JakeDTH

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.

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Dom

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.

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GravitySlips

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.

JakeDTH

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.

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Freebase Dali

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.

JakeDTH

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!

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Stone Birds

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

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thomasracer56

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.

JakeDTH

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

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The Abominable Homan

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

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