Question about Shell Tone and Tuning w/Tune-Bot

Oh Wally... you are just sending me down that rabbit hole. lol Thanks for the clarification.

Wally is right. T-BOT is only reading one head, the other head is muted, drums don't function that way, unless you're tuning a single headed drum.


Tune the heads to the appropriate lung tension that in total equates to that overall fundamental note. Striking the center of the drum gives you the fundamental.

Dependent on how hard you strike, and where in the center you strike? It 'is' ballpark, but its not next level accurate.




Another weakness of TB is the user is required to produce the sound to be read, there's a big inconsitancy there, and its a lot of work IMO, you go nuts tapping and tapping, and you'll never be as accurate as a devise which generates a tone for you and uses that tone to vibrate the drum heads, then calculates the difference between the tones.
 
A light tap in the center of the head with Tunebot will only tell you the lowest fundamental of the top head.

Using a tune bot you do mute the head that you're not tuning, but you can get the pitch of the entire drum once both heads are set. That pitch will be different than the batter or reso head readings by themselves. I use one all the time.

Some guys use their ears, and some benefit from using a tuning aid.

As long as the drums sound good to the individual drummer use what ever it takes to get them there.
 
Wally is right. T-BOT is only reading one head, the other head is muted, drums don't function that way, unless you're tuning a single headed drum.

Tune the heads to the appropriate lung tension that in total equates to that overall fundamental note. Striking the center of the drum gives you the fundamental.

Dependent on how hard you strike, and where in the center you strike? It 'is' ballpark, but its not next level accurate.

Another weakness of TB is the user is required to produce the sound to be read, there's a big inconsitancy there, and its a lot of work IMO, you go nuts tapping and tapping, and you'll never be as accurate as a devise which generates a tone for you and uses that tone to vibrate the drum heads, then calculates the difference between the tones.

Interesting... I might purchase a RESOTUNE II but for now I'm extremely pleased with how well the Tune-Bot works. My drums sound an order of magnitude better with it than they did without.

I think I understand how the tune-by-ear guys feel about the Tune-Bot now. The RESOTUNE seems even more precise and "artless" for lack of a better word when compared to the TB, and that must be how the TB appears to the "ear" tuners. I find myself thinking "I don't need to get that fiddly" when that's probably the reaction I get when evangelizing the Tune-Bot!
 
Interesting... I might purchase a RESOTUNE II but for now I'm extremely pleased with how well the Tune-Bot works. My drums sound an order of magnitude better with it than they did without.

I think I understand how the tune-by-ear guys feel about the Tune-Bot now. The RESOTUNE seems even more precise and "artless" for lack of a better word when compared to the TB, and that must be how the TB appears to the "ear" tuners. I find myself thinking "I don't need to get that fiddly" when that's probably the reaction I get when evangelizing the Tune-Bot!



Im not knocking TBOT, its a useful tool, and yes IMO way better than ones ears on a daily basis.


There 'is' a big problem with RTUNE II, you get so accustomed to tuning accuracy that if your drums fall a half step out of tune you'll be driven crazy, and if you sit in on any lesser tuned kit, you'll be depressed and have to go into shut-out mode and rely on your brain to create the notes for the drums, ear plugs recommended. I play a lot of drum kits that are tuned to ass.

RT II trains your ears for drums, its basically evil that way. You've been warned.
 
First - for the OP's question. I have 10, 12, 14, 16 toms, and I use the Tunebot pitch calculator with maximum resonance and -2 steps pitch, and it gives me very nice repeatable intervals, and my drums sound really good. Note = because many people miss this, using the tunebot, you should always mute the opposite head, and since mine is the original model, you need to use the filter button, once you strike a note that is in the ballpark of what you are trying to tune to.

At Christmas, I picked up a Resotune 2 as a present to myself. I've only used it a couple times so far. Instruction wise, the documentation isn't particularly good, and there aren't many sources for help. But what I did, I used the tunebot to get into 'tune' with my settings from the calculator. Then I put the resotune on, ran the test sequence, and then cleared each lug. And yes I've definitely found that it takes the drum clarity and resonance up another step. it is subtle but definite difference to me, and my drums have never sounded better. If I had a recording studio, I think this is a great tool. I generally play live and unmic'd and the tone and projection of my drums sound louder and clearer to me, at a level that I absolutely can't do by ear.

I think I'd personally struggle using the resotune without having used the tunebot to get into the ballpark first, but maybe that is the proper workflow.
 
My understanding of the notes stamped inside DW's shells is that they are there to insure there is enough separation between the drums. So if you have a 12 and a 13 tom you don't end up with a 13 that likes a pitch closer to where the 12 is. That's it!

You're not supposed to tune the drums to the notes inside the shells!
 
So... to add... I just tuned my 16 x14 Floor tom and my 14x14 Floor tom the exact same, same tensions, same heads, same overall fundamental note. The 16 sounds lower... even my wife thought she heard a difference.

I don't know what this means... but its interesting.

Agree with Wally.

Think of it like a guitar or bass string. If you have two strings of the same gauge with the same tension (measured in units of force), but one of the strings is longer and stretched across a longer fret board, the longer string will produce a lower tone, even though the tension on both strings is equal. Make sense?

The tune bot is not measuring the vibration of the entire head, only the vibrations near the edge of the head by each lug, because of the circular nature of the drum head. So, you are able to check for consistency between lugs, and between the top and bottom heads (assuming the same head type, bearing edge, etc.), but you cannot measure the overall, fundamental note produced by the drum with both heads cooperating.

To measure the overall, fundamental note, strike the drum softly with a mallet, and match the note to a key on a piano. Have a friend with a good ear, who plays piano or guitar, help you. It may take some time, but this skill can be learned, and it's not terribly difficult. Depending on shell dimensions and tuning, the fundamental note will "bend" downward a bit as it sustains. But it will generally hover close enough to a pitch that you can play simple melodies and recognize intervals.
 
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