Drum Dial or Tune Bot?

dirtyclinic

Member
I don't have either but I want to buy one. I am not very experienced with tuning drums. Which one should I get? The more expensive one is $100 which is not a problem.
 
Of those two, Tune-Bot all the way.

The Tune-bot is a standard tuning device that goes for pitch, which is what you want to go for with your ears, as well.

You can say tuning for head tension is nice for tuning quietly, but things aren't always that simple.

I'd get the Bot and not use it only as a crutch, but also as training wheels to train my ears and also simply as tool to document it when I find something I like. If you have a Bot you can always get back to what you had, so there will be no excuse to just experiment without it either.

I go by ear mostly, but the Tune-Bot(or the iDrumtune app) save time when changing heads because I generally know the pitches I'm going for.
 
Tune-bot stores kits in memory so once you find a tuning you like you can eliminate most of the tedium from future tuning.
 
I vote for neither. Drums aren't melodic. They can easily be tuned (or tensioned) by ear, provided you aren't afraid to trust your own judgement, which is informed and refined through exposure and practice. In the words of Phil Rudd, "Tuning is a feel thing. If you can't feel it, you can't tune it." That sums up my philosophy on the topic.

If you're bent on getting a device, disregard my statements. I probably represent a fading school of thought in drumming. I kind of like it that way.
 
Tune Bot Studio !
Read the instructions, get used to it, etc.
More accurate than the Drum Dial, without question.
 
Not the question you asked ... but there are $5 apps for your phone that work better than tunebot.

For me, drumdial is just a quick way for me to get close to where I wanna be when replacing heads. I have never had any luck getting a final tuning using one.

Best solution for clearing heads (final tuning) is Resotune
 
I've owned both and the Tune-Bot is an order of magnitude better than the Drum Dial.

I'm not in the "learn to tune by ear" camp at all. The fact is that the majority of drummers are not very good at tuning (if you believe what they tell you themselves) and it doesn't seem to matter how long they've been doing it. It's important to point out that your drums will sound lousy the whole time you're "figuring it out" by ear so I'm not sure how that's appealing.

When we get new drummers on here asking for advice on buying a drum kit, we never tell them to buy the cheapest, nastiest kit they can find and stick with that until they deserve better. We try to help them find something that sounds good from the start. Telling someone to learn to tune by ear is essentially dooming them to crappy sounding drums until they "figure it out".

A Tune-Bot doesn't do the work for you. You still have to install the heads and hoops and twist the tension rods just the right amount. The Tune-Bot simply tells you when the lugs are pitched evenly, not tensioned evenly. You discover a little bit of theory (intervals etc.) and then you get to hear what that sounds like in reality. As a bonus, your drums sound good the entire time you're learning.

If you took away my Tune-Bot tomorrow, I'd still be a thousand times better at tuning than I was before I started using it. My ears have been trained and I understand the mechanics perfectly now.

I'll leave you with this. I have tuned many, many drum kits for people who were happy with the way the sounded before, but curious to see if the Tune-Bot could make them better. Without fail they always say "WOW!! That's a lot better than I had them. Thanks!"
 
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I woulkd learn to tune by ear and save enough money to buy an entire set of heads. With time, the same time it takes to learn to use a bot, you can lern by ear.
Perhaps, but odds are that your drums will sound suboptimal the entire time.

As mentioned above, I have never tuned a drum kit with my Tune-Bot that didn't sound emphatically better when I was finished. Even the guys that thought they were good at tuning had to give it up for the Tune-Bot afterwards. Within 15 minutes I had their drums sounding better than their lifetime of experience had allowed.
 
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I'd go for the tune bot and take all the guesswork out of the equation. And as yammyfan mentioned, along the way you'll pick up the tones and intervals you need to listen for, without having to settle for mediocre tuned drums along the way.
 
I've owned both and the Tune-Bot is an order of magnitude better than the Drum Dial.

I'm not in the "learn to tune by ear" camp at all. The fact is that the majority of drummers are not very good at tuning (if you believe what they tell you themselves) and it doesn't seem to matter how long they've been doing it. It's important to point out that your drums will sound lousy the whole time you're "figuring it out" by ear so I'm not sure how that's appealing.

When we get new drummers on here asking for advice on buying a drum kit, we never tell them to buy the cheapest, nastiest kit they can find and stick with that until they deserve better. We try to help them find something that sounds good from the start. Telling someone to learn to tune by ear is essentially dooming them to crappy sounding drums until they "figure it out".

A Tune-Bot doesn't do the work for you. You still have to install the heads and hoops and twist the tension rods just the right amount. The Tune-Bot simply tells you when the lugs are pitched evenly, not tensioned evenly. You discover a little bit of theory (intervals etc.) and then you get to hear what that sounds like in reality. As a bonus, your drums sound good the entire time you're learning.

If you took away my Tune-Bot tomorrow, I'd still be a thousand times better at tuning than I was before I started using it. My ears have been trained and I understand the mechanics perfectly now.

I'll leave you with this. I have tuned many, many drum kits for people who were happy with the way the sounded before, but curious to see if the Tune-Bot could make them better. Without fail they always say "WOW!! That's a lot better than I had them. Thanks!"
⬆️ This.

I’ve owned both of them and agree 100%.
 
The Tune-Bot clips to the rim of the drum so that you can use both hands while tuning. No $5 app is going to do that for you. :giggle:
That's true - the clip is very important, IMO.

Something else to keep in mind, when using the apps to tune larger (lower pitched) drums, I noticed that they weren't as accurate recognizing lower freqs as the TuneBot. Could be my phone was older, but I'd expect the mic could be a factor to take into consideration. Just for that reason, the TuneBot may be a better option.

I'd say try the app and see how it works for you. (y)
 
Even Years before I decided to buy a drums kit and to learn how to tune them, I was always asking the other drummer how they knew their drums were in pitch? Ok, I'm the keys player but having the dumps tuned at the same notes or "key" of the song was making sense to me.... And the answer was always vague like "well, I use my ears and it sounds goods", so, after having spent an afternoon trying to retuned my snare drum, knowing they something was wrong (the bottom head was cracked never an edge, "unglued", I bought the Tune Bot studio and it was awesome, I know which pitch I Ma, I know the tuning AND the rods tuning, I know the intervals between my snare and the toms, I know how to do it and I k kW how to decided if I want them to have one step or a third between them..... Not a single hesitation, you have the tool to get better at it IMMEDIATELY, even compared to drummers who thought they were super good.... Bye one!!!!
 
I vote for neither. Drums aren't melodic. They can easily be tuned (or tensioned) by ear, provided you aren't afraid to trust your own judgement, which is informed and refined through exposure and practice. In the words of Phil Rudd, "Tuning is a feel thing. If you can't feel it, you can't tune it." That sums up my philosophy on the topic.

If you're bent on getting a device, disregard my statements. I probably represent a fading school of thought in drumming. I kind of like it that way.

I only consider the "note" to be an accurate audible indicator of the tension. It's not at all about being melodic, which I agree with you completely on. There are several reasons for tuning a particular way; intervals between toms, sustain, attack, stick feel. Once I get my toms where I want them, being able to save the "data" in Tune-bot for each head saves a lot of time.
 
The Tune-Bot clips to the rim of the drum so that you can use both hands while tuning. No $5 app is going to do that for you. :giggle:

That‘s one of the major problems with it. It is greatly influenced by the sound right under it while you are trying to tune the opposite side. It would gain accuracy if you move it over each lug while tuning.
 
I only consider the "note" to be an accurate audible indicator of the tension. It's not at all about being melodic, which I agree with you completely on. There are several reasons for tuning a particular way; intervals between toms, sustain, attack, stick feel. Once I get my toms where I want them, using the notes - or frequencies - for each head (saved in the tune-bot) saves a lot of time.

No debate from me here. You have to go about it in the mode of your choosing. I'm not on a mission to indoctrinate anyone. Each drummer has, or should have, his own habits when it comes to tuning.
 
I move my tune bot to each lug and hit that area. I don't have it clipped on in one position.
I also put the bottom of the drum on a flat folded blanket. That mutes the bottom head just fine.
The Tune Bot is not a gimmick.
I just wish it came with an AC adapter!
 
I usually tune my batter head more for feel/rebound and reso head the final pitch. I bought a Drumdial cause cheaper kits can be finicky getting tension even across the head seating it, but then I downloaded a free iDrum Tune app to final tune to pitch. I use the TuneBot recommended pitches and man they sound great. I can see the merits of the Tune bot for sure and if I didn't have this working I'd get one. I also see the merits of tuning by ear but heck I can't hear it any more. The app is my ears now.
 
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