lee wrote:Hi- i am a guitar player but have been learning to play drums for the last month or so. I am playing a friend's kit and it sounds OK to me but when I ask drummers about how to tune the kit it seems like some kind of arcane science. I found the link below for snare tuning info and will continue to search for more tuning info.
If any of you have any simple tuning tips you could share with us would-be drummers it would be much appreciated.
As for the Bonham thing, I was just discussing this with an engineer the other day and he pointed out that "the thing about the Zep drum sounds that people most often overlook is the man behind the kit". Nobody else will ever really sound like John Bonham or James Jamerson or Tom Verlaine or fill-in-the blank and that is one of the coolest things about music. This will be totally obvious to most of you, but it seems like a fundamental thing that escapes a lot of musicians. What do y'all think about it when people come into the studio and say "I want a (name of famous player) sound" ? Is that kind of description useful at all or is it just irritating when you know for a fact that the guy will NEVER sound like player X?



http://www.ludwig-drums.com/education/care_snare.html

come on you wingers, answer this fellas question!! i'd be interested to hear it too, since although i would say i can tune a kit the way i like it, i'll bet i learn something.

come on guys dont be shy.

one thing greg told me a while ago that resonanted (god, pun not intended) with me was something along the lines of... if you want to sound like the drums on the green day record, all we need to do is get the exact same drumset in the same room it was in, and then get the guy who played them - and then maybe we'll be on the right track.. and while it was a total joking thing, it kinda reminded me of the fact that rather than sounding LIKE bonham, mcneilly, trainer, etc. your drums should sound like you playing your drums. i was always amazed how mcneilly's snare sounded the same when you'd see them in a bar as it did on the record. and every time i'd try and tune my snare to sound like _______ - it'd never work. so, i just got comfortable with the fact that i sound like i sound, and my kit sounds like my kit sounds. and i get it the best that it can sound (new heads/tuned) when recording, and focus on the songs and playing rather than, hey greg - make me sound like _______.

when recording people, i usually send them this link:

http://www.drumweb.com/profsound.shtml

it's the most detailed explanation of how this stuff work's that i've ever read. i've also made it a point to bring it up before the band comes in, and talk to the drummer and say, "are you planning on changing your heads the night before and tuning them up so they seat themselves?" and stress that if thier drums sound like shit in the room, i can't do much to help them. also make this clear to the rest of the band, or thier leader to say, hey - as the dude responsible for making your record, i think you need to have your drums tuned/heads changed ahead of time. if that's not done, that's a choice you're going to make right now, and when it comes to mix and you're not stoked on the drum sounds, i've gone on the record saying they're not going to be as good as they can and should be. that way it's the band's decision,, and you've presented the pros and cons of it. tell them, look - ok, you're saving what, 60 bucks by not changing the basics (tom/snare top heads) - to have a record that sounds like shit for the rest of your life.

after that speach to the last band i recorded, the main guy totally bitched out the drummer for not taking pride in his craft and said if he was serious about the band, he'd better show up with new heads. the guy ended up getting up at 7am to change and tune his heads before coming in. nothing like instilling the fear in them. and if you can use the internal band dynamic to your advantage - that's all the better.

nick92675 wrote:http://www.drumweb.com/profsound.shtml

that site offers a very comprehensive answer to the gent above who asked how he should learn more. thats great. i'm taking a copy home to study.

Thanks!

As a drummer and owner of a fucked-up but remarkable sounding drum kit, let me say that there are times when a fucked-up drumkit has a sound that is worth trying to capture. It's likely that, say, changing the 30-yr-old heads on a 60-yr-old drum kit will significantly alter the sound of the kit - possibly in a good way, possibly in a "it-sounds-'better'-but-the-magic-is-gone" way.

Changing drum heads is a perfectly sensible request, of course, and is a good idea 92-99% of the time. But there are cases where a kit should be listened to before the change-your-heads mandate is instituted.

andteater wrote:greg,

you are not alone.

Seriously. So stop talking out loud so loud loud.

As the guy who plays the drums in our band, I'm always happy to get a little extra hand-holding from the engineers. Then again, everything I know about tuning drums came from the back of an Evans drum head package, so I'll take all the help I can get.