good tom sound with their batter heads. An Ambassador or G1 weight resonant head will go a long way in making your toms easier to tune and sounding better!