Dave Weckl tuning drums

[MadJazz]

I have found this great video but the crucial part in the end is missing. Can anyone point me to the original or tell me how it ends?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH_RoUQyv5A

[Jeremy]

i believe that's taken from his video called back to basics.

if i remember right, it makes a pitch bend down because you get the high pitch of the top head and then the low of the bottom, and he talks about using the top head for the amount of stick bounce you want, and the bottom for pitch, but keeping it within reason (not too far apart in pitch). i think he said he keeps his top heads around half a turn tighter than the bottoms.

[fourstringdrums]

This isn't from Back to Basics, I think it's from his most recent dvd. I forget the name. Back to Basics is from the 80's.

[mind_drummer]

It's from the "HOW" series like "How to develop technique" - "How to practice"

Sure it's not from back to basic or Next step because I own both. (actually I own the "HOW" series too but I dont know from which one the clip is from).

[Wavelength]

The excerpt is from the DVD How to develop your own sound.

[mind_drummer]

The excerpt is from the DVD How to develop your own sound.

Got it ! .

[IDDrummer]

I don't necessarily think that having the bottom head looser than the top is where he is going to finish up, so I think quite a bit is missing from this video. In the past, Dave has always been a proponent of tuning the reso tighter to get the pitch bend. I don't know, maybe he's changed his philosophy? I'd like to see the rest of the vid to know.

[mind_drummer]

I don't necessarily think that having the bottom head looser than the top is where he is going to finish up, so I think quite a bit is missing from this video. In the past, Dave has always been a proponent of tuning the reso tighter to get the pitch bend. I don't know, maybe he's changed his philosophy? I'd like to see the rest of the vid to know.

In his back to basics video, in the tuning section, Dave were recommending to have the reso and batter in tune to each other (same pitch).

[MadJazz]

i believe that's taken from his video called back to basics.

if i remember right, it makes a pitch bend down because you get the high pitch of the top head and then the low of the bottom, and he talks about using the top head for the amount of stick bounce you want, and the bottom for pitch, but keeping it within reason (not too far apart in pitch). i think he said he keeps his top heads around half a turn tighter than the bottoms.

Thanks!

Question is, will the sustain remain as short as the first tuning he does (batter tuned low, reso tuned high) if reversing the head tuning (loose bottom with tight top) or will it change drastically ?

I also don't understand the part where he says that the mic won't take a tight reso over a loose batter.

[aydee]

I don't necessarily think that having the bottom head looser than the top is where he is going to finish up, so I think quite a bit is missing from this video. In the past, Dave has always been a proponent of tuning the reso tighter to get the pitch bend. I don't know, maybe he's changed his philosophy? I'd like to see the rest of the vid to know.

Tuning resos 3-5 notes higher/tighter than the batters is actually about 90% of the current thinking on drumsets ..not in the least unique to Weckl.

[Skitch]

i believe that's taken from his video called back to basics.

if i remember right, it makes a pitch bend down because you get the high pitch of the top head and then the low of the bottom, and he talks about using the top head for the amount of stick bounce you want, and the bottom for pitch, but keeping it within reason (not too far apart in pitch). i think he said he keeps his top heads around half a turn tighter than the bottoms.

This is from his newer DVD. In the Back to Basics Video, he has a mullet.


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
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http://www.youtube.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.myspace.com/drummermikemccraw

[Colonel Bat Guano]

Jeremy, I got your back! I don't know how Weckl tunes nowadays, like in this newer video, but I went to a Weckl drum clinic in '89 or '90 and I do remember him going over how he was tuning the bottom head lower to get a more pronounced downward pitch bend. This seemed to work fine on the deeper late 80's Recording Customs he used at the time. **I don't tune my toms like that, btw, so don't nobody chide me, okay.**

..

[MadJazz]

Thanks for the input but seriously, how do you get a fat pitch bend?!? One is saying top higher than bottom, the other says bottom higher than top.

[drumtechdad]

You get a pitch bend either way. Why not try both?

For myself, I like a pitch bend for about five minutes. Then it becomes annoying.

[Jeremy]

Hey yeah sorry about getting the name of the dvd wrong before. i got mixed up on what they were called. I'll try and give my opinion on the tuning to make up for it

in terms of which way to tune for a fat pitch bend...what do you mean?
i've heard of a fat drum sound. to get that you tune the resonant head as low as possible (just tight enough to get the wrinkles out). then you tune the batter head wherever you want for rebound and pitch. It sounds best if you take the batter head into some sort of harmony with whatever pitch the resonant ended up at. For instance, you could take the batter a 5th up from the resonant, or a 4th, or a 3rd, or maybe even an octave if you want the batter insanely tight.

If you want more projection and power, tune the resonant head up a little bit. You can take it either a very small amount up, or up to a 3rd higher than the batter head. higher and it starts to choke. a 3rd will give you very little of the pitch bend sound, but will give you some wavering and harmony within the drum, and the added projection. Lower than that and you'll hear a small pitch bend up and added projection and attack.

Unless you're purely recording, I don't know why you'd want a pitch bend down. The other effects of having a pitch bend down (the resonant slightly lower pitched), is that you lose focus on the attack, the drum sounds a bit muffled, though the pitch is a bit stronger. Now, when recording, that's very nice because it's a strong pitch and they're gonna compress it to death and rebuild the attack anyway. that's probably why weckl did it. however, when playing live it just doesn't cut, and basically sounds like a badly tuned drum because of the muffled, unfocused quality of it.

I'm with drumtechdad and modern-day weckl in not really liking pitch bends. I tune both heads the same. It gives the richest and fullest sound with the most resonance you can get. In addition, since the batter usually falls in pitch faster than the resonance, after a while, if you don't tune, you'll just end up with the resonant a bit higher, giving you more projection, which sounds fine.

you should just try everything. it doesn't really take too long, and you'll get great practice tuning. if you take lessons, try and get your teacher around to tune a drum with you, so you can get his opinion on your particular drum, and get to hear it while tuning and while someone else is playing, so you know how it'll sound to you and an audience.

hope this helps you

[MadJazz]

Jeremy, thanks!

By fat pitch bend I meant a very pronounced decrease in pitch. I thought that by having the reso higher than batter, the pitch might increase instead of dropping!

[the skin man]

It looks similiar to this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhSURjNmKRo

He may be wearing the same shirt, but I'm not sure. That last one is A Natural Evolution.

[IDDrummer]

Funny, when I posted on this thread before I had only seen one Weckl tuning vid and I thought he always tuned more or less the same way. Now I keep seeing different clips and I see he tries different things. I think that's cool. The fact that somebody like Weckl is still experimenting should be an inspiration to us to keep experimenting with our sound, too.

I always learn stuff here. I love it.