I've been using the drum dial for some time now, and i love it. the only thing i have trouble with is my bass drum. Everytime i try to tune it lug by lug, one lug always seems to be shown a higher number then what it is. 72 for batter head/70 for resonant head is the standard tuning for it, but everytime i put it that low most of the lugs are very loose and won't stay on. is it the head or the drum thats making this problem?
Drum dial question
- Thread starter jeret
- Start date
Larry
"Uncle Larry"
The wooden hoops of a bass drum have way more give than metal hoops of a tom. Your head is not evenly seated, bottom line. I don't even use the DD on the kick, But if you must, put the drum batter side down on a carpet and use 2 keys opposite one another. You have to seat the head really evenly, but the wooden hoops are not stiff enough, so you have to be very precise to not tighten one side down too much. Then flip and repeat for the batter. It's very hard to get the head seated evenly when it's in "playing" position. If it's still too loose, forget the numbers and put it where you like it
AudioWonderland
Silver Member
Those are very low readings. My kick with a clear PS3 batter is in the 75-76 range. That seems like a nice sweet spot for most of the drums with single ply heads
Spectron
Silver Member
I used a drum dial for the first 9 months of owning a kit. I found it useful in teaching me
the general tension to shoot for. (about 75 for tom batter) (85-90 for snare batter)
I never used it on kick drum.
I don't use the drum dial anymore period.
I tune by ear exclusivly now and it is actually much faster than using
the drum dial. With the dial you set the tension at each lug but that only get's you 80% there - you still have to ear tune to get the head to sing.
My advice is don't use the dial on kick drum - just get the lugs on finger tight
then turn each lug another 1/2 turn - now press on the center of the head with some force to seat and stretch - that gets you in the ballpark just as well
as the dial with less frustration worrying about readings etc....from there you can raise or lower the tension (slightly) at each lug until it sounds best to you
Eventually wean yourself from using the dial at all = the quicker you can train your ears to tune your drums the better and faster you will be able to tune them.
my .02 cents....
the general tension to shoot for. (about 75 for tom batter) (85-90 for snare batter)
I never used it on kick drum.
I don't use the drum dial anymore period.
I tune by ear exclusivly now and it is actually much faster than using
the drum dial. With the dial you set the tension at each lug but that only get's you 80% there - you still have to ear tune to get the head to sing.
My advice is don't use the dial on kick drum - just get the lugs on finger tight
then turn each lug another 1/2 turn - now press on the center of the head with some force to seat and stretch - that gets you in the ballpark just as well
as the dial with less frustration worrying about readings etc....from there you can raise or lower the tension (slightly) at each lug until it sounds best to you
Eventually wean yourself from using the dial at all = the quicker you can train your ears to tune your drums the better and faster you will be able to tune them.
my .02 cents....
RollingStone000
Silver Member
And the obligatory, "look up Bob Gatzen on YouTube", if you feel a little shaky about tuning by ear. Consider it a must watch.
Neil
Senior Member
Another vote for Bob Gatzen, I got the links from a KIS post in another thread.
I followed the videos through on each drum, my kit sounds great now and it was suprisingly quick to each the results I want.
I did feel like a bit of twat when humming my approximation of an A and C when tuning my snare.
I followed the videos through on each drum, my kit sounds great now and it was suprisingly quick to each the results I want.
I did feel like a bit of twat when humming my approximation of an A and C when tuning my snare.