I know most drummers give negative feedback at the mention of anything automatic about drum tuning, but I heard mixed results about the results of a drum torque keys. I've only been playing for 2 months and still can't tune my heads correctly. I know there is nothing better than tuning by ear, but I am getting frustrated.
Can any give me some advice on this situation? If you think I should get a torque key, what one? I have also heard that they don't work on diecast hoops. How could I find that out? I have a Pearl Export EXR series
Don't know if you just want to try the drum dial, it is cheap and it works.
Because
tuning is keeping consistent tension (read mostly equal) in all rods. The DD helps you achieve that with ease, and it even gives you suggested tension numbers for each drum.
Of course you can use less or more depending on what particular sound you are looking for:
Less tension= more lower end tone, less higher end and of course more tension= less lower end more higher end tone.
For example say: the Drum Dial tells you to use 60 for a 10 inch tom's batter head and 65 for the resonant head, those numbers would give you a very nice sounding tom
even with a super cheap tom and super cheap head.
You could alter those numbers up or down to tune closer to what you like.
As long as you keep the same number for all rods you should be very well in tune.
If you want to take it a step further (
unnecessary but you can) use an app that can "listen" to your drum and give you a sample of a tuned drum so you can match to that. (I wouldn't do that because that is going to entail you knowing more about tuning that simply using the Drum Dial). But I guess that is the point, for you to learn how to listen to what is tuned and what is not.
* I can't remember of the top of my head what numbers DD recommends for toms so that number was just used to illustrate the example.