Honest input please

My honest input would be to learn how to tune your toms properly. use the timbre note and tune both heads as much as a minor 3rd note above the timbre. dude to be painfully honest, i think your snare needs help. i usually take the snares off to tune the bottom head, after that, take the tension down in ALL the lugs. (top and bottom) then twist the key on the bottom 5-half turns... 2 1/2 full turns clock wise. then do that working your way across then skip a lug and so on till you're done with the bottom head. then carefully check the pitch of each lug about 1-2" out from the rim and tune them as close as possible, never going down to tune, always tune up going clock wise... do the same for the top head then put the snares back on, set the tension that you like and it will sound much better... last week i tuned my buddies $100 snare and made it sound like it was a $400 snare... beautiful!
 
Literally got the snare last night and had to work today. Haven't even touched it other than to play that. Timbre note? Am I missing something there?
 
The sound byte wasn't long enough for me to make any conclusions, but from what I heard, they do need a bit of work.

Dennis
 
My honest input would be to learn how to tune your toms properly. use the timbre note and tune both heads as much as a minor 3rd note above the timbre. dude to be painfully honest, i think your snare needs help. i usually take the snares off to tune the bottom head, after that, take the tension down in ALL the lugs. (top and bottom) then twist the key on the bottom 5-half turns... 2 1/2 full turns clock wise. then do that working your way across then skip a lug and so on till you're done with the bottom head. then carefully check the pitch of each lug about 1-2" out from the rim and tune them as close as possible, never going down to tune, always tune up going clock wise... do the same for the top head then put the snares back on, set the tension that you like and it will sound much better... last week i tuned my buddies $100 snare and made it sound like it was a $400 snare... beautiful!

your sig says blisters are part of the formula that makes a great drummer

if you get blisters when you play all it means is that you are using very poor technique ....so I would have to argue that getting blisters has nothing to do with any good drummers besides that fact that they have not learned proper technique

just an observation
 
your sig says blisters are part of the formula that makes a great drummer (...)
Glad somebody addressed this! Might sound cool but... can be avoided if you use some common sense.

And that sample is really way too short to make any judgement.
 
Ok, thanks. While I have been drumming for quite awhile, I have never master tuning as this is actually the first real kit I have owned. Had it for about 5 years. Believe it or not, I am trying to find a tuned drum to listen to that hasn't been through heavy processing to help find my tone. All I can seem to find though I'd marching band stuff. Time to wade throught YouTube I guess to here what a drum sounds like in tune. I have tried a drum dial, but everything seemed high pitched with it. Maybe it's just my ears though :(
 
Ok, kinda messed with the tuning a little. Here is a longer sound byte. My 8 and 10 are totally different wood than the other toms. They are also much shallower, maybe 6" at the deepest. The 12 sounds completely dead, but with a headache I got tired of messing with it. I guess I am looking for the "singing" that drums do. My previous drumming was in a church where the drum heads were never replaced that I can think of. This is why I say maybe I have never heard a tuned drum in person. Higher, lower, or just burn the set and get a new one. This is a Olympic by Premier from the late 60' to mid 70's. The price was right, at free. The are African Mahogany shells, with the exception of the 8 and 10. No clue on those.

http://soundcloud.com/mister_fister/tom-sound-bit
 
soulfly28 said:
How do the toms sound.

I think that I'd probably have that 12" tuned into roughly the same range as your 8" is now, then bring up everything around it, including both the floors, which are pretty low as well.
The 8" and 10" are too close in pitch and could both go up at least an octave....oh, and be tuned not so closely to each other.
Or not.


Of course, you could do a million tunings. A milllllion.....
 
That's kinda what I was looking for, was high or low. Now, if I raise the tuning on the floor toms, will that kill my resonance that I have out of them now? Thank you btw, for all the comments.
 
I dunno how much attention you've given to tuning the bottom heads, but I'd make sure those are matched or a little bit higher than the top heads. This will help tons, especially with the floor toms. Once the drum is in tune with it's self it can then be taken to the pitch where it sounds best to your ear.

Hopefully that helps.

-Jonathan
 
You're getting a good tone from the 8" and the 10", but they are tuned only 1-2 seminotes apart. I'm hearing a D-Db from the 8", tune that drum at to at least an F or a G. I'm currently using a 8", 10", 14", 16" setup tuned A - D - F - D, sounds great. Keep in mind though, the note of the heads will likely not be the same as the final note of the drum. Take the 10" as an example, I tune the bottom head C and the batter head Bb, and the overall note is D. This applies for all drums in general, but shell depth and wood type may be an important factor as well.

http://www.seventhstring.com/tuningfork/tuningfork.html
This website helped me a lot when I started tuning, and I still use it for reference.
 
I went through all the lugs on the bottom heads and made sure I was getting the same sound. As far as the 8 and 10, those are only about 4-5 inches tall. Kinda insteresting that they are the two have that decent tone. Those are, I believe, from a Rockwell kit!! I'll check out that tuning fork site that was mentioned. All these have remo pinstripe batter heads and Aquarian Classic clear bottom heads.
 
Literally got the snare last night and had to work today. Haven't even touched it other than to play that. Timbre note? Am I missing something there?

just look up how john good of DW does the timbre note matching for all his sets... it's on youtube.
 
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