Drum Dials and tension watches

hotsauce3n

Senior Member
Are the drum tuners good? I was thinking of the ones that look like a clock that about about $60 and do not require and kicking but check the pressure of the head. I was wondering if they are reliable and/or even neccessary for tuning. I would just like to have my drums sounding the best they can.
 
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Re: Drum Tuner?

i was wondering about this too. i wanna be able to tune my drums better, but i seem to be a bit tone deaf when it comes to matching the lug tensions one by one. i really can't hear the individual tones with the overtones and such. i would really like to for once not have to use some sort of muffling on my toms to get a decent sound. i love the way un-muffled drums sustain and sing.
 
Re: Drum Tuner?

illy said:
i was wondering about this too. i wanna be able to tune my drums better, but i seem to be a bit tone deaf when it comes to matching the lug tensions one by one. i really can't hear the individual tones with the overtones and such. i would really like to for once not have to use some sort of muffling on my toms to get a decent sound. i love the way un-muffled drums sustain and sing.

Those tuners are OK for getting a head up to an approximate pitch in a hurry, but they won't do the fine stuff you're having trouble with. I'd suggest teaching yourself to tune a guitar, having that background really helped me with being able to pick out pitches on drum heads.
 
Re: Drum Tuner?

I have the drum dial tuner. It works great when u need to tune your drums in a hurry (like at a gig or whatever). For those of us who have not been playing for 30 years and have trouble tuning our drums perfectly by year, this thing will help make your drums sound better.
 
Re: Drum Tuner?

well i can tune a guitar no problem. i play the guitar to compose my own music all of the time. it's just i can't hear the differences well at all when i hit an inch below each lug like everyone says i should be able to... my ears can't distinguish the tone from the overtones. i tried muffling the bottom head and muffling the top head while tuning, and still my ears fail me.

and it's not like i'm tone deaf. i can sing along with any song, hold a note, harmonize, but the drums just jack me up for some reason. i think it would help if someone could show me in person how they tune them. maybe i can learn what differences to listen for.

don't know. : /
 
Re: Drum Tuner?

Illy, if your looking for someone to show you the basics and details of tuning, Bob Gatzen has an excellent dvd that you might want to check out. It is called Drum Tuning Sound and Design Simplified. Its very in-depth but it covers the basics nicely. I have not had a chance to watch the whole thing, but the parts I've seen are great. There is also a video, but the dvd has more info in it.

Bob Gatzen DVD
 
Re: Drum Tuner?

i have a tama tuner, and even though it was 70 bucks, i think it was well worth it. its much much easier than trying to tune it by ear, and you can tune an entire set in probably 10 min, depending on the size of ur set.
 
Re: Drum Tuner?

I have the drumdial. I bought it with battle of the band winnings. It is a great tool for tuneing. The first time I used it it didn't really save time. I had to get the perfect sound out of them. But now everytime I tune it saves a load of time. And my drums sound great. It brings out the potensial of my drums. I have always had trouble controlling the overtones in my floor toms. The drumdial really makes them rumble. It is kind of expensive though. It cost about $68 after shipping. It was worth it. When I change my snare head it takes only about 10 minutes to get the same sound out of it every time. I found two choices in drum tuners. The drumdial and Tama tuning watch. I went with the drumdial because one it was cheaper. And I have heard that the Tama isn't as accurate. I can't dream of anything being more accurate then the drumdial.
 
Re: Drum Tuner?

I've been using an Evans torque key for a while now, it lets you get all the lugs to pretty much the same tension (and therefore pretty much the same pitch). I've found it really handy as tuning them all the same drives me crazy.
 
Re: Drum Tuner?

i saw this kinda thing made by tama where you can tune the drummes by numbers or something , looks like a good thing to have ...
 
Re: Drum Tuner?

Subdivisions said:
Illy, if your looking for someone to show you the basics and details of tuning, Bob Gatzen has an excellent dvd that you might want to check out. It is called Drum Tuning Sound and Design Simplified. Its very in-depth but it covers the basics nicely. I have not had a chance to watch the whole thing, but the parts I've seen are great. There is also a video, but the dvd has more info in it.

Bob Gatzen DVD


yup - I got this - and it helped me a whole lot - my drums sound loads better...
 
Anyone own a DrumDial?

I dunno about everyone else, but im really naff at tuning drums- i know the sound i like and when drums sound good but it takes me for ever! I bought an Evans ratchet key- its ok, works well on my snare (since its new and its lugs are friction-free) but the lugs on the toms seem to have different amounts of friction in them, therefore, even though the setting of the ratchet says its the same tension, the head tension is not equal at each lug. Im thinking of getting a drumdial to help, so is this a wise purchase? or is it just worth keep practicing tuning, manually?
 
Re: Anyone own a DrumDial?

gar said:
I bought an Evans ratchet key- its ok, works well on my snare (since its new and its lugs are friction-free) but the lugs on the toms seem to have different amounts of friction in them, therefore, even though the setting of the ratchet says its the same tension, the head tension is not equal at each lug. Im thinking of getting a drumdial to help, so is this a wise purchase? or is it just worth keep practicing tuning, manually?

I own a Drum Dial, and it is sometimes useful to help even out the head tension. It can quickly get you into the ballpark, then you have to fine-tune by ear.

Also, it your tensions rods have different amounts of tension, try removing them one by one, cleaning them, then lubricating them very lightly with a light grease.
 
Drum dials?

I have been using a drum dial for initial set-up of my drums for some time now, just wondered whether anybody else liked or disliked them?
 
Drum tuners?

Hi, I came across a website called drumdial.com while looking for drum tuners and this looks really cool, I recently bought a used kit and have no idea how they should sound. These drum dial tuners look pretty promising and I was wondering if anyone has tried them and what you think of them, or if you could suggest anything else and where I can buy them.

Thanks!
 
Re: Drum dials?

They seem to do what they claim. I've used it to check my tuning jobs and it generally seems that if you get the same reading on the dial between two lugs then you get the same pitch as well. Helps to speed things up once you get the hang of it

I use it and like it.
 
Re: Drum tuners?

with all of these tunners you need to have smooth tension rods.........................
 
Re: Drum tuners?

A tuning type of device like a drum dial will work in a pinch if you are say in a club/gig environment where it is hard to get any quite to listen to the drum head as you are tuning or don't have the time to tune by ear because the show must go on. They can get you in the "ball park" but are not a substitute for listening with your ears when tuning by hand. Drum sound is a matter of preference, people go for different effects that they have in mind. A device like the drum dial measures head tension in front of each lug on the drum to assist you in achieving uniform tension at each lug, but even then, due to variances in heads (and their condition if old, pitted or stretched) and bearing edges on the drums where the head makes contact with the drum shell, uniform tension will not gurantee uniform sound at each lug, that's where the ears come into play. Check out this site to guide you through tuning and many other things about drums - http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/id5.html
 
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Re: Drum tuners?

Drum tuners can work but you mentioned that you have no idea what your drums are supposed to sound like. Your best bet with that is to hook up with someone who can tune already, a teacher, friend, engineer or someone at a local drum shop. They may not have "your sound" but that doesn't matter. They just have to have a good sound.

You need to train your ear to recognize the difference between a good and bad sounding drum. That's the first step.

Use your ears and don't rely on tools until you can do it the old fashioned way.
 
Drum Dial

Has anyone here used a drum dial???

I purchased that with a new set of G2 coated for my toms.

I have never been good at tuning and said what the heck, I will check out the drum dial.

It is an amazing tool. I highly recommend it for people, like me, who have little experience.

I love the G2 coateds also.
 
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