Tuning drums?

[carlthegroover]

Ok, I'm having a hard time to fathom the concept of "tuning the drums" in a drumkit. I always end up asking myself "what the heck does that mean?". I asked my former drummer, but he couldn't find an easy way to explain it to me.

As far as drumming goes, I've banged the band's drumkit a few times, and I play drums in Rockband occasionally... so not a big drummer yet. I know almost nothing about drumming technicalities.

So, I'd like to ask TB-ers who are knowledgeable in percussion to explain this. How should a kit sound when tuned properly? What is the standard (f.i. what is the drummer's equivalent to the bassist/ guitarist's tuner or pitch pipe)? How should the drums be tuned to each other? How does tuning exactly work?Etc.

Thanks.

[bongomania]

It's an interesting and complex system. By "system" I mean both the method of tuning, and the fact that each piece of the drum kit resonates with each other piece, and many drums have two heads that resonate with each other; so the entire thing is like one big complex organism.

First, each drum shell has its own resonant frequencies, the pitches where it will sound out the loudest and clearest. If you look inside a DW drum shell you'll see they actually mark each shell with a musical note, that they determined by knocking on it and listening. Each shell may resonate at more than one frequency though.

Next you have the primary (batter) head. It needs to be tightened with exactly even tension all around its perimeter, and you tighten it overall "more" or "less" with the aim of finding a spot where the air moved by the head triggers one of the resonant frequencies of the drum shell. There is always at least one sweet spot; there may be two or more. IOW with one drum you might be able to find (for example) three different pitches where it sounds loud and clear. So then it's up to you to decide which of those frequencies sounds best with the rest of the kit.

Next you have the resonator head. You tune this to reinforce the resonance that's already occurring with the batter head and the shell.

Lastly you have the whole kit as an ensemble to consider. Imagine it as one guitar chord, and just like a chord, each of the drums can sound sweet or dissonant together. In the case of conga drums, they are often tuned in 4ths just like a bass. In the case of a trap kit, it's up to the taste and discretion of the drummer. Usually most trap drummers are just glad to have each drum in tune by itself, and can't be bothered to think about the whole kit.

[Mugre]

Very Generally, a drum is tuned so that it is neither to high or too low for it's drum shell size so it speaks well. All the rods on each side should be at the same tension--tuned in a star pattern like lugs on a wheel so the head seats evenly and it helps avoid dissonant overtones. Bottom head is tuned the same (on toms) as the top to get the longest note. A bottom head that is looser than the top sounds looser, flappier, tubbier. Bottom head tighter, shortens the decay and adds high harmonics. Some drummers will de-tune one lug significantly looser to get a downward slide in pitch. Toms usually wind up being tuned (roughly) in fourths to each other. This wasn't by design but seems to happen naturally except in a 4 piece where the rack tom and the floor tom seem to wind up a fifth apart due to the larger difference in shell sizes without intermediate toms. One drummer I knew wasn't happy with his toms till he could play the horses' "call to the gate" and have it sound right. Snares are tuned tighter and the bottom (snare) side usually winds up a little tighter than the top which helps "dry out" the sound which is another way of saying that it shortens the decay time and keeps the sound crisp. Kick drums seem to have more variation. What I did is to just remove the wrinkles and then put about another 1/2 turn on the lugs. I had a small cut out on the front head and adjusted the front head until the drum had just a hint of note instead of just thud. Drums and cymbals don't have specific pitches (they can but it's hard to do on a two headed drum. Drums harmonize with pitched instruments because they contain enough of all harmonics to sound okay with just about any pitch. Drummer who tune high and go for really long decay do have to fight inharmonicity with the other pitched instruments against certain root tones.

There are LOTS of exceptions and many drummers are not systematical about tuning in any way but those are also the guy whom while they may be great players, frequently have to hire drum tuning gurus when they get to a real studio.

[avvie]

I try to have our drummer tuned in Drop D, but he has a real hangup about tuning in F#.

[P. Aaron]

Ginger Baker's playing tuned drums in White Room. That's fairly obvious.

Bill Bruford's snare drum sound is unmistakeable...thus some tuning going on there.

An attentive drummer (please send more!) will probably tune their kit so the toms have tone and vibe. They are instruments. The many years that I did play drums, I always tuned my toms for the best possible tone. Whether they corresponded to concert pitch or not was coincidental.

Them Nashville studio dudes probably tune their kits per the performer and the songs...so as to not clog all the ranges going on.