Is this possible, and if so, how can I do it? I also bought the DrumDial tuner, as I'm not real good with tuning yet, and this thing makes it a breeze. There's a guide with different pressures for the different drums, does anyone know what could be possible to get to C?

roulette wrote:

Is this possible, and if so, how can I do it? I also bought the DrumDial tuner, as I'm not real good with tuning yet, and this thing makes it a breeze. There's a guide with different pressures for the different drums, does anyone know what could be possible to get to C?

Which drum, which diameter, which register C? You could tune a 10" or 12" tom batter head to C and your batter head to A minor and I would call that normal.

Since I don't practice tuning my snare with snares off, I have no idea what pitch I tune to. It probably varies. A lot. Definitely depends on which snare, the diameter, and the plausible range. My homemade 10-ply maple, 8-lug snare has a LOT of range. It's a 6.5 x 14 with die cast rims. My 5.5 x 14 Acrolite pretty much only has one plausible range and that's about standard metal snare tuning (a little ringy, medium dry).

My secret to tuning is to tune the reso heads to pitch and the batter heads to tone and feel. It works for me, and I've since learned many other drummers use this technique for studio work.

if you were to get a chromatic tuner with an input/output cable you could actually plug the output into the port of your drums and tune them precisely. but the only downside of that is if you were to have a song in say...Drop or Standard D with drums still tuned to C. you'd have to retune them to at least a harmony.








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Pearls, Zildjians, Vics, Evans.

break the prism wrote:

if you were to get a chromatic tuner with an input/output cable you could actually plug the output into the port of your drums and tune them precisely. but the only downside of that is if you were to have a song in say...Drop or Standard D with drums still tuned to C. you'd have to retune them to at least a harmony.

Well, I don't share this opinion...

I tune my set (batters) like this.

Snare: A (batter)

Bass d.: C

Tom 10x10: F

Tom 12x10: D

Tom 13x11: B

Floor Tom: G

Reso heads are half tune below.

And I play every song in any tone without being out of tune.

vgarate wrote:

I tune my set (batters) like this.

Snare: A (batter)

Bass d.: C

Tom 10x10: F

Tom 12x10: D

Tom 13x11: B

Floor Tom: G

Reso heads are half tune below.

And I play every song in any tone without being out of tune.

This is the same basic principle Terry Bozzio uses. If anyone cared to e-mail him, I bet he could explain his theories on and the mathematical relationship to shell diameter.

Tune the drums to a tone where they sound good and resonate well, not necessarily a certain note. It is possible to get specific notes out of a drum, but they won't necessarily sound good. If you tune your first rack tom to a C, it might sound ok if the song is in C, but if the song is in E, for example, the tom note will clash. Also, a specific note you're chasing for a certain drum may not fall inside the drum's tonal range. It might sound tight and choked, or loose and floppy.

Incidentally, I dialled in a good resonant tone for my kit, but my toms are tuned (by accident) to a Gm7 chord. From the floor tom up, they are G, B flat, D and F.... go figure.








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i use my ear to tune them...pitch forks or pitch pipes, if you sing the desired pitch you want into the drum, it should hum it back to you if the drum is in tune, that is how you know how close you are to being in tune. my snare is an A flat...i find that perfect.my toms are f, c, f, c, g ...i like having them tuned to in 4ths and 5ths... i think it works really well, and i have been told numerous times that my drums sound awesome...








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