I feel you have to know
the center of your universe for playing and/or which drum is most important in the way of sound. Once you know that, the rest
falls into place. So lets go through the concepts for the "type" of tuning you desire. To obtain:
Lowest, fattest sound:
Start with your biggest, meanest floor tom and do a fat tuning as described above under “Results – What They
Mean”. No point in starting with the smallest drum because when you
get to the low end of the range on the larger drums, the incremental tuning ability of the drums involved may make tuning
the large drums impossible for the required interval. In other words, the floor
tom won’t go that low and you’ll end up with a mismatched interval, so start low and work up in pitch to the small
drum(s).
Punchy, top 40, where
the focus is on rack tom fills: Your rack toms are what usually drives the sound. If you play 2 or 3 rack toms, pick the 2nd or 1st tom and get it where you want it, these are the center
of your work. From here everything else will fall into place. Keep it melodic,
play pairs of drums. If you move in 5 note intervals you’ll find all drums
sound bigger, fuller, sympathetic tones are complementary. Move in 3 note increments,
they’ll sound a little thinner and drier; you might want this especially for a close mic situation. Tip: Don’t make the kick drum too low in pitch, keep it in the same 5-note relationship to the lowest
floor tom.
Here’s my thought’s
on this subject, there are no rules other than the first two points I’ll make:
1. Diameter means more
for pitch change than does shell depth. By this I mean that there is no substitute
for a larger diameter if you want a real deep drum sound. Buying prepackaged
sets with a 14” diameter floor tom and then complaining that you cannot tune it low is in a word, expected. You cannot
make a 14” drum go as deep in pitch as a 16” drum. However, you can
tune a 16” up to the pitch of a 14”. Regardless of the direction
you choose, keep in mind that the feel of the stick rebound can mean everything to many drummers. So a very loose tuning may turn into trouble with your playing style.
2. Shell depth equates to articulation,
resonance and the volume (power) of the resonant note given off by the drum shell. The shell depth coupled with wood and construction
gives the drum its character.
- By way of example, a 12” x 10” (as in Dia. x Depth) gives you a shell surface area of 370
sq. in. as opposed to 333 sq. in. for a 12” x 9”. So the 10” depth is a 11% increase in the shell surface
area and generally translates into an increase in resonance and or power. If
the shell is reasonably thin, the tone of the 10” depth will be ever so slightly deeper and the note duration a few
milliseconds longer. Engineers refer to it as “fatter”. The added depth also adds volume to the drum note. And
if the shell is thick, adding depth translates into focusing more volume to those at 90° to the drumhead surface (audience).
Regardless of diameter, a one-inch change in shell length, for a drum of identical diameter, generally translates into the
same increase of 11% or decrease of 10%. So a 12” x 8” will be 20%
less in surface area than a 12” x 10”. Simply put, the depth of the
“punch” will be more evident on the 12” x 10” than that of a 12” x 8” drum.
- As an added note, often drummers always talk of wanting more resonance, but then turn around and put aftermarket
devices on the head surface to mute out unwanted overtones. Overtones are of course a form of resonance. If you want your
toms more articulated, I would suggest you are far better off to buy shallow depth drums than you are to buy so-called “power
toms”. You may think you are getting a drum that can tune deeper, but the
trade off is less control over resonance than you will get on a shallow depth drum. Think of how tight and articulate a 3”
deep snare is as opposed to one which is 6-7” deep. It works much the same way with toms, and bass drums.
So with these concepts in
mind, I find a 12” drum is better paired with a 10” or 14” drum than it is a 11” or 13”. That
is unless you have a 10” or 14” and really desire something in-between for pitch.
Then the in between sizes make sense.
The common belief is that
even sized drums produce better tuning qualities. I don’t know why this
belief is out there, I find they can all be tuned if tuned as the shell/diameter allows. If you try to make a 13” sound
like a 14” while pairing it with a 12”, you’re setting yourself up for trouble unless you want a small incremental
note difference.
It just seems to be more
melodic to skip 1 or 2 sizes in diameter in between drums (see the section that follows below “Musical Notes for
Tuning, Suggested”).
So here are some
further suggestions:
- Use a Power Tom as rack/mounted toms if you like big floor toms.
- Use Fundamentally Accurate Sized Toms (“FAST”) if playing small venues, when
size is a concern or when you just want less “power”.
- Small drums tune “low” fairly well, large diameter drums don’t always tune “high”
well.
- I find any combination of drums in the following sizes tune well and allow room to add: (Expressed in
Diameter x Depth) 8x8, 10x9, 12x10, 14x12, 16x14, 18x16, 20x16, 20x18, 22x16, 22x18, 24x18.
- If you like a tight sound, consider substituting a rack tom depth that is 2” shallower than those
above.
Tuning to Musical Notes
When I originally wrote this
section, it got an awful lot of misguided attention and much debate was drawn from the concept of tuning to a specific note.
An often received question was, what is a “standard” tuning for my drumset?
There is no standard tuning
for Rock vs Jazz vs Country. By that I mean, every drummer playing Rock DOES
NOT tune their kick to a "C", etc. There are however a few interval concepts that drummers "tend" to use between each drum,
and that would be a 3rd or 5th apart. Typical thoughts are to tune in intervals
that mimic the note spacing heard in the song "Here Comes the Bride", however, not to those exact notes. Smaller intervals
are more predominant in Rock, larger intervals in Jazz.
True, most drummers don't
worry about it. However, in my experience; the more seasoned the drummer, the more they are concerned with the relationship
between their drums.
But remember the job of the
drummer, other than laying down a beat is to make a song sound its best. If you are getting paid to work quick, you must be
able to dial in the drum quick. The true studio drummer has 1 to 3 songs they need to lay down in a 2 to 4 hour session and
the song is the specific focus. Typically the drummer will balance the tone of the kit so that it does not clash with
· bass or low octave keyboard textures, and
· the drums when hit together form a melodic structure so that if or as they resonant,
there are no dissonant overtones being picked up by mics, or
· they know their kit and insist upon a very specific relationship between drum
to drum and in most cases are only willing to alter the tone of cymbals or the snare (by choosing one of many they own and
listening to the track back to hone in on the decision).
When playing live, especially
if you are a cover band playing all types of music, you need to get real on what you can and cannot do. You will not have
the luxury of altering your tuning to fit a particular song.
IMHO, the concept of tuning
is essentially centered on knowing how to get the best tone (that suits you) out of each of your respective drums. Above all, it’s about being realistic and being satisfied with what you have. Most frustrations come out of unrealistic expectations and not understanding that you may actually have
the wrong sized drums to achieve your objective.
So bottom line is, any two
drums struck together make noise and will get you by. However, it is not near
as pleasing as how you will sound if they work together as a "chord" type sound. And that in a nut shell is the concept I
have tried to get across. Hit all your drums together and make sure they sound melodic, whether tuned in 3rds, 4ths or 5ths,
it doesn’t really matter too much if they sound good as a “unit” rather than as individual drums.
The best advice I think
I can offer (other than learning your instrument) is not to have you and your bass/keyboard player sounding the same. This is a basic concept of engineering. Each
instrument needs to have its space in the mix for clarity. So while each bass
player will no doubt play a note that is the same as one of the drums at some point, the timbre or tonal characteristic between
the 2 needs to be different.
You should get to know at
what note your drum sounds best. Why? Because
if you go to the trouble of finding that note, you’ll also see that from a musical standpoint, playing 2 notes together
directly next to each other on a keyboard sounds pretty bad (for the most part) and that’s what we want to avoid. Play any combination of notes by counting 3 or 5 notes apart and it becomes very melodic. Hence your drums will sound better and can also sound bigger due to complementary
vibration from drums, which are sympathetic to the one being struck. This is
not an absolute rule. But in general, you should try playing your drums in combinations
of 2 and try to make them melodic so they produce kind of a 2 or 3 finger cord when struck.
Make notes of these types of things when tuning for different venues.
I need to stress that the idea here is not to try and match cords used for songs so much as keeping the
whole of the drum set from clashing. And you may find that the result is far
superior. Somewhere along the way, you’ll find a sequence that fits your style and model of drum.
For example, I know my drums
will sound best tuned as follows:
10”x 9” tom:
D sharp
12” x 10” tom:
A sharp
14” x 12” floor:
F
16” x 14” floor:
C
22” x 16” kick:
Batter F (octave lower than floor); Resonant E
Main snare 14” x 6”
YAMAHA Anton Fig: G above the 10” x 9” D#, both heads the same
How I know this is by working
through all the same steps I’ve outlined. It can also help me dial in my kit quick by simply hearing the note and then
tuning to it.
Resonance - (Despite Tuning Efforts)
It occured to me that
in the studio there is a common curve that engineers try to impose upon drums. Often, drummers are talking about the
uneven nature of their drums. The fact that resonance does not seem to be the same from drum to drum.
If you study much about
acoustics, you know that rooms with parallel walls give off "standing waves". This is also true of any structure, such as a speaker
cabinet, box, or drum. Great strides are takin to overcome these issues through adding weight, breaking up waves, stiffening
and adding some absorbant material. Drums have a
continual parallel walls by virtue of the fact they are round. From the center out, they are parallel in all directions.
If they are of equal depth as they are in diameter, then the problem can be more pronounced.
As such, the standing
wave frequency of any drum can be found by the formula
f = V / 2d. V = the
velocity of the sound wave which is 1130 ft/sec, where "d" is the dimension in feet and the "f" result found will equal the
fundamental frequency.
What relevance is this?
The drum inherently will produce a very resonant note regardless of tuning based upon dimensional characteristics but will
be extremely strong once heads and everything else allows it to be truly tuned at that frequency. So for a 24" bass drum you can find that 282 hz is the most resonant note for this size drum,
which is musically right between a C#4 and D4. Whereas a 22" drum equates to 308 Hz, or musically between a D4 and D#4.
If you apply these principles
to a 12" tom, you get 565 Hz or between a D5 to D#5.
If you study the [url=http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html]Frequencies
for equal-tempered scale[/url] you should see that the A4 found in the middle of the scale is a fairly high note and that
despite all the attempts to make drums sound deeper, they do have a natural frequency they wish to resonate at. This would
be the frequency most likely to excite the heads. This "fundamental" also occurs at multiples or half values. So the
22" frequency of 308 also has strong presence at 154Hz, 616Hz, and 1232Hz.
Obviously how strong
a wall is coupled with the material it’s made out of all effect the ability of things to vibrate and give off a sound
and can affect the timbre and resonance heard from the drum. This will often be reffered to as the warmth or harsh nature
of the sound. The stick attack is sound is very much effected by head and stick choice, as well as equalization if using microphones.
But certain principles hold true and given the shape of the drum and the fact that it is a rigid structure means that mathematically
it will produce the standing wave at the determined frequency.
Those of you that have
engineered much for drums will recognize these frequencies as the so-called problem areas that are for example, built-in drops
in the frequency response of "Kick" mics and those that you otherwise seek to cut via EQ.
There are natural progressions
based upon size and the same rules apply to the acoustics of the environment. Some frequencies just get cancelled if
the factors of the room size, shape and where the kit is placed all come together at just the right time. Because standing
waves occur in the center of two parallel surfaces, simply moving off center can allow you to hear a frequency that was acoustically
cancelled. Placing the kit a 1/4 the wave-length of the problem frequency (or the otherwise strong frequency) will give you
the loudest representation of that frequency.
Summary, you can try
to force a note out of the drum. They will tune. However, which note is proper is most likely never going to be
an exact note if you tune for the most resonant spot (if that’s the objective). It also gives some credence to the idea
of the shell size producing a note, but also seems to conclude that an actual true note is unlikely. Further, if they are
not sounding even for resonance, this might help you understand why a little more than you may have previously considered.
Playing without a microphone
versus with one is very different. This is not a tutorial on Mic use, simply an elementary understanding of one key factor.
When “close micing” a drum, the type of microphone can and usually creates proximity effect. If you look at typical
mic’s associated with use on toms, you’ll see a drop-off on the frequency curve associated with most dynamic mic’s.
This drop-off can be compensated for through proximity effect. This is less pronounced on an electret condenser microphone.
“Proximity effect” is a condition, which, when the mic is in close proximity to the head, a bump in the low frequency
range is created, and therefore, accentuates the lower fundamental note of the drum. The opposite is also true, pull the mic
away and low end response drops-off. When close, the pronounced increase of the low end offsets for the otherwise dead sound
of 2-ply/muffled heads or the lack of free field low-end frequency response. Hence, never buy a microphone based upon a stated
frequency curve or specifications alone. The microphone hears and accentuates what the ear cannot. Experiment because the
proximity effect diminishes the further from the head you get (out of proximity).
Much more to come on this in the future.
1. Movement of the Mic as little as ½” can make big changes. Movement closer to the resonant head results in less definition and more “boom”
from the drum.
2. Place a mic closer to the pad/pillow to cut resonance and increase
presence.
3. Place a mic closer to the batter and mid range attack comes out,
warmth disappears but deep low end remains. Careful not to get too close or clipping
of electronics’ or destruction of mic can occur.
4. Two heads no hole – 1 Mic: Place the microphone on the outside
of the batter side, but not in an upward facing direction. Try reversing the phase of the Mic, it will sometimes give more
punch.
5. Too much snare bleed, try taping a cardboard funnel around the
mic face to trim unwanted high frequencies or aim the mic down at the point of impact at 35 degrees.
6. Two Heads no Hole – 2 Mic’s: A phase reversal of one
or the other head is almost a must if using a mic aimed at both heads. Your sound
is at the hands of engineer now because it’s like retuning the drum to blend the Mic sounds.
7. When doing recording, take a large floor tom and place it out
in front of the kick drum. Tune the floor tom very low in pitch and place a large
diaphragm mic on it to capture sympathetic vibrations and low-end resonance.
1. Controlling leakage from Hi-Hat: Use a Mic with a Hypercardioid
pattern. As a result, you may have to Mic either from overhead of the kit or
the hat itself, could be a plus depending upon philosophy.
2. To capture the “snap/crack” of the drum, especially
for “hard hitters”, Mic from the bottom and use in reverse polarity under the snare.
3. Too many overtones: Don’t place a Mic aiming at the outer
2 inches of the head unless you really want to overtones to come through or use a head such as an Evan’s Genera Snare
Batter, Aquarian Studio-X or REMO PowerStroke3, all coated.
4. Avoid having the mic too close in general, 2-3 inches up and out
aimed at the center of the head allows the mic to capture a more natural sound.
5. Not enough snare sound when using a Mic. When Mic’s are placed
too close to the head, the Mic doesn’t hear as much of the “crack”, it hear more of a timbale sound. Hitting harder equals less crack when placed too close. You can also place the Mic directly centered over the rim of the drum up about 1 inch and aimed at the
center of the head. This keeps the Mic from hearing the warmth of the head and picks up more shell resonance.
6. If you do not have a brighter sounding snare, place just one
mic in reverse polarity underneath in about 3” from the rim and centered on the snare unit itself.
