Not specifically. If you're in the studio, some producers really want the snare and kick to be retuned for the song. It's a great way to make the song sound more cohesive and spend a ton of cash. I just like the effect that it seems to have to have them tuned together to notes that can create chords or progressions. I think we've been trained to identify notes in the chromatic scale to feel more musical.

Thanks...this will be a good excuse to spend some extra time with my drums this weekend.

-Jeff

Actually a good question. Somebody help us out with this one? I suppose the "note" the drum is tuned to isn't really a single note, but a tone with bunches of notes that get mediated to a "note"? So maybe it doesn't matter, I don't know.

For the other guy's statement...I don't often have my roadie nearby to say to him, "Hey, give me an A."

The other guy...I know that I can get a tone that suits me, on one drum. But I don't always think that the drums are working together, so I have to redo things, and then I waste time. Maybe I'm too picky.

See...THAT. RIGHT. THERE. is what I'm talking about. The whole "they don't make 'em like they used to" or similar mindset. Nothing wrong with it. It's okay to have pride in your kit or your taste in kits for one reason or another, but don't be surprised when you see a response like the one you did when even the title of the forum sets it apart from other forums as the subtopic of a broader topic. Just sayin'... :)

Never said anything like "they don't make em like they used to". There are newer 3 ply style kits that I find similar, but they're out of my price range. I wouldn't mind picking up a new C & C set. Just the right tool for the job for me and have always meshed well with my playing and personality.

I posted it on this forum because I was hoping to share some settings with people playing on the same styles of kits. 90% of the tuning info I find out there is geared towards modern drum sets.

I am a firm believer in timbre pitching, as John Good and DW made very popular in the 90s. It can be applied to any drum, and I indeed do this with all mine, regardless of composition or ply, size, etc. I have had a great deal of success with it and even though it limits you to a certain pitch, it still is going to give you the best sound that drum can produce (IMHO). I can understand how/why they match shells up to each other depending on that inherent pitch.

Tune the heads to that same note and you will get maximum resonance. Then I use studio rings to EQ it (this would be TONE).

I have never used a drum dial (or any other type device). Instead, I have a guitar tuner I keep in my snare case and that works fine. Not every note will be found on there, but you can find a close enough one to figure out what it is. I then write it inside the shell and it is there for reference forever. At that point, you don't even need any tuning device (other than your ears) as long as you have bandmates around to give you that note on their instrument.

BTW - I have had times of extreme frustration when I can not get that tom to sound right. Then, evetually, I get it into the right room (acoustics) and it comes alive and sound fabulous! - thus proving that the initial room is the guilty culprit. Now I don't get discouraged when I jam in my friend's basement!

John

This is interesting. I feel ya facon and get what your saying also the other comments. All makes sense in tuning technique. In my 40 plus years of tuning drums I have always pitched my toms. Find the sweet spot on the high Tom and go from there. George of the jungle, Olympics theme. Not exactly that interval on every instance or tom order. And I also see the validity of tuning to notes to fit a song when recording. So all is good. Here is something else I wonder about as far as others tune. Do you use the star method to tighten your heads or the round method. I have done both but I seem to have great results in getting each tension rod against the collar of the head ready to add tension. I can go around in a circle with even small turns until I get out the wrinkles, then take my drum key and press down slightly in the middle of the head and tap a half inch in front of each Lug and you can hear which rod is loose or tighter than the other. Then adjust accordingly. You can get them really even. Sometimes on low toms if you hear a boing type resonance, one of the rods are not tensioned as high as the others or vice versa. Sometimes you can have them all even and then just torque up one rod and it sings. You just have to experiment and listen. It's been working for me. Vintage or modern drums. Heads have a lot to do with the actual sound, but that's a whole other animal.

I think whatever helps one to achieve a sound that he/she is happy with is fine with me. I do not use any of the new devices, although I'm fine with learning about them as I can always learn something new re: tuning. On the other hand, I don't play vintage drumsets or vintage snare drums as I don't like the sound of vintage drumsets or snare drums. The drumsets that I play/teach on are Yamaha Recording Customs and DW Collector Series, both of these drumsets are pretty easy to tune up.

Mike Curotto

I didn't mean to insult anyone. Just pointing out the value of

ear training. I know several young guitar players that cannot

tune their instruments without a tuner.

I am 65 so maybe a little old school but I see a lot of young drummers who

don't know chords and intervals and how they work in music. I would recommend studying some melodic instrument, vibes, marimba, keyboard, ect

to better understand the music you play and be a part of the music not just the beat.

I agree with Bill, unless you are tone deaf there is no magic to learning to recognize intervals by ear. It's a learned skill like anything else.

I use my iPhone to tune with the following apps:

NOTES

Which I use to reference the pitches that I generally use for each kit.

VIRTUOSO PIANO

To reference the actual pitches

Basically I have gone through all of my kits and found the lowest possible pitch that each drum will produce and then made minor tweaks until I find that drums sweet spot. After that, I then make minor adjustments so that the drums work melodically together. Typically drums will fall into intervals of a fourth or major thirds. When I note the "pitch" of the drum head, I am referring to the pitch the drum produces while sitting on a padded table so I am only really listening to one head at a time. That is not the actual pitch the drum produces.

Once I have that relationship set, I can then decide what I need from the resonant head. For maximum resonance and sustain I tune them to the same pitch. If I want to increase the "punch" from the drum I tension the bottom head up a minor third or a fourth.

Since I am constantly changing heads on my kits I have found it useful to record the "usual" pitches that I use for a particular kit. That really speeds up the process. It should be noted that occasionally a drum will not produce the tone I've noted due to the occasional inconsistency in drum heads. I am constantly tuning about as low as the drums will go as that is "all the rage" in most

contemporary music these days and some heads just don't go as low as others.

As to technique, I check and make sure the head rotates freely on the shell and then add the rim. I tension finger tight all the way around and then a quarter turn in a star pattern to keep the tension even on the hoop. I generally tension the head well above the target pitch and give it a light shove in the center with the heal of my hand to help seat the head. Once it has set for a few minutes I lower the pitch with the same 1/4 turn and take it below the target pitch. I slowly raise the head to pitch and again press in the center. As soon as the head holds tension I quit doing that and bring the head to pitch, always from lower to higher. I never tune down to pitch but always below and then back up.

That works for me, it is repeatable and I can train other to do it just the same way. There is nothing wrong at all with using some other device. As I've said before, if it works, do it. To answer your question, vintage drums can be tuned to pitches and, if the drum is in tune with it's self, it is tuned to a pitch whether you know what that pitch is or not. The reality is that there are enough overtones in a double headed drum that it is generally not perceived as a particular note. Now single headed drums....that is another story.