Tune Bot - Worthwhile or Not?

beyondbetrayal said:
You are aware there are like 5 levels of resonance, and you can go up or down in pitch for every drum with the tuning calculator online? hahaha

If you click max resonance and a high pitch I could definitely see that being the case.
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Yes I am aware of the different resonance settings as well as pitch. Maybe I'm just choosing the wrong ones. I tuned by ear and checked what the tune bot said and my 13 was at a G and my 16 was at a C. I found drumtune pro to be more precise at clearing the head out and capturing a better sound.
 
Bit of a zombie post, but finished tuning my kit with the TB Studio and wanted to chip in my 2 pence.

I recently (ish) picked up a Mapex Saturn V; 10x7,12x8,14x12,16x14 and originally tuned it using finger-tight, plus half-a-turn on the top, and higher on the bottom (roughly a 4th), before matching all the lugs.
Sounded ok, but not amazing.

Got the Tunebot as figured it makes sense to ensure my kit sounds as good as it could.

My practice time is severely limited with 2 kids under 4 who need to be in bed by 7 and I get home from work at 5:45, plus needing to help with feeding the bed-time routine, so didn't have the luxury of experimenting with different tuning to see what I liked.
Used the Tune-bot app for medium res, -1 pitch (as it seems globally agreed Saturns favour lower tunings), and got the job done in half an hour.

Interestingly, at -1 pitch, all the drums (except the 16) came up quite a bit from where I pitched them. They all sound great, except the 10" which is way higher than I'm used to.
Not sure if it's my ear/mind that needs adjusting from historically always tuning my 10 lower than this.
They do however absolutely sing, especially all played in pairs; i.e. flamming the any drum with any other drum sounds like a chord (which i guess it is...).

The resonance is great - the 14 doesn't need a moongel, but doesn't sound worse for having one, but the 16 just goes on and on.
I was considering either a tiny piece of gel on the reso, or cotton wool in it just to temper it off a bit, then realised I didn't need to - I could feed the fundamental note into Tunebot, and select much shorter resonance and it would result in the same note, but with shorter sustain. Clever stuff.

My practise space is quite small, so it will be interesting to see how it sounds at a gig next week with someone else hitting them, especially the 10.

Not yet tried it on a snare. Beyondbetrayed's post about tuning his snare has inspired me to have a play with it though.

So, for a time-poor drummer like me, it's a great tool. I'd also echo what others have said that, whereby guitarists all use tuners, why shouldn't we? You don't see many guitarists saying "develop a perfect ear", though I'm sure several guitarists could tune without a tuner - it's much quicker using the tool :)
 
Durbs said:
Bit of a zombie post, but finished tuning my kit with the TB Studio and wanted to chip in my 2 pence.

I recently (ish) picked up a Mapex Saturn V; 10x7,12x8,14x12,16x14 and originally tuned it using finger-tight, plus half-a-turn on the top, and higher on the bottom (roughly a 4th), before matching all the lugs.
Sounded ok, but not amazing.

Got the Tunebot as figured it makes sense to ensure my kit sounds as good as it could.

My practice time is severely limited with 2 kids under 4 who need to be in bed by 7 and I get home from work at 5:45, plus needing to help with feeding the bed-time routine, so didn't have the luxury of experimenting with different tuning to see what I liked.
Used the Tune-bot app for medium res, -1 pitch (as it seems globally agreed Saturns favour lower tunings), and got the job done in half an hour.

Interestingly, at -1 pitch, all the drums (except the 16) came up quite a bit from where I pitched them. They all sound great, except the 10" which is way higher than I'm used to.
Not sure if it's my ear/mind that needs adjusting from historically always tuning my 10 lower than this.
They do however absolutely sing, especially all played in pairs; i.e. flamming the any drum with any other drum sounds like a chord (which i guess it is...).

The resonance is great - the 14 doesn't need a moongel, but doesn't sound worse for having one, but the 16 just goes on and on.
I was considering either a tiny piece of gel on the reso, or cotton wool in it just to temper it off a bit, then realised I didn't need to - I could feed the fundamental note into Tunebot, and select much shorter resonance and it would result in the same note, but with shorter sustain. Clever stuff.

My practise space is quite small, so it will be interesting to see how it sounds at a gig next week with someone else hitting them, especially the 10.

Not yet tried it on a snare. Beyondbetrayed's post about tuning his snare has inspired me to have a play with it though.

So, for a time-poor drummer like me, it's a great tool. I'd also echo what others have said that, whereby guitarists all use tuners, why shouldn't we? You don't see many guitarists saying "develop a perfect ear", though I'm sure several guitarists could tune without a tuner - it's much quicker using the tool :)
Click to expand...

It's good to hear about your success with the device. It really is a godsend for those of us who aren't great at tuning by ear.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the 10" given the fact that higher pitched/more resonant drums are easier to hear (generally speaking) during live performances. As long as the tone is pleasing and useful for the style of music you're playing, it should be okay.

It's great to hear your drums sing, isn't it? Even cheap drum kits can sound good when tuned properly.
 
yammyfan said:
I wouldn't be too concerned about the 10" given the fact that higher pitched/more resonant drums are easier to hear (generally speaking) during live performances. As long as the tone is pleasing and useful for the style of music you're playing, it should be okay.
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Interestingly, it's tuned pretty much the same as this Sweetwater demo:
https://youtu.be/-7OMxcxN_mQ?t=113

And in this clip, it doesn't sound "high" to me, so pretty sure it's just a perception thing :)
 
yammyfan said:
It's good to hear about your success with the device. It really is a godsend for those of us who aren't great at tuning by ear.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the 10" given the fact that higher pitched/more resonant drums are easier to hear (generally speaking) during live performances. As long as the tone is pleasing and useful for the style of music you're playing, it should be okay.

It's great to hear your drums sing, isn't it? Even cheap drum kits can sound good when tuned properly.
Click to expand...

Tuning drums by ear has to me always been an appreciated art form that garners pride in the ability to do so. Personally, I was always OK at it, but struggled to get it back to the same on each drum like a repeatable science. The tune bot to me is a game changer. I love knowing that if I swap heads , I just need to find the numbers/note I used last time and tweak it from there. Every guitarist I play with can tune by ear, but every show or practice, they pull out a tuner to "dial it in". For me, there is nothing wrong with how anyone tunes there instrument..in fact, beauty is in the ears of the beholder. However, there is no way you can convince me that a tuner for ANY instrument does not provide value. It's still odd to me that all other players use them, but it's somehow a debatable topic for drummers :)

Steve
 
To follow up on this - i still wasn't sure about my 10", so kept the note, but reduced the resonance slider, which I think switched the two heads from a 4th to a 3rd whilst keeping the same fundamental and, whilst still a C#, is a much more pleasing tone.

And it took all of 2 minutes.

Great stuff.
 
Ajthundersticks said:
Looking to get a tune bot. What is the general opinion? Is the studio version worth the extra? Or does the gig one do the job?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Overtone-L...ords=tune-bot&qid=1553768078&s=gateway&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Overtone-L...ords=tune-bot&qid=1553768093&s=gateway&sr=8-2
Click to expand...

The gig one does the job.

You just have to determine if the extra features are worth it to you or not.

The gig is just plain and simple, reads your lugs and has the difference mode. The studio has the extra filters and the ability to save presets.
 
BertTheDrummer said:
The gig one does the job.

You just have to determine if the extra features are worth it to you or not.

The gig is just plain and simple, reads your lugs and has the difference mode. The studio has the extra filters and the ability to save presets.
Click to expand...

Great thanks, I will look to get the gig model then.
 
Not the TB but I've got the Drumtune Pro app on my phone cost about £7.

Does the job no fuss and you can save your kit presets.

Doesn't have all the clicks, bells and whistles of a tune bot but you have a drum tuner on your phone. So it's less crap to lug about pardon the pun.

I don't use it for my snare, I'm happy with how I set that up. The scientific approach would kill the magic!
 
mikyok said:
Not the TB but I've got the Drumtune Pro app on my phone cost about £7.

Does the job no fuss and you can save your kit presets.

Doesn't have all the clicks, bells and whistles of a tune bot but you have a drum tuner on your phone. So it's less crap to lug about pardon the pun.

I don't use it for my snare, I'm happy with how I set that up. The scientific approach would kill the magic!
Click to expand...

I have the DrumTunerEZ app that works really well. It works very similar to the TuneBot system and is $2.99.

It works pretty well if you don't want to spend the money on the TuneBot, but the TuneBot is easier and quicker to use.
 
BertTheDrummer said:
I have the DrumTunerEZ app that works really well. It works very similar to the TuneBot system and is $2.99.

It works pretty well if you don't want to spend the money on the TuneBot, but the TuneBot is easier and quicker to use.
Click to expand...

Knowing my luck if I got the TuneBot, it would get put in the cymbal bag pocket and get damaged, either that or left at a venue.

They make perfect sense in the studio, a phone app seems more practical live.

For how cheap the apps are there's no reason not to have one.......but then you realise how cheap some musicians are!
 
Ajthundersticks said:
Looking to get a tune bot. What is the general opinion? Is the studio version worth the extra? Or does the gig one do the job?
Click to expand...

I think there's a £10 difference between the two?

For saving the kits, meh - the phone app (or a piece of paper) will do this.

But the filter's a pretty useful feature. If it's a tenner's worth of use is hard to say.

(*Edit - I must've got the TB Studio on offer..., it's current £15 more)
 
Durbs said:
I think there's a £10 difference between the two?

For saving the kits, meh - the phone app (or a piece of paper) will do this.

But the filter's a pretty useful feature. If it's a tenner's worth of use is hard to say.

(*Edit - I must've got the TB Studio on offer..., it's current £15 more)
Click to expand...
I actually have both. I had purchased the DrumTune Pro app first. It had more features, but it seemed a bit clunky and cumbersome to navigate so I never really used it.

I got the DrumTuneEZ app on recommendation, and found it to work basically like the TuneBot and it was pretty easy to use. I use the DrumTuneEZ app when I don't have my TuneBot around.

mikyok said:
Knowing my luck if I got the TuneBot, it would get put in the cymbal bag pocket and get damaged, either that or left at a venue.

They make perfect sense in the studio, a phone app seems more practical live.

For how cheap the apps are there's no reason not to have one.......but then you realise how cheap some musicians are!
Click to expand...

I think some of that is just App mentality. People pay $1k for a phone but gripe because an app costs 99 cents.
 
Durbs said:
I think there's a £10 difference between the two?

For saving the kits, meh - the phone app (or a piece of paper) will do this.

But the filter's a pretty useful feature. If it's a tenner's worth of use is hard to say.

(*Edit - I must've got the TB Studio on offer..., it's current £15 more)
Click to expand...

Having looked at some of the app suggestions mentioned since my post I may hold off on both.
£7.99 for an app that might do the job seems like a risk worth taking.
 
BertTheDrummer said:
I actually have both. I had purchased the DrumTune Pro app first. It had more features, but it seemed a bit clunky and cumbersome to navigate so I never really used it.

I got the DrumTuneEZ app on recommendation, and found it to work basically like the TuneBot and it was pretty easy to use. I use the DrumTuneEZ app when I don't have my TuneBot around.
Click to expand...

Might have a look at DrumTuneEZ if drumtunepro starts playing up at gigs.

I know what you mean with Drum Tune Pro being a bit of a pain. Took me a few days of messing with it and watching YT vids to figure it out properly.

The hardest bit was at no point did it tell me that to delete a saved drum all I had to do was swipe left and hit delete. Randomly saw someone do it in a vid, problem solved.

I've got it set up really easy now. Both my kits are saved in their own folders. Happy days!.
 
Had a TuneBot for a couple of years now. Suits my lazy arse :)
 
I'm all for it.

I have the tune bot and the drum dial. (Both get ya where you need to be quicker than just by ear- IMO).

Had the dial 1st, and while it's pretty good, I find that the numbers (because it works on tension) are never the same all around the drum. You sorta gotta find a number you like, say..74, and a few lugs may have to be at 72 or 75 or whatever to match the pitch , when fine tuning by ear.

Got the Bot after reading its rave reviews, and seeing several impressive videos on it. It's nice because you can get to your preferred numbers(or notes) quickly and the device is doing the listening for you, regardless of the tension required at a specific lug. (Addressing the main flaw of the Drum dial).

If I had to chose one (which I don't as I have them both) I would choose the Tune Bot. (I would also say that it's worth the few bucks more to get the "studio" one, rather than the "Gig". You're already shellin out the 70 Beans, whats a few more..especially for the filter feature.)

YMMV

T.
 
V-Four said:
I'm all for it.

I have the tune bot and the drum dial. (Both get ya where you need to be quicker than just by ear- IMO).

Had the dial 1st, and while it's pretty good, I find that the numbers (because it works on tension) are never the same all around the drum. You sorta gotta find a number you like, say..74, and a few lugs may have to be at 72 or 75 or whatever to match the pitch , when fine tuning by ear.

Got the Bot after reading its rave reviews, and seeing several impressive videos on it. It's nice because you can get to your preferred numbers(or notes) quickly and the device is doing the listening for you, regardless of the tension required at a specific lug. (Addressing the main flaw of the Drum dial).

If I had to chose one (which I don't as I have them both) I would choose the Tune Bot. (I would also say that it's worth the few bucks more to get the "studio" one, rather than the "Gig". You're already shellin out the 70 Beans, whats a few more..especially for the filter feature.)

YMMV

T.
Click to expand...
The tune'bot gig does have a filter. Once you get each lug close to the number desired, you click the filter on whatever lug sounds best to you and leave the filter on to work out the overtones on the rest of the lugs. At least that's how I've used it.
 
Moejo said:
The tune'bot gig does have a filter. Once you get each lug close to the number desired, you click the filter on whatever lug sounds best to you and leave the filter on to work out the overtones on the rest of the lugs. At least that's how I've used it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction.
I guess I hadn't noticed( I never used the gig) , and I was jumpin off of what someone else said.
That'll teach me. ;)

T.
 
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