TOM TUNING

[Salicete]

A more likely sign that your resonant heads need to be replaced would be that you were able to tune your toms, but they quickly went out of tune.

The problem may be poorly matched batters and resos. What kind of resonant heads are your druns sporting?

[simon.m]

Remo Clear Ambassador

[maddrummr]

Size of drum??

You might also want to take the head off and inspect it, the head may be warped or the glue is not keeping the head on.

Some people tune their heads while having both heads on. I'm not sure how you do it, but I'd take all heads off first, then begin with the batter head. Tune that to a pitch where you get a more or less consistent tone (one that does not lower or raise pitch in time). When you get that done, slap the reso head on and adjust the tension once again so that you get a consistent tone. I recently started doing in that way and it helps a lot.
I'm not sure if I have just stated something that should be really obvious.. but for me it has not been the obvious way to work for a long time.

My suggestion,
assuming your top head is now adjusted , leave it alone and reach under to the reso head and adjust only one tension rod , go up then down and see if it changes the pitch of the drum, if it does then readjust the reso heads , if it doesn't replace the reso head on that tom. I have had to do this and is worth the time it takes to do it.
Rick

[drummer-sam]

i bought a DW collector's a few days ago, and i am having trouble tuning the kit.

i preffer to have the low-end tuning, but when i try and tune liek that it doesnt have any tone to it.

any suggestions??
sam

[Wavelength]

Tune 'em higher. You'll get more tone that way.

[harryconway]

Given any "specific" size and make drum, it has a range of tune. I drive a Ludwig 26x14 kick. Wonderful drum, but I don't ask it to sound like a 20x14. You have to work with and accept the tonal range your drums were designed to produce.

[Wernervonwaltsleben]

hey everyone.
this is actually a realy dumb question but yeah.i havent changed my tom skins for awhile and i finally bought a new complete set.if you tune, what is usually tuned the highest.the bottom skin or the top skin.something just sounds so false to me.

http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/ Take a look at this for more information on tuning.

I usually tune my resonant heads one tone above the top head (think of the Jaws theme). But you can tune them lower or at the same pitch as the top head, it's all personal preference.

I don't understand what you mean by something sounds "false" to you?

[Wernervonwaltsleben]

Thanx alot for helping.
yeah, sorry for the false word.i just meant "wrong" to me or something.like i dident like the sound, sounded awful.
thanx again

[Jon Cable]

I went to school with a guy called Tom Tuning, he had a sister called Viola. Theres a great video on youtube where Nicko McBrain shows how to tune toms, well worth watching!!

[ledzepjb]

Use the search functionnnn!!!!!!! Anyways, I also tune my resonant head a tone higher than my batter.

[That Guy]

Hi Wernervonwaltsleben,

Your thread is named "Tom Tuning." Here is the "Tom Tuning" Thread ----> http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=6029

Welcome to DW buddy.

[That Guy]

I don't know if you will find what your looking for in this thread ---> http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=6029 But if you take your time and read through it, you might find your answer.

[maximusppl]

Okay, I ended up using my Mapex Saturn. Used Coated Studio X batters over Classic Clears on the Toms...Aquarian Superkick II on the kick with a Regulator, and the black panther maple received a evans genera hd dry over a clear ambassador....everything sounded killer in there!!! especially the kick and snare....i will post links to recordings once the mixing and mastering is done :)

[Wernervonwaltsleben]

I started tuning my toms and ive been experiencing stuff that so irritating.when tuning, must you tighen the lugs finger titened and then search for the highest sounding lug and tune every lug like that one to get the same pitch on each lug?

ive been getting this problem that one lug is always higher.the other lugs are all the same pitch but the one same lug stays higher and if i tune that one the rest tunes out.it never catches up with that lug.whats happening here?

[ZildjianMan1023]

Originally Posted by Wernervonwaltsleben

I started tuning my toms and ive been experiencing stuff that so irritating.when tuning, must you tighen the lugs finger titened and then search for the highest sounding lug and tune every lug like that one to get the same pitch on each lug?

ive been getting this problem that one lug is always higher.the other lugs are all the same pitch but the one same lug stays higher and if i tune that one the rest tunes out.it never catches up with that lug.whats happening here?

ok ok ok, first man relax..


dont tune around each lug like (dont tune in a cirlce) this could cause uneven tunning very fast

try the star method although i think it has a proper name

this is when you criss cross your lugs..

maybe you should look into proper tuning methods..

is it the head or the shell? becaues the head might not be seated properly

hope this helps.

Dom

[ledzepjb]

Have you read the drum tuning bible? If not, google it.

[ULTIMATEDRUMMER]

Are the drumheads new?

[Wernervonwaltsleben]

Hey, yeah, the head is new.
i did the star method, i dident have this problem with the 12" tom but with my 10" tom this one lug doesent go with the other.
i seating of the head went well.if i tighten the lugs finger tightened, how many turns must i give before i must look for the high lug to tune the rest to.

[elpol]

i might have missed this, but what type of sound are you looking for?

[sio_13]

Originally Posted by Wernervonwaltsleben

Hey, yeah, the head is new.
i did the star method, i dident have this problem with the 12" tom but with my 10" tom this one lug doesent go with the other.
i seating of the head went well.if i tighten the lugs finger tightened, how many turns must i give before i must look for the high lug to tune the rest to.

For a 10" tom, I'd give it 2-3 full turns, but when after I seat the head I dont necessarily finger-"tighten" the lugs, I just turn them till they barely touch the rim all around, then apply pressure with two hands across the drum using the star method- by that I mean I simultaneously press both of my hands down on the rim directly across from eachother, then work around the drum. Then I check the lugs again and if all of them are barely touching the rim, then the head is well-balanced and ready for tuning. Give each lug 2 full turns and check the pitch, if a higher sound is needed then continue giving full (or even half) turns, then look for the high lug. Sorry if I did nothing more than confuse you- this way always worked easier for me.

Oh yeah, and do a search for threads on tuning on this site, there are many that might already have your answer.

[Wernervonwaltsleben]

I did everything the tuning bible said, tighten the lugs finger tightened.backed off 1/4 turn.then half turns till i get a distortion free tone and when i start looking for the pitch.theres this one lug thats higher, so i tune the rest of the lugs to that one but it never catches up, as soon as i turn one of the other lugs, the higher one gets more higher and higher and the other never catches up.i completely removed the higher lug, like before finger titened and it still has a higher pitch.how do u explain something like that.is there problem with the drum or skin?

[ULTIMATEDRUMMER]

ummm this seems to be untrue bro

u probabaly got the pitches mixed up listen very closly in a silenenced room

otherwise i can only say it a damaged head...

but i dout it.

[Victor_se]

i know, its al about personal preference and all that thing but

wich one is the best way to tune a tom and what are the diferences

if i tune the botton higher thatn top, viceversa, equal...

cheerz

loosen the top head completely, tune the bottom head about medium not too loose or tight, then when its in tune start with the top until it sounds the way you want it.
Bottom tighter. Learned this from Roy Burns of Aquarian and it's been working perfectly.

Rick

[konaboy]

Here's a great example of what changing the pitch of the bottom head will do, also on how to tune in general.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH_RoUQyv5A

[d-roc]

Wernervonwaltsleben said, "theres this one lug thats higher, so i tune the rest of the lugs to that one but it never catches up, as soon as i turn one of the other lugs, the higher one gets more higher and higher and the other never catches up."

There are a lot factors that can complicate tuning drum heads. If you have one lug that is higher pitched and just keeps going higher as you tune, then lower it. The trick to lowering the lug tension is to always loosen and then tighten. Never just loosen the tension. This will keep the tension on the head and allow you to hear the tone better. Also try different tension on the lugs beside the one that keeps getting higher. This may lower the head in that area and allow for more even tension on the head. You will know when you get good even tension because the head will "sing".

[NIMBY]

Originally Posted by Signals

I'm not 100% certain about this, but I believe the true pitch means that the lugs have more threads to them, thus more precise tuning can be achieved.

you are infact 100% correct

[Saleen]

I just change my head on my pearl vision kit, i finally put g2 clear on top and g1 clear on the reso. I spend a lot of time to try to have the best tune possible. Im farly ok for the batter side because i can hear if i love the sound or not but for the reso how i know if im ok because i saw a lot of video on you tube of people who tuning drum but when they ajust the reso side the entire sound of the tom change. What is a average tune that most people use for the reso to be sure that if i tune the batter side i will obtain the best sound possible without thinking all the time to the reso side

Help me

Thanx

[cdrums21]

You can start by tuning the resonant head of the drum to the same pitch as the top head. Mount the tom, play it and see how it sounds. If it sounds good to you, you're there. If it has too much sustain or seems a bit floppy, tune the resonant head up a bit and play it again. You may need to tweak the top head as well to get the drums to sound good as a whole or to reduce snare buzz if you happen to get any. Make sure the pitch at each lug is the same. Good luck!

[Elvis]

Say, since this is the "Tom Tuning Thread", I thought I'd go ahead and post this in here.
It's been posted over at the "Snare Tuning" thread for a couple of years now, but I feel it applies here as well.



Here's my step-by-step tutorial on how to change out and tune up a drum head.
It's kinda long, so get comfy.
Read it all first, THEN do it (refer back, if you need to).



There's a few ways to "break in" a new head.
Over the years, I've tried various methods.
The way I'm about to describe has worked very well for me and is a much faster way of "breaking in" a head than most others:

1) Remove the old head.

2) Take a piece of cloth (old T-shirt works well) and give a quick wipe to the bearing edge, the underside of the collar and the glue ring of the new head and the underside of the hoop.

3) Place the new head on the drum and spin it on the shell.
Make sure it fits on and spins easily.
If not, return the head and get another.
If it does, continue...

4) Place the hoop in the head, insert the tension rods, tighten all rods finger tight (I like to use both hands, turning the 2 rods that are on the exact opposite sides of each other at the same time).

5) Take your tuning key and start applying tension to the head by turning the tension rods.
Use a STAR PATTERN to tension the head, so that it torques down evenly.
If you're drum is a 6 lug drum, look at the end of the drum you're working on and situate the lugs so that you have one lug looking right at you and the one opposite is looking straight away from you.
If you play "connect the dots" with the other 4 lugs, it should make a "box" shape.

6) Now imagine the face of a clock superimposed over the drum, with the number 12 being the lug looking away from you and the number 6 being the lug looking straight at you.
The rest of the numbers on the imaginary clock will be fairly close to the following lug positions;
The lug in the upper right hand side will be "2", the lug in the lower right hand side will be "4", the lug on the lower left hand side will be "8" and the lug on the upper left hand side will be "10".

7) Tighten the head down in 2 steps, or "patterns".
The first one will be:
12,6,2,8,4,10.
The second one will be:
6,12,4,10,2,8.
Repeat these patterns, in the order I just laid out, placing one complete 360 degree revolution on each rod (which I call "a turn") the first time around, then use 180 degree revolutions (which I call a "1/2 turn") there after, until you've put 3 turns on each of the tension rods.

8) At this point, the head is evenly tensioned and fairly taught.
You may have heard some cracking or "popping" at this point, and that's fine.
Place the drum on the floor with the head you're working on looking up.
Now, place the heel of one of your hands in the center of the head and give one very hard, sharp, quick push.
DON'T BE A WIMP HERE! PUT YOUR WEIGHT INTO IT!
You may have heard more cracking at this point or you may not hear more cracking at this point.
Either is fine.

9) Now pick the drum off the floor and place it on a soft surface with the end you're working on looking up.
That old T-shirt (folded) you used to wipe the drum off with in the beginning would work fine.
If your bed has a comforter on it, that would be perfect.
The soft surface will completely muffle the other head so that you only hear the head you are tuning, which brings us to...

10) Remove all of the tension from the head you're working on.
Use the star patterns I laid out in step #7, until you feel the tension on the rods get pretty slack.
By that time, you probably won't need to use the key anymore.
Keep loosening the tension until the rods are no longer tensioning the head (look for an obvious gap between the head of the rod and the hoop).

11) Start tightening down on the head again with the rods, using the star patterns I showed in step #7.
This time, you will tension the head to whatever setting gives you the sound you're looking for.
Once you start to feel a little tension on the head, start tapping it in the middle after completing each star pattern, to see if the head is tensioned where you want it.

12) Once you reach that point, stop tightening and tap on the head at each point that corressponds with a tension rod, about 1/4" in from the edge.
You can use a stick or your finger, it really doesn't matter.

13) Tap each point once and listen to the drum.

14) If you hear a nice, even sound that is the same pitch at all the points, you're finished tuning this head and you may skip to step # 21.
That head is now tuned to where you want it to be and it should hold that tuning for as long as you want it to.

15) If you hear a "wobbly" or "uneven" sound coming from some of those points, then the head is not tensioned evenly.
The sound you're hearing is known as distortion and is caused by the head creating several dissonant frequencies at once, due to the fact that it's seeing different tension in different spots of the head.
Dissonant frequencies are ones that do not harmonize with each other, thus resulting in the distorted sound you hear.

16) At this point, you'll need to "fine tune" the head.

17) Check around the head and see if that distorted sound isn't more prevelent at certain points more than others.
If so, try correcting those first.

18) Correct by tightening that tension rod, slightly.
Tap on the head once, at that tension rod, and tighten the rod as the sound decays.
You shouldn't have to turn the rod more than 1/4 of turn at a time.
If you do, then stop and tap the head at the rod that is on the exact opposite side of the drum and see if you don't hear the distorted sound coming from that one.
If so, do the same thing until the sound "evens out".

19) Tap around the head again and see if the distortion is still heard.

20) If so, do the same procedure at each of those rods as well.

21) Once you have everything sounding nice and "even", pick the drum up and hold it in your hand BY THE TOM BRACKET. NEVER HOLD IT BY THE RIM.
The combination of the weight of the drum, your grip and the thickness of the hoop may be enough to throw the head "out of tune" at this point, if the drum is held by its rim.

22) Hit the middle of the drum while holding it up.

23) If it sounds "good", you're done.
If you still get that distortion, set the drum back down on the soft surface it was on and tap around the head again to see if you didn't miss anything.

24) If it sounds good, flip the drum over and tap around the edge of the other head.
Chances are it may have been out of tune and you didn't realize it until now.

25) If the distortion is heard with either head, correct those problems and perform step #22 again.

26) If you STILL get that distorted sound go back and perform steps 23-25 and check the heads again.
If everything sounds good on it's own, then your heads are "out of phase" with each other (i.e., each head is tuned to a frequency that is dissonant to the other).
At this point, you'll have to pick one of those heads and retune it to a different pitch that will put the heads back "into phase".
Remember, the batter head sets the tone of the drum, the resonant head sets the amount of resonance of the drum.
The change will most likely not have to be that drastic and the sound of your drum may not change all that much.

27) Make the correction, perform step # 22 and see how the drum sounds.


...If everything sounds good, NOW you're done!

Chances are very good that you will NOT have to perform all 27 steps.
I just wanted to cover some basic problems you might encounter while trying to tune up the drum.

One of the most important points in tuning a drum, that most drummers overlook, is the "cracking" procedure.
You MUST find a way to form that head to the bearing edge, and stress the glue that may be holding the head material to the glue ring, or else you will stand a very good chance of encountering (unneccessary) problems with getting the head tuned up.
You can crank up the tension and leave it sit for a week, or use a hair dryer on it, or simply push down on the center of the head (like I do!).
Any of these procedures will form the head to the bearing edge (leaving it sit for a week works the worst, trust me on this one!).


Hope you found this helpful.



Elvis

[Elvis]

...and why aren't this and the "Snare Tuning Thread", sticky's?
Seems like they should be.


Elvis

[osso12]

exactly.
If you tune by ear like most of us,
for the most part your resonant will be a 'tad" tighter (not looser than I had originally wrote) than the batter.
Its all trial and error though. What I like to do is take the drum away from the kit.
Even go out doors with it. Get the fundamental pitch of the drum by striking the bearing edge with a stick without any heads at all on it. Get the drum sounding good out doors, then go back inside and see if it still sounds good. If it does, your in luck. Mount the drum to make sure it still sounds good with the kit.
If its a high end kit, more than likely it will. If its a low end kit, you might need to still tweek on it just a bit, and thats ok. Trust no one's ears but your own.
:)

[Wavelength]

Read this: http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/index.html

I usually tune the resonant heads a perfect fourth higher than the batter -- never lower than the batter.

[mikei]

Originally Posted by Wavelength

Read this: http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/index.html

I usually tune the resonant heads a perfect fourth higher than the batter -- never lower than the batter.

What would be considered a perfect fourth???

Do you have an example?

Thanks

[Wavelength]

Originally Posted by mikei

What would be considered a perfect fourth???

Do you have an example?

Thanks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_%28music%29

A perfect fourth is a musical interval which can be heard in the two first notes of "Here comes the bride", for example.

[osso12]

Originally Posted by Wavelength

Read this: http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/index.html

I usually tune the resonant heads a perfect fourth higher than the batter -- never lower than the batter.

Yeah, thanks for helping me realize my mistake. It will always be tighter, not loser than the batter.. ususally anyway.. My bad..
Making it tighter will allow more "bounce" as well.

[bodinski]

Lots of good advice here, everyone.

Just to confuse things, here's my simple method (which assumes you already know the basics of seating heads & the importance of even tension around a head).

Firstly, take your time, relax & pick a time when the room is quiet so you can hear clearly.

I tune the reso first to get the overall pitch of the drum, and then adjust the batter for feel, nuance, or character. Once the reso (when struck) makes the pitch you'd like the drum to have, work the batter tension up very slowly & evenly, starting at finger tight. Play the drum after every adjustment and listen closely. Your ears will tell you what to do. This can be a very frustrating process, but it's very rewarding once you get the drums dialed in.

Do download & study Professor Sound's Drum tuning Bible.

Peace - Jeff