T
TwoCables
Guest
So, last night I had my first gig since I bought the tune-bot (keep in mind that all of my gigs are unmiked except for my bass drum). On Wednesday, I tuned my toms (10", 12", and 14") in my basement using the tune-bot. They always have a poor sound down here, so I did the best that I could. Unfortunately, I didn't think to bring my snare home. I didn't have room in the car for my bass drum when I brought the toms home, and the practice room is a 30-minute drive away with very limited access due to it being the place of business owned by the guy who runs the band. It's worth it though because this is the best band that I've ever been in and he has equipment that makes hauling our gear as easy as pie - including my entire drum kit! This means that all I have to do is show up and set my drums up! When we go home, he takes them back to the practice room at his place of business with ease.
Note: my drums are Stage Customs from 1997, the original ones that were made before Yamaha began improving them. I had the bearing edges recut by Ellis Drum Shop here in St. Paul about 4 years ago, and a few years before that I retro-fitted my toms with the RIMS mounts that were made by Pacific back then (they look identical to what you can get from Gibralter these days).
So, I get to the gig, set up, and then I played the toms one after another. My 10" sounded a little choked, but the 12" and 14" were basically ok. Using the tune-bot, I lowered the 10" tom a bit and it opened up enough that I figured that it would be good enough. I mean, the room at this venue isn't very good for toms. I had to retune the 12" and 14" because the tune-bot showed me that my heads detuned a little. So, using the tune-bot, I tuned them back up and they sounded a bit better. Although again, this venue isn't very good for toms.
How long did that take? Longer than you'd expect because I kept playing with different tunings on my 14". lol I think I tried about 5 different tunings because again, that room sucks for toms and so it made it hard for me to get a good sound out of that 14" (the smaller toms had a better sound than the 14"), but this was a very useful learning experience. Although if it weren't for that, then it probably would have taken a grand total of maybe 5-10 minutes between all 3 toms for both the top and bottom heads because I had already tuned them up as perfectly as I could on Wednesday! The next time I do a quick re-tuning like this at a gig or at practice, it will probably take me 5 minutes to retune the batter and resonant heads of all 3 toms because now I have a better idea of what lug frequencies I want for each tom (and the snare, as I'm about to mention).
So then came the snare drum. I have been chasing a better sound out of my snare for as long as I've owned it, which is about 4 years now. It's a 14" x 5½" Jeff Ocheltree "Heavy Metals" Carbon Steel snare. Out of the box, it was a wet dream both in terms of sound and stick feel. As I played with the tuning more and more, it got worse and worse. Fast forward 4 years, and now it's garbage. Or, it was! So I began by checking the lug pitches and yep, I was beginning to see why it had an ugly sound. lol Thanks to the tune-bot, I got the batter head perfectly in tune with itself. I did the same with the resonant side, first seeing why my snare sound was so ugly and then getting the head perfectly in tune with itself, or as best as I could thanks to the snare bed.
I also had to remember that Overtone Labs recommends that for 14" snares, we tune the lug frequency of the snare side 1.5 times higher than the lug frequency of the batter side, but only up to a batter head lug frequency of 266 Hz because they recommend not going past a snare side lug frequency of 400 Hz. Going past 266 Hz requires smaller differences, such as 299 x 1.33 for a perfect fourth resulting in a snare side lug frequency of 398 Hz, or 318 x 1.26 for a major third resulting in a snare side lug frequency of 400 Hz. They recommend keeping the snare side at 400 Hz for batter side lug frequencies higher than 318 Hz, but not exceeding a batter lug frequency of 356 Hz in order to avoid choking the snare with the top head. Exceeding a snare side lug frequency of 400 Hz can choke the snare from the snare side head and it can also over-stretch that head.
Fortunately, I had a calculator, but I was running out of time (lol I love how that sounds). I think my batter head was at like 320 Hz before I started re-tuning and my snare side was 400 Hz (whew), but some lugs were at like 380 Hz. The batter side was just about as uneven. It was an ugly mess. So, to save time, I just put it in the ballpark of the only recommendation I could remember based on some of the quick calculations I was doing before re-tuning the had: their "Perfect Fourth" recommendation of 299 Hz for the batter and 398 Hz for the snare side. I only had enough time to get the batter down to what I think was about 302 Hz or something (but exactly 302 Hz at each lug!), and the snare side had to be left at roughly 395 Hz at each lug (I brought it down way too far and I ended up having to go back up). Although, I couldn't get it to be exactly 395 by each lug because there were always two lugs that wanted to be much lower than the rest and I didn't have time to fix it - but I know how to fix that. So, even with this quick and dirty snare tuning, the snare sounded lovely, especially in comparison to the sound that I used to get in this bar that I played at last night. It really made my night! What's great though is that there's still huge room for improvement with my snare! I bet that I'll be able to get that "wet dream" sound again. lol
Now, in this band, my dad is the bassist. He and I have been playing together for at least 18 or 19 years, and I've been playing the same drums now for about 16 years. So, he knows the sound of my drums! Well, my dad couldn't stop raving about the sound of my drums, and they're just cheap 1997 Yamaha Stage Customs (made before Yamaha began improving them). Although, I do have RIMS mounts that were made by Pacific drums which look identical to what you can get from Gibralter these days, and I also had Ellis Drum Shop here in St. Paul recut my bearing edges and I always use clear G1s on my toms, but still. He was going on and on about how awesome he felt they sounded. In all the years that I've been playing with him, he has never said anything like this about the sound of my drums. He also raved about the sound of my snare when I asked him, but he was raving more about the toms because they were just that much better than they were before. He said he could easily tell when I was playing my 10", or my 12", or my 14". He didn't know the exact terminology, but I got him to say that yes, they used to be quite dead sounding. So yeah, he LOVED the sound!
I've been in this band for about 3½ years now, and the other guys were raving as well - although, they're both the strong and quiet type so I didn't get as much out of them as I got out of my dad. lol But I could tell that they felt the same way that my dad did.
When we got home (yeah, I still live with my parents), my dad and I were still talking about the drastically improved sound of my toms. I don't remember everything he said, but the one thing I do remember was something like this: he said something about how they reminded him of when you hear toms on a very good studio recording that make you say things like, "Whoa, those toms sound awesome!" He also said that the improved sound of my toms and my snare seemed to make the whole band sound better and play better, including making it easier for us to blend well.
My dad also had a musician friend show up at our gig to see us play, and during one of our breaks he complimented me on my sound. Like, the way he said it made it clear to me that he was trying to make sure that I knew that he genuinely meant it. He said something like this: "and your drums sound good... really good". I could tell by the look in his eyes and the look on his face and his facial gestures and eye movements when he said this that he really meant it, as though he was adding "really good" in order to make sure I knew that he wasn't just trying to be nice but that he was trying to let me know exactly how he feels. It meant a lot to me because this guy is in his 50s who easily has at least 40 years of experience as a musician.
I spent $107.11 on the tune-bot (after tax), but I'm getting far more value out of it than that. My gig last night alone easily gave it more value than $107.11. I will never go back to tuning strictly by ear ever again.
Note: my drums are Stage Customs from 1997, the original ones that were made before Yamaha began improving them. I had the bearing edges recut by Ellis Drum Shop here in St. Paul about 4 years ago, and a few years before that I retro-fitted my toms with the RIMS mounts that were made by Pacific back then (they look identical to what you can get from Gibralter these days).
So, I get to the gig, set up, and then I played the toms one after another. My 10" sounded a little choked, but the 12" and 14" were basically ok. Using the tune-bot, I lowered the 10" tom a bit and it opened up enough that I figured that it would be good enough. I mean, the room at this venue isn't very good for toms. I had to retune the 12" and 14" because the tune-bot showed me that my heads detuned a little. So, using the tune-bot, I tuned them back up and they sounded a bit better. Although again, this venue isn't very good for toms.
How long did that take? Longer than you'd expect because I kept playing with different tunings on my 14". lol I think I tried about 5 different tunings because again, that room sucks for toms and so it made it hard for me to get a good sound out of that 14" (the smaller toms had a better sound than the 14"), but this was a very useful learning experience. Although if it weren't for that, then it probably would have taken a grand total of maybe 5-10 minutes between all 3 toms for both the top and bottom heads because I had already tuned them up as perfectly as I could on Wednesday! The next time I do a quick re-tuning like this at a gig or at practice, it will probably take me 5 minutes to retune the batter and resonant heads of all 3 toms because now I have a better idea of what lug frequencies I want for each tom (and the snare, as I'm about to mention).
So then came the snare drum. I have been chasing a better sound out of my snare for as long as I've owned it, which is about 4 years now. It's a 14" x 5½" Jeff Ocheltree "Heavy Metals" Carbon Steel snare. Out of the box, it was a wet dream both in terms of sound and stick feel. As I played with the tuning more and more, it got worse and worse. Fast forward 4 years, and now it's garbage. Or, it was! So I began by checking the lug pitches and yep, I was beginning to see why it had an ugly sound. lol Thanks to the tune-bot, I got the batter head perfectly in tune with itself. I did the same with the resonant side, first seeing why my snare sound was so ugly and then getting the head perfectly in tune with itself, or as best as I could thanks to the snare bed.
I also had to remember that Overtone Labs recommends that for 14" snares, we tune the lug frequency of the snare side 1.5 times higher than the lug frequency of the batter side, but only up to a batter head lug frequency of 266 Hz because they recommend not going past a snare side lug frequency of 400 Hz. Going past 266 Hz requires smaller differences, such as 299 x 1.33 for a perfect fourth resulting in a snare side lug frequency of 398 Hz, or 318 x 1.26 for a major third resulting in a snare side lug frequency of 400 Hz. They recommend keeping the snare side at 400 Hz for batter side lug frequencies higher than 318 Hz, but not exceeding a batter lug frequency of 356 Hz in order to avoid choking the snare with the top head. Exceeding a snare side lug frequency of 400 Hz can choke the snare from the snare side head and it can also over-stretch that head.
Fortunately, I had a calculator, but I was running out of time (lol I love how that sounds). I think my batter head was at like 320 Hz before I started re-tuning and my snare side was 400 Hz (whew), but some lugs were at like 380 Hz. The batter side was just about as uneven. It was an ugly mess. So, to save time, I just put it in the ballpark of the only recommendation I could remember based on some of the quick calculations I was doing before re-tuning the had: their "Perfect Fourth" recommendation of 299 Hz for the batter and 398 Hz for the snare side. I only had enough time to get the batter down to what I think was about 302 Hz or something (but exactly 302 Hz at each lug!), and the snare side had to be left at roughly 395 Hz at each lug (I brought it down way too far and I ended up having to go back up). Although, I couldn't get it to be exactly 395 by each lug because there were always two lugs that wanted to be much lower than the rest and I didn't have time to fix it - but I know how to fix that. So, even with this quick and dirty snare tuning, the snare sounded lovely, especially in comparison to the sound that I used to get in this bar that I played at last night. It really made my night! What's great though is that there's still huge room for improvement with my snare! I bet that I'll be able to get that "wet dream" sound again. lol
Now, in this band, my dad is the bassist. He and I have been playing together for at least 18 or 19 years, and I've been playing the same drums now for about 16 years. So, he knows the sound of my drums! Well, my dad couldn't stop raving about the sound of my drums, and they're just cheap 1997 Yamaha Stage Customs (made before Yamaha began improving them). Although, I do have RIMS mounts that were made by Pacific drums which look identical to what you can get from Gibralter these days, and I also had Ellis Drum Shop here in St. Paul recut my bearing edges and I always use clear G1s on my toms, but still. He was going on and on about how awesome he felt they sounded. In all the years that I've been playing with him, he has never said anything like this about the sound of my drums. He also raved about the sound of my snare when I asked him, but he was raving more about the toms because they were just that much better than they were before. He said he could easily tell when I was playing my 10", or my 12", or my 14". He didn't know the exact terminology, but I got him to say that yes, they used to be quite dead sounding. So yeah, he LOVED the sound!
I've been in this band for about 3½ years now, and the other guys were raving as well - although, they're both the strong and quiet type so I didn't get as much out of them as I got out of my dad. lol But I could tell that they felt the same way that my dad did.
When we got home (yeah, I still live with my parents), my dad and I were still talking about the drastically improved sound of my toms. I don't remember everything he said, but the one thing I do remember was something like this: he said something about how they reminded him of when you hear toms on a very good studio recording that make you say things like, "Whoa, those toms sound awesome!" He also said that the improved sound of my toms and my snare seemed to make the whole band sound better and play better, including making it easier for us to blend well.
My dad also had a musician friend show up at our gig to see us play, and during one of our breaks he complimented me on my sound. Like, the way he said it made it clear to me that he was trying to make sure that I knew that he genuinely meant it. He said something like this: "and your drums sound good... really good". I could tell by the look in his eyes and the look on his face and his facial gestures and eye movements when he said this that he really meant it, as though he was adding "really good" in order to make sure I knew that he wasn't just trying to be nice but that he was trying to let me know exactly how he feels. It meant a lot to me because this guy is in his 50s who easily has at least 40 years of experience as a musician.
I spent $107.11 on the tune-bot (after tax), but I'm getting far more value out of it than that. My gig last night alone easily gave it more value than $107.11. I will never go back to tuning strictly by ear ever again.