Don't Tune Your Drums Low.
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- čas přidán 14. 11. 2019
- The way that you hit your drums determines the way you should tune them. Nuff said. But that’s worth a little explanation, which is what today’s video is all about! If you’ve struggled with finding a tuning (especially for the toms) that works for you and your playing style, today’s lesson might be exactly what you need. The secret to successful drum tuning is knowing where exactly the tuning should be for you personally and for the music that you play. You want to tune your toms for whatever song or style you’re playing, but you also want to factor in your volume, the room you’re in, and what kind of drums you have. This can easily get a little bit complicated, so just use your ears. Today we’re staying focused on our core point that we want to tune our kit based on playing volume.
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yeah this makes sense, with a low tuning you need more energy to get the skin moving, and with high tuning hitting hard can knock them out of tune, which sounds terrible
I’m a rock player, and I love tuning my toms high, kinda get that 70s rock sound.
Aristotle same
Same! I tune my toms high for rebound and faster stuff, but I use thick heads to get a dead sorta sound. I use Evans Hydraulic heads, which is a 2ply head with drops of oil between the two plies for even more dampening. They're hands down my favorite sound for tom heads.
My man Stephen! You don't know how much I need this video right now. Currently struggling with the right way to tune the drums. God bless you brother
Problem with low tuning for rock is the sound often gets lost behind a band. They sound cool in isolation but totally lost in a mix. Higher tuning can sound weird in isolation but cut through a mix really well.
That's why low tuning is for heavy hitters.
@@mikeboon6160 This. Plus, rock drumming usually involves bigger drums meaning they can be tuned deeper without losing volume, plus they tend to be louder in general.
Yeah Bonham was famous for this. He used 14 16 and 18" toms. Huge diameter + high tuning = mid range but super loud
@bobsondugnutt7526 yeah I think that's key if you don't have mics. Get bigger drums so a higher tuning still sounds deep. The drum choking thing still applies though so don't go overboard cranking the tuning if you're a hard hitter.
I don’t play drums, I don’t own a drum set, and I never have. And yet... here I am
Thanks Stephen. Very good topic and info. I'm thinking about my tuning a little different now. This came at a good time. Someone tuned the church kit super low on the toms and I liked it but noticed some deficiencies you covered here.
The high tuning here sounds so much better to me than that first low tuning. I think my drums are tuned closer to that than your medium tuning, but I don't think of it as that high. Nobody would mistake it for bop tuning.
i use to have that very same theory, now you demonstrate it so well. thanks!
Points all well taken. Smaller toms are obviously going to take the high tuning to another level. Great lesson! (that snare was pretty loose, kinda rattlely).
Could you do a vid on how you removed the wrap from your drums? That’s what it looks like, anyway. Informative as always dude keep it up🤙
Can you please continue these videos? They really help me out.
I teched for a drummer who used large sticks and hit really hard. We used low tuning to great effect, using just 1 rack and 1 floor for a simpler hi/lo interval. Clear heads had to be changed regularly, but the punch was exactly what the drummer and the soundman wanted. The tone came from the combination of all of those things.
Great video, demonstrated the point very well! I have to say both of those tunings are low to me. The high one is very far from the highs I hear on jazz records. I’d certainly like to see you do a video on cranking high tunings on drums!
Very good Stephen. Thank you
I too try to go for a medium tuning for my toms to get that low rumble but also getting the tone of the toms. Sometimes I'll put low sounding toms and tune them high so I can get the rebound I need for faster stuff. I have found that using Evans Hydraulic Red heads has given me the tone I've been looking for for my toms with all the tunings; high, medium, & low.
Learned something new! Here's my takeaway: Tune your drums for how loud you're gonna hit them and it's a sliding scale. Doesn't have to be completely low or completely high unless you play REALLY loud or REALLY quiet. Tune to compliment your playing.
Great info as usual. Thanks for all your work. However, when you're playing just your toms and bass, why do I keep expecting to hear Tarzan's yell in the background? :-)
Love this
Straight up facts! Especially when recording, I've found that tuning the toms a little higher than what i instinctively desire for rock makes them sound absolutely BEAUTIFUL through the mics. Too many of the drummers that I've recorded have super low-tuned toms (especially dead cardboard-y floor toms) that just fail to cut through and hold any power in the mix, regardless of how well they play them. Definitely a case of trial and error and really listening to the kit in the room, from the drummer's perspective, and through the mics to gauge the most ideal tuning for the situation.
I use a drum dial and it tunes them a bit on the high side, but they project so much better 👍
All great points and good demo! Just out of curiosity what size of drumsticks are you using here? Do you use different size sticks for different genres of music? Thanks for your response! Jimi
I tend to tune the rack toms up higher, so I can play more groove-based stuff on them and get distinct tones out of them, and the floor Tom as low as I can because I love the huge thud you can get out of a 16 and 18
i also recommend leaving the floor tom as a concert tom. At least to try it out. I had really really rally cheap heads, which i assume came original with the kit and did this and let me tell you, pretty much the only thing that sounded good was that floor tom with an old head cut into a ring as a deadener. The tone was very uniform and very very deep and low
Lol, I tune to keep my snare from buzzing first and foremost.
sympathetic snare buzz usually you can't hear in the mix.
@aMoral27 I keep my bottom head on my snare super tight, and tune my batter head medium to medium high.
Then I tune the rack tom bottom head higher than the batter and expirament with the batter until I can find a point where they don't freak each other out like crazy, which usually means my rack tom is tuned lower than most people like rack toms tuned.
I dunno, just play around with tunings. It works for me and sounds good I think.
L O Just muffle...
Also, even if you dont buzz youre snare everyone else in the group will. Fortunately isnt heard in the mix.
@@beeamos5903 Yes!!..damned bass player or some low E off the lead...arrghh
now if you tuned up or down the bottom heads only, would that effect the top head hit, since the top head looseness or tightness has not changed?
Does drum batter head make any difference (such as hydraulic drumhead or multiply drumhead) between any tunings?
How do you tune your toms? They sound warm and resonant, no annoying high pitched overtones. Thanks.
the thing that drives me nuts about low/medium/and high phrasing is what exactly constitutes that.
Recently I've been tuning all my reso's higher than my batter's and I seem to be getting better results. I have acrylic shells, they are their own animal. :/
And any thoughts on tuning to where the shell has most resonance to bring out the optimal tone and punch?
Just tune the heads as close to tension as eachother
Stephen, Nuff Said.... I like the Medium Tuning as a default. Tuning my Toms especially, has become a OCD episode :(:(. I continue to "play" with the tuning of my PDP Concept Maple Kit. FTR, what brand and type Heads did you use? Coated Batters and Resos or Clear , single ply Resos, with Two Ply Coated Heads.? I am using G2s Coated Batter heads on all the Toms and use the standard Clear Resos (Remo brand for PDP). I seek the Jared Described (Drumeo) Doooo, Doooo sound out of the Toms: Solid type sound with little Overtones / Ringing. I've retuned them so many times, seeking Utopia, which has evaded me thus far. And the more I fool with it, I now get Snare Buzz which I did not have before. I have a 8", 10" & 12" Rack Toms, and 2 Floor Toms , a 14" and 16 ".
can you tell something about the drumheads in those performances?....I mean, could single ply heads be better (more articulated) than doubles in a soft-playing context for any tuning??
I tune my snare high and my Tom's low
Same here; I like to get a nice, bright ring out of my snare and a heavy boom out of my floor toms. Having four toms, I pretty much have both high and low tuning at the same time.
Tom diameter is quite important here. You can get higher cutting tones with smaller toms tuned medium. Gotta tune higher the larger you go
Medium toning.like it.
The tuning for the high section is really just midrange in this video. You can get your drums a lot higher than that before they choke out
The drum set at my church is tuned a little looser than hand tight, i.e. no tune. It sucks.
I think now i understand why my tom doesnt sound right lol it sound flat and dont give me that magical tom sound maybe cause im not hitting it hard.. will try it later
Is it only batter or includes the reso ??
I tune my toms very low, to the point where my lowest tom is barely audible because i hit so hard lol..
Always love you videos man. Just got back into playing drums after years! Gravitated toward guitar because I could practice more often. Trying to stay away from samples but at least I've made my own!! For metal I tend to still use samples cause I can't play what I program usually XD but for the straight ahead rock stuff that I do, replacing my drumming with samples takes all the life out of it!!! Thanks for being another drumming inspiration:)
The right kinda heads matter too though. I would actually prefer that sorta Tom tone for death metal. No resonance whatsoever. But if you are using single ply heads like the Pearl factory heads you’ll never be able to get that tone especially if it’s with fusion size toms.
I always prefer to hit softer and mic the kit...let the PA create the sound. I love to hear some verb on the snare and feel some thump from the kick drum. I try to get other musicians to understand that it's almost like asking the bass player not to plug into an amp (I said ALMOST)...but, hopefully, you know what I'm talking about, To me, a drum kit just sounds like cardboard boxes without mics in a full band rehearsal. Of course, all of us drummers have had the rock star guitar player that has to drown everyone else out which is so frustrating. But, most of the musicians I've worked with completely agree that the band sounds much better when everyone keeps a minimal volume. It just makes everything easier...no screaming to get the vocals over the music...no squealing, overdriven monitor wedges unable to compete the totally unnecessary band volume.
What kind of accent combo Tom is that 🤔
I love low tuning
What about tuning the cymbals?
Says the guy with a floor Tom mounted over his bass. My toms are tiny, I want some deeper tones!!
this high tuning is still low for some reasons
:)
I haven't tuned my drums in years. I allow them to play to the beat of their own drum.
No. And I'm allergic to 4 piece kits.
personally Iam not a fan of low tuning...it just really sounds bad..plus you gotta work harder...and Im definitely not down with working harder!! LOL!!
Read the text on 6:26 and you're good to go. You don't need to watch the almost 8 minutes 👍
holy shit your snare sounds bad
*facepalm*