Tuning Advice, Por Favor

mmulcahy1

Platinum Member
Well, I got the "new to me" Acrolite all cleaned up that I posted about yesterday, and she's full of sparkle and looks great. I have to say, the drum looks brand new.

I feel, however, that I'm having a slight tuning problem.

If you all wouldn't mind giving me some feedback by taking a listen, I would greatly appreciate it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ksrHZ85lFI

Sorry that the audio is not of great quality. I shot this with my phone.

I would like it to sound more like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yw89Y9dFp8


Here's some drum porn just to hold your interest.
 

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One thing's for sure, you gatta crank that reso up nice and tight. It sounds very low. Then tune the batter to what ever tension you want ( low, medium, high ). Try to torque the lugs all eveningly ( even tension ). Nice drum. Good luck!
 
One thing's for sure, you gatta crank that reso up nice and tight. It sounds very low. Then tune the batter to what ever tension you want ( low, medium, high ). Try to torque the lugs all eveningly ( even tension ). Nice drum. Good luck!

Snare drum tuning is my greatest weakness on the kit. To me, the reso head seems pretty damned tight. But since I have a snare drum tuning deficiency, I'm probably wrong.
 
Didn't sound bad to me. You can crank those drums tight, or they sound good low and sloshy too. What don't you like about that? It sounded a little dead in the middle, but that's normal. I thought it sounded fine. You can get many different sounds from that drum. Depends what you like. But whether tuned high or low, I like my snare reso tight tight tight. To the point where you almost think you are gonna stretch the reso head right out of the hoop. It just makes the drum come alive, IMO. If you want the sound on the other vid, crank that reso. Your top head...you shouldn't have to do much with that. It sounds about right.
 
Also, what kind of reso is on it now? An Evans Hazy 300 would be ideal.
 
Something you have to consider as well, is the difference in recording the snares. No two recording devices record the same. I've noticed a mic hooked up to my computer doesn't hear sound the same as my Nikon D5100, for example. Or you don't know what kind of recording techniques or postproduction they employed.


I have an Acro (with tube lugs) and a G1, and I could never achieve that kinda tuning. Not that I am great at tuning, but anytime I set it to medium, it just didn't sound as well to me as it did in the video. Now I have it to a batter/high and reso/almost as high that gives me a great poppy sound that goes great with my kit.
 
Try tuning the the reso a fourth higher than the batter. Think "here comes the bride". Reso's are very thin. If they become to stretched out they lose their tone so make sure it's not to old.
 
Are you using the internal dampener? if so you might want to back off a bit and let it ring some more. I would suggest getting a Drumdial because the reso will only go so tight then start stretching, A Drumdial will help you get in the ballpark much faster and train your ear to recognize tuning to tension relations. It does sound fine to me but completely dampened.
 
I think it sounds good, but I agree with the others that said that the snare side sounds a little low. The snare in the clip you're aiming for definitely has a higher snare side and a lower batter.

Whenever anyone is having trouble, I always recommend watching the Bob Gatzen video on snare tuning. His method will get you a good snare sound pretty quickly or at least a few ideas and concepts that might help you find your own particular sound.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I ended up cranking the reso a lot higher, and his seems to have helped.

Drumdial reading is at 83.
 
Great. Now you should tighten your batter up evenly until it sounds the way you want it too. By the way, that's a nice snare. Good grab.
 
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