OK Pete, I agree on the improvement. It's not totally doing it for me yet though, but I do understand that camera mics color the sound considerably. It probably sounds better standing right next to it. For me, if I can pick out a pure tone, or note...that's my tuning goal. The more prominent the note, the better. I was getting a note from your latest vid, but not enough of one.
Yea, when I hear nothing but slap and then a thud for the decay, the drum is tuned too low to project. The note is too low to be heard. It sounds it's best within 4 feet, maybe less, tuned that way. Not enough to have a good tone in the crowd, unless you like the cardboard tone.
Here's what I go for: I'll make it as simple as I can.
If you have a drum dial, and know how to use one (they're tricky!) then 75 batter 83 reso. That's it!
Those numbers apply to single ply, 10 mil heads only. 2 ply heads will need more. 7.5 mil heads will need less.
Drum size doesn't matter. All my toms are tuned just right using those exact same numbers.
This makes for a definite pure note, that is very noticeable. It sings out. Ding! Doom! DAMN!
I play 3 toms, 10, 12, and 16. 75 and 83 yield an interval of a fourth between the 2 racks, and my 16" floor is the same note as my 10" tom, only an octave (or 2?) lower. Love that tuning. It's the only one I use actually. If you sing the song in your head, "Here Comes The Bride", that line, is a perfect fourth. So my 12" rack tom sings the note that corresponds to the word "here"... and "comes the bride"... is the note my 10" tom sings.
OK if you don't have a drum dial, then it's a little trickier. Using a pitch pipe, if I hit dead center like I am playing the drum, my 12" rack sings a C# and my 10" rack sings an F#. (a perfect fourth apart) The first tricky part is the bottom reso needs to be tuned 1 octave above the batter, as determined by the harmonic note.
How do you get the harmonic note? Put the drum on the floor, negating the opposite head. Lightly place your fingertip dead center of the exposed head to mute the fundamental, and using a drumstick tip, tap directly in front of a lug. That's the harmonic note. Get them all to match at each lug, (called "clearing" the head) tuned to the proper note of course, then get the reso side to sing a harmonic that is an octave higher than the (properly pitched) batter head.
There's another catch to tuning to a pitch pipe. When the drum is hit dead center, the note is say a C#, the harmonic note won't be a C#. Nature of the drum. That's another reason it's tricky. You have to tune the fundamental to the proper pitch, by ear, then "clear" the head. Then tune the reso relative to the properly tuned batter head.
Phew! Nothin to it!
The point is to make the drum sing a pure note. For the drum to project over a distance, the note needs to be in the drums mid to high midrange. Floor toms included. (bass and snare excluded) It's the pitch of the drum that's important, the tension. To get it to carry, you have to tune it higher than you would think. Listen past the overtones to the fundamental note. The shell has to be at a critical tension or above to contribute what it was born for. When you start hearing a midrange note, then you are getting in the ballpark. IMO nearly all drums I hear in a bar setting are tuned way too low. They could get so much more from them.
You have the heads and tuning relationship of max tone, not a dead thwack. Your toms are musical. your 12" maple tom really shines in this btw. Maple really sings/jives at that medium tom size range. Great sounding drum, again.
