Tuning Drums?
 

Hello,

Is there a way to "tune" drums or some equivalent to tuning drums?
I mean either the drums or the cymbals.

Because my brothers' ("Losers Of The Year") band's drums never seem to sound the same each practice. And because I am forming a band I want to know if there is some kind of technique to keeping the drums' sound consistent.

Any help is appreciated, thank you.
:drummer:

Tuning drums can come in many forms, such as tightening the heads and muffling the drums. Here's a good place to learn a bit: Wikipedia.

To make it consistent you'll probably want to check your drums before you start and re-tune them accordingly if you need to.

I don't think there's really any way to tune the cymbals though.

Cymbals aren't really tunable, hence why it's important to try out a cymbal and hear it first hand before you buy it. That said, you can use some tape to tame the sound of the cymbal a little if you want. The important thing with cymbals is hitting them in the correct place and with the right part of the stick, and so it's important to have them positioned and angled well.

You can find loadsa tutorials for tuning the rest of the kit online.

This should probably be in the forum about instruments rather than general music, but anyway, the drum tuning bible should be helpful:

Drum Tuning Bible

for the most part drums in a drum kit probably only need to be tuned about once every couple months, and unless you're really wanting an exact pitch out of them just tune them till the tone of the drum sounds how you want it to. gravityslips is correct in the fact that cymbals are untunable (well unless you cut a piece of the cymbal but i wouldn't recommend that.) just a little tape should work but the tape will only make a difference if it's put outside of the center of the cymbal the closer to an edge the bigger difference, also putting a little tape "X" in certain places can help guide you to exact places you would want to hit the cymbals in certain parts of a song.

the one kind of drum in which pitch truly matters are rope-tuned drums, like bongos, congas, etc... (although now plenty of them have metal tuners) many people will actually tune a bongo to an exact pitch because they may want to play it chromatically. (center of drum is low-pitched and edges are higher-pitcthed this is also true with pretty much any other drum).

those are basically all the things i know about drum tuning, that i wanted to go into detail of

Thanks man, that is useful.

It's good to know that drums aren't as easily thrown out of tune as guitars. Thanks for the info.

My brothers play their drum set with broken cymbals, the cymbals sound like trash cans; they don't seem to know the difference between broken and not, I guess that's one of the problems with their sound.

I'm thinking tape won't work for their cymbals, but it's good to know we can at least alter the sound of new cymbals a little. Thanks for the info.

Sometimes a cracked cymbal can become an awesome effect cymbal, but this usually only works for smaller cymbals and splashes.
Anyway, if all their cymbals are cracked and sound like crap... tape isn't going to do anything to help. Tape just helps absorb some of the ringing sound and decreases the decay a little.

As far as tuning, follow that Drum Tuning Bible and you won't go wrong, but remember... you can only get so much out of properly tuning a horribly fucked drum set. If the skins need replacing, that should be done first.

I found some great tutorials on YouTube as well. My brothers' drums are definitely out of tune, but they won't let me tune them and they don't think drums can be tuned. They just go by ear, so I guess their sound is just going to be inconsistent. Which means my band will have the upper hand, muahahahahaha!
:band:

well they'll know who to come to when their drums finally fall apart

They're gonners. There's only a certain amount of things you can do by ear. Unfortunately, my brother's tuner has a broken mic and my guitar is an acoustic guitar.

Does one not tune drums by ear? If not, can you recommend a good drum tuner? (or can an electric guitar tuner be used?)

you can't learn to tune by ear without resources, and the correct ones. i learned the hard way correct sources equals valid quality.

I don't think you're really understanding what drum tuning actually is, as a whole.
You don't really need to tune drums to specific keys unless it actually plays a part in the music. The main thing about tuning is tuning each top and bottom skin so that they resonate sympathetically with each other and the size of the drum itself. When you're doing this, you can do it by ear because you're not going for a particular key.

For example, let's say you're tuning one of the wing toms. Let's say it's 10" wide by 12" deep. That particular size is going to have a particular resonance, decay, etc. Say you start with the resonant head (bottom head), loosen it up until it's flappy. Then, turning each lug opposite one another, get the head EVENLY tight until it begins to produce a tone when you tap on it.
Now flip the drum over and do the same to the batter head (top head). When you're there, flip it back over to the resonant side and begin tightening and tapping near each of the lug points. You'll know if they're unevenly tightened because there will be differences in the tone. Just go a single turn on each lug, adjusting the turns so that all the lugs produce the same exact tone near each of the lug points. When you achieve that, flip it back over to the batter side and do the same thing and achieve the same tone as the resonant side. When you achieve this, pick the drum up into the air and hit the batter side with your stick. Does it have a long, smooth sustain and resonance? If not, you need to either tune both sides higher or lower. There are "zones" you'll hit, but it's pretty easy to hit the right one because the right zone is where the heads are pliable, not too tight, not too loose, and you get a lot of sustain and it sounds EVEN. As in, no warbling ring. Just smooth tone.
If you get that right, you have tuned the heads correctly to the drum. If you want to sacrifice some sustain just so you can have the drum in a specific key for some weird reason, you can go up or down on both sides EVENLY... but I just gotta warn you, if you tune to keys instead of the drum itself, you're probably going to end up sounding like you're playing a stack of boxes.
Correct drum tuning means that you adjust the heads so that the heads work together and with the fundamental note of the drum, as dictated by its size and accommodation of the vibrations being produced inside it.
This isn't just music theory, it's physics.

Thanks for the info! :)

From what I've read, each drum should be tuned to a different specific key, but not just whatever one you want. What you just instructed would produce a key from the drum, but whether it's actually in perfect key is important (whether it's C/Cb and not half way in between); is this correct?

Well, the important thing is that the drum is "in tune with itself". If the end result is that it turns out the drum is tuned dead on to a C or F or whatever, then great. But the note isn't the important part.
The size and depth of the drum is going to dictate its fundamental note. You don't need a tuner to find out what note it is. Just tune the heads properly and use your ears to find the zone. That will be the note of the drum. If you want to nudge it up a little if it turns out that note is flat or something, sure.. go ahead. But don't arbitrarily always tune the first tom to a certain key, the second, third, etc. Tune the drum to itself. After that, see how you like it. I bet no one will call you out and say "HEY, DRUMMER... I NOTICED YOUR SECOND TOM IS HALF A CENT FLAT OF E!"

So it would be best to tune the drum with itself, to a note that sounds best, and than use a tuner to see what note it actually is so that tuning the same drum next time around will be accurate? What I'm looking for is consistency, I know drums can only do so much and aren't intended to always have a perfect tune like guitars.

My brothers' problem is probably their inability to hear for any particular note each tuning.

freebase, you are a spot-on kinda guy, huh?!

tuning the drum to itself will give you all the consistency you need, jake. you don't need a tuner, because your ear will develop a taste for a properly tuned drum.

Freebase pretty much summed it up.

Although I have seen in some post-hardcore/metalcore bands (or any band that uses breakdowns), drummers tune their bass drum to the open C (or Db, B) or whatever to match the low string on the bass guitar. Makes a breakdown, or any segment of the song where guitarists and bassists are all playing an open note sound heavy as ****. But unless you're going for that type of sound, or playing all your songs in the same key, that's not going to do you a whole lot of good.

Yea, I mean... definitely do your initial tuning and find the zone (without paying much attention to the actual key it's in) that sustains smooth and clean, and yes, it would be a good idea to get a tuner to see what key it's in for future reference. That would definitely make it easier when you have to do maintenance tuning or when you re-skin the drums. Just remember to let the drum itself dictate what key/note you end up with and the kit will sound a lot better. Each drum piece is a specific size for a reason. They will naturally be the correct note for the kit if you tune them according to what we went over.

Another thing to consider is the situation the drums are going to be in... if they're going to be played live, at a show or something, you definitely want maximum sustain on your toms because it gets really drowned out in the rest of the band. If your toms are muffled excessively or not tuned correctly, they end up sounding like boxes.
Also, the biggest mistake I see people making when they tune their drums is when they only reference the sound the drum makes when they're sitting on them. The problem with that is most of the sound is coming straight up at you, and straight down through the resonant heads... while it sounds nice there, it sounds a lot different when you're a distance away from the kit and not subjected to those two positions. So having someone soundcheck the kit while you stand in different places is important. Having maximum sustain will ensure there's enough in places other than the 2 hotspots, even if it sounds like there's too much directly above and below the kit.
Obviously, if you're micing the kit, the best sound needs to come from wherever you're micing it, so keep all that in mind when you're tuning and you'll get the best results for the situation.

Great! Thanks for all the information. We are planning on recording our music first and putting it up on our website and MySpace before playing any shows, that way we can point people to where they may hear the songs again. So the point about tuning them appropriate when recording and when playing live is really helpful.

I didnt know drums was tuneable or they could get out of tune i knew pillows in the drums changed the sound put dang their tuneable that amazing lol all this info for me as a newbie has been great thanks for the thread. Dude hope your bros band learn diff in broken n not broken lol