Zildjian232
Senior Member
Hey Fellas,
I feel that I have been playing drums for far to long to ask this question, but it has been bugging me, and I haven't seen anyone else bring this up ever. So, I thought I would ask.
*I'm not asking for tuning tips
A while back, my band got paired up to open for this Legit Van Halen Cover band(somehow, not even close to the same genre). The drummer had a big Tommy Lee type kit. 2 bass drums, probably 6 or 7 oversized toms, cymbals behind it, gong, etc. For Logistic purposes, I had to play his kit.
When I sat down and started to feel my way around the kit, the toms sounded like GARBAGE. The pitches were all wayward, and the toms weren't resonating right,etc. I of course didn't really have time to tune things up, plus it wasn't my kit to tweak with. We recorded that show, and I was thinking about how bad the toms would sound. To my amazement, when I got the mix from the board. The toms sounded AMAZING, just as good or better than recordings on my very own kit.
So I know that the room, mic placment, type of mics, etc are all variables in this. Although, the question beckons...Do you guys approach tuning drums a bit differently for a live situation? Might be a dumb question, but I thought I'd ask.
I feel that I have been playing drums for far to long to ask this question, but it has been bugging me, and I haven't seen anyone else bring this up ever. So, I thought I would ask.
*I'm not asking for tuning tips
A while back, my band got paired up to open for this Legit Van Halen Cover band(somehow, not even close to the same genre). The drummer had a big Tommy Lee type kit. 2 bass drums, probably 6 or 7 oversized toms, cymbals behind it, gong, etc. For Logistic purposes, I had to play his kit.
When I sat down and started to feel my way around the kit, the toms sounded like GARBAGE. The pitches were all wayward, and the toms weren't resonating right,etc. I of course didn't really have time to tune things up, plus it wasn't my kit to tweak with. We recorded that show, and I was thinking about how bad the toms would sound. To my amazement, when I got the mix from the board. The toms sounded AMAZING, just as good or better than recordings on my very own kit.
So I know that the room, mic placment, type of mics, etc are all variables in this. Although, the question beckons...Do you guys approach tuning drums a bit differently for a live situation? Might be a dumb question, but I thought I'd ask.