by Brent Hoover

An Extremely Simple Primer To Drum Tuning For Non-Drummers

One of the most difficult things to record is a drum kit. This of course makes perfect sense since you are talking about normally 7-10 discrete acoustic instruments, some with very different tonal characteristics, all sitting right next to each other.

But if your recording is going to sound good, your drums need to sound good. And one of the keys to a good sounding drum kit is proper tuning. However, many drummers don’t know, don’t care, or have weird misconceptions about drum tuning, and since at the end of the day the sound of the drums will reflect more on you than the drummer, its best for most engineers/producers to have at least some idea of how to tune a kit and get the best sound out of it. I will also throw in some general tips I have learned for getting the best drum sound.

Preparing the Kit

Replace all drum heads

This might seem like a pretty obvious concept but 4 out of 5 times when I have recorded drummers they show up with old heads, some which seem like they are the ones that came with the drum when they bought it. Usually they are convinced that the heads sound just fine because they replaced them just a couple of months ago. They don’t, and usually they are surprised how good their drums sound with new heads. Normally this is best done the day before recording so the heads have time to stretch out overnight. But if you have to do it the day of, do it.

Coated or non-Coated?

Although there is a slight tonal difference (coated heads being slightly “drier”), the only reason you need coated heads is if the drummer is playing brushes.

Tighten up

Check the kit for any loose screws or lugs that might rattle. The sound of a rattling screw is easy to miss while checking sounds, and impossible to remove. Also check kick drum and hi-hat pedals for squeaks and apply a little WD-40 if necessary.

Basic Tuning

The basic idea behind tuning any drum is that you want the tension to be even over the entire surface of the head. Take a drumstick and tap near the lug (those are the screws that hold the head on) and listen for the pitch, then taking a drum key tighten the other lugs so that they are the same pitch. You may find that as you tighten one the others may go out of tune so you will need to repeat the process 2 or 3 times. If the heads are new, do it roughly and then hit the drum 20 or 30 times, then repeat. Another thing to remember if you’re working with new heads, you may want to over-tighten at first so the drum will stretch out more quickly. Once you have evened out the tension, you can begin to choose what you want the tone of the drum to be. (I will cover that more specifically for each type of drum) You may want to use a product called “Lug Locks”, which are pieces of plastic which hold the lug in place so it doesn’t loosen over time. This will help keep your drum tone consistent from take to take. They are cheap ($25 for a pack of 100) and will save you a lot of re-tuning.

Tuning each drum

Snare Drum

The snare is the hardest drum to tune as it actually is a crazy little device, acoustic-wise. Also, you can really get a variety of different tones depending on how you tune it.

1. You can normally tune the ring out of a snare by carefully making the tension equal as described above. But for some reason, sometimes this doesn’t work. Try tapping around each lug till you hear the part of the drum that sounds most like the note of the ring, and try changing that lug (and then even out the others). Also check the bottom head to make sure it is not tuned to the same pitch. If this still doesn’t work, don’t resort to duct tape and Kleenex yet. You can make your own approximation of a product called “Dead Ringer” by cutting up an old drum head (preferably off the same drum). First cut a circle as close to the edge as you can, and then cut another circle about an inch smaller. Then place this “ring” on the drum. This will normally dampen most rings without killing the tone. Of course ignore all of this if a “ringy” snare drum, ala Pearl Jam, is what you are looking for.

2. Tighten the bottom head very tight (being careful again to keep the tension even) so as to make the snares as responsive as possible. (by the way, these are the wires that stretch across the bottom head, if you ever wondered where the name came from) Adjust the snare tension screw for how “tight” you want the sound. Generally, tighter snares will give you a faster attack and decay.

3. The style of music that is being played will do a lot to determine how tight the top head needs to be. Drummers who play hard (rock, metal, etc) will need to keep the head somewhat loose so they can “dig in” and hit hard, funk and jazz players will need the head pretty tight so that they can get the proper response for things like “ghost notes” and press rolls.

Note: It is my opinion that most recording studios would behoove themselves to purchase one good snare drum that can be substituted for one that just cannot be saved. If you want a quick and easy solution pick up a Ludwig Black Beauty. They are fairly common so they are relatively cheap ($3-400) on the used market, they are versatile in terms of what sort of sounds you can get, and unless you get a really beat-to-death one, they almost always sound great.

Kick Drum

Besides evening out the tension, how you tune the kick really depends on what sort of sound you want. Generally I like to tune it as low as possible until it becomes “flabby” and then tightening it back up a little. This gives you a very deep sound. If you want a little more “click” you can try placing a piece of duct tape right where the batter meets the head and tuning the head up a little. You can also purchase bass drum heads designed just for this purpose.

There are a lot of other factors that really affect the sound of the kick drum, such as whether you have a front head, and what sort of batter you use, but since they are about tuning I will skip them.

Another Note: this is purely an aesthetic choice, but one thing I have learned from making drum sounds and programming drums is that the kick and snare generally sound best together when they are tuned an octave apart. Of course since they don’t really have a fundamental pitch, you will need to do this strictly by ear.

Toms

There are two theories of tom tuning. One is to tune the toms to a particular pitch. This is done by tuning both bottom and top heads to the same pitch. Even when I don’t plan on keeping it to a single pitch (get to that in a second) I will do this to determine the “resonant” note of the tom.

In my experience, most drums have a note at which they naturally resonate, giving you the fullest tone, but the only way to know this is by experimenting. You have experienced this if you have ever played an instrument in the same room as a kit and noticed that the drum resonates (sometimes annoyingly so) when you hit a certain note.

Now, while tuning the toms to a particular pitch does give you a very nice tone, it also means that if your tom is out of tune with the song it’s going to sound bad. So I will usually go with tuning to separate pitches on the top and bottom heads, usually pitching the bottom head lower (which tends to give you that “beyooow” sound we associate with toms).

There is no hard and fast rule but generally you will want to pitch your toms a fourth or fifth apart from each other. This helps to insure that the toms will also resonate without creating clashing tones. Some drum manufacturers such as Drum Workshop will go so far as to choose drums for a kit so that their naturally resonating tones fit well together.

(note: If you are in Pantera or looking for that early 80’s “In the Air Tonight” tom sound, ignore this advice and just tape the heck out of your drums.)

Summary

Hopefully your drummer will know how to get the best sound out of his/her kit, but in case they don’t no amount of microphone placement and mix trickery is going to rescue a crappy sounding kit. A little time spent now, could save you a lot of heartache later on.

Brent Hoover has played drums for 27 years and sports a DW tattoo.

Questions about this or related topics? Write to us here.