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It seems that most every drummer that comes into the studio can't tune their kit to save their life...unfortunatly, I can't either.
I really want to have a good sounding kit, I just don't have any drumming experience.
I was wondering if anyone had any good recommendations on how to learn to tune drums?
The key to getting a great "________" sound is getting a great sounding "_______" and shove some mics in front of it. And drums are the most challenging instruments to get a "great" sound from. My only suggestion is to borrow some drums a start cranking the tuning lugs. Most drummers aren't that good at tuning their drums for recording because they spend most of their time sitting behind them and playing. What sounds good sitting on the stool doesn't always translate to a good recording. There are a lot of variables to drum sounds because there are a bunch of instruments that need to be tuned individually as well as a kit. And the most significant variable is the drummer themselves. You can takes the same kit and have 2 different drummers play it and I guarntee that there will be 2 very different drum sounds. Try this tool to start with.
go to youtube there's tons of drum tutorials and its great to be able to see it as opposed to just reading about it...:-)
Agree, and the drummer is maybe 75% of the sound, no doubt about it.
Pablo Santiago | Oct 19 at 08:10
I have used the DrumDial with great success. It actually measures the tension of the drum skin instead of measuring the tension on the lug itself.
It also has a few handy sliders to mark certain tensions. This way you can find the exact tensions you like, mark it with the sliders. You don't have to remember what tension you used last time.
If you don't know naything about tuning drums I don't beleive the drum dial will help. It's really more about trail and error. There are some general rules that are a great place to start. You can find these on many forums. The drum tuning bible kind of intense so take what you can from it.
I will say that after years of really wanting to be able to tune drums I am at a place where drummers regularly comment on the sound of our studio set (tama rockstar set I got for $50.00). I am also able to tune clients drums and send them home with drums that sound remarkably better than when they came in.
But I still call in a guy when the kit has be cherry.
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