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Is there a rule of thumb for tuning a drum set?? Like size, or depth. My son has a Jazz set with an 18" bass his snare is 13" also. Any help?

Lionheart,

Here's a website with more info than you can shake a drum key at.

http://www.drumsdatabase.com/tuning-drums.htm

Mike

Thanks Mike, after perusing a couple of those articles, I'm amazed. I never knew it could be so complicated yet the way these guys explain it, it all makes perfect sense. My ears thank you again.

It is complicated and I think that is why nobody tackled responding right away. I was taught to tune from Roy Burns from Aquarian years ago. He taught me to tune to the drum no matter what material the drum is made out of. He taught me that every drum has a point in which the shell just starts vibrating and comes alive. If you hear that philosophy out there, that is what I have been taught. It is always true regardless of what type of wood or resin the drums are made of. If you want me to go into it then ask further, otherwise I would prefer not to waste all the time writing it out.
Tommy

The jist of the matter is, that the drums tune to themselves. You don't have to worry about to a specific note. Someone actually told me they were supposed to be tuned to specific notes. Like a bass drum to an e'flat. It ends up being the natural note that the drum (almost) tunes itself to.

Lionheart,

Every chamber has a fundamental tone that it accommodates. Instrument makers throughout history have looked for materials that are of consistent rigidity and sufficient reflective surface as to allow the manipulation of shape and construction for optimal tone.

In other words. Boxes all ring more to one note. Drums are no different. Neither are people. The human body, with its cavities (ooh...someone stop me here) and its shape (there I go again) can reverberate with impressive sonority. Don't believe me? Listen to Aretha Franklin---or Luciano Pavorati.

One thing, watch out for counter-intuitive procedures. For example, on the kick drum. I'm not a drummer, though I play one on the keyboard, but I do own a drum kit which resides at Razzy Bailey's studio. It's a fine old Rogers kit that I inherited from Tom "the Hitman" Cerone. It played on the record, "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies, among other hits. Tom tuned his drums for me before his untimely end, but in moving them, the kick got out of tune. I wanted that nice "snap" that he always got, so I tightened and tapped...and tightened...and tapped...and tightened...and tapped...but the kick always ended up sounding like a parade bass drum. So, I waited for the "pro from Dover" to show up. We had a session at Razz's, and the drummer would be Ed Glass, a Nashville studio drum ace who is also a whiz of an engineer. Ed looked at me over his glasses, "Mikey, Mikey, Mikey," he said, "If you want the kick to snap instead of ring, you've got to loosen the head, not tighten it."

So, tighten 'em to make 'em ring. If you want them to fwup or thump, bonk or snap, then loosen 'em until the ring rings less.

As Tommy Abozung says, each drum has a ring to it. You'll find it after thousands of hours (well, maybe a little less)...so get to it!

All the Best,
Mike

Lionheart,
Take a drum (preferrably a the smallest tom you have). Take the top and bottom heads completely off (this will allow the glue bead to relax on the heads). Check the tuning edge of the drum shell on both sides to make sure they are not chiped, dented or flattended. If they are you will have to accomodate for them later. Anyway, I tune the bottom heads first (my preference). Place the botton head on loosely and put the lugs in just til they touch the rim (in other word not even starting to get tight). Make sure the top of the drum is against carpeting to seal the end. So you have the bottom up and tuning the bottom head.
If the tuning edges are intact, you can feel pretty good about giving a 1/4 turn to each lug and in the following order. Your first lug (doesn't matter), then the lug directly accross that 1st lug. You can skip a lug and do the 3rd with its counter lug (accross from it), but make sure you come back and do all lugs the same. After the first round of 1/4 turn the head will still sound like paper, but continuing in this pattern will eventually tighten until you can hear a tone. DO NOT GO TOO FAST! When you first hear a tone, place your fingers lightly in the center of the head to just dampen the sound (not mute it)! Then tap the head next to each lug with your drumstick lightly, until you hear a harmonic tone. Keeping your fingers lightly in the middle, check all the lugs for the same tension by listening to the harmonic as you tap your stick next to each lug (about an inch away for the edge). Adjust the lugs to get the same harmonic tone around all lugs. After all the lugs are the same tension, the tone of the head should be very similar all the way around the head. When it is the same all the way around, give each lug another 1/4 tightening in the same pattern prviously mentioned. After that round, listen to the harmonics around the head as previously states. Once they are all the same, continue.
NOW, be careful here! don't tighten too much. As you tighten little by little and recheck tensions and harmoncs, you will notice the tone getting more vibrant and as you progress, the drum shell will start to vibrate. The more the drum reacts to itself, the more the shell will vibrate. If you have the top head off, you my notice that your loose hardware on the shell will buzz like crazy. The first sign of that is when you know the drum is in tune with itself. There is a range to this. Some shells have a good range before the tone flattens out and the shell stops responding (head too tight). When I do rock stuff, I can tune 10 inch toms to the lower end of this spectrum and still get a deep enough rock sound to fool people into thinking I have a rock kit (deep big toms). I tune to the higher end of the spectrum to do jazz type stuff.
However, this is the bottom head, so it has to be pitched lower than the top head (convetionally anyway) so that when the top head is on and tuned a bit higher, the pitch goes from high to low. If the bottom head is too tight, the pitch would go up from low to high as the drum was struck and rang out. So I keep the bottom head at the lower end of the response spectrum already discussed. If you are in the range and the shell is vibrating and the lugs are all producing the same harmonic, then flip the drum over on the carpet, put the top head on and start the same process over again. At the end, the top head should be just a little tighter (Tuned higher) than the bottom.
Problems one can encounter:
1. When the drum is struck, the heads does not ring out as desired, Answer, both heads are too tight, or the same tension, which cancels out the sound.
2. Wierd rings when the drum is struck, Answer: Either the lugs are not tensioned the same, the tuning edge is screwed up or the rim is bent. Answer, You may be able to get the ring out by finding the problem lug, or damaged edge or bad part of the rim and adjusting the tension until all the harmonics are the same.
3. Overings are too bad to get out: answer: use dead ringers or aquarian studio X heads or Evans double oil filled heads, or stick a maxi pad inside the drum (this works great for really bad snares).
Good luck
Tommy

I would just keep sticking things on the inside and out and experiment.
Seen it with sticking tacks and certain things in a piano, and even along the surface.
It was fun, most likely not professional.
But who holds the number on that?

Matt

Another trick for ringing. Take a piece of gaffer's tape (not duct tape...real gaffer's tape...you can find it at a large music store or at a pro theater lighting store). Make it about eight inches long. About an inch in, fold about a half inch on itself, sticky side to sticky side. Another inch, fold about an inch on itself sticky side to sticky side, then another inch, fold about a half inch sticky side to sticky side. You end up with a strip of tape that has three "fins" sticking up from it. Stick the whole thing down in a spot maybe an inch or two from the upper rim on the top head, out of range of any hits. The strip should leave three "fins" sticking up from the head. These fins help absorb some of the ring.

Old trick.

All the Best,
Mike

Thanks Mike, on my last job we developed a of glossary of sounds and a brief description of them. That was for a manufacturing environment. What I'm looking for in this drum set is a DINT, DENT, DUNT kind of sound. Little or no after ring. Is that what you call snap??

Sounds like a job for gaffer's tape. Try taping wads of paper towelling, or as Tommy suggested, feminine napkins to the top and/or bottom heads. You can use your fingers on the heads while you look for the spots that deaden to your taste, then tape there.

Also, mess with the differential between the top and bottom heads. Another thing I've seen a lot. Some drummers put their wallet on the snare to deaden a little of the ring...the richer the drummer, the deader the snare

Have fun,
Mike