Does anybody use a drum dial to tune?

[CrossPoint]

Do you use a drum dial to tune your drums? If so, what do you have yours heads set at? I set my snare at 80 top, 70 bottom, and the toms 70 top, 72 bottom, and the bass 80 and 85, but backed it off a little, sounded too high piched.

[CrossPoint]

Sorry guys, just found the post which aswered my question, guess I should have searched first

[animal]

Cross, no worries mate. We all have the desire to play the perfect sounding kit. It just isnt so easy to accomplish. I know when I applied my drum dial, I could never get all the lugs even. This is because my bearing edges were not on an even plane. My kit is currently in the shop but when I get it back, all will be perfect !.

As an experienced guitarist, and one who stood next to a kit for many years, I can say try tuning your top head to the desired pitch/feel/sound you want, then start with a lose bottom head and bring it up evenly about 1/8 of a turn at each lug and play the drum. You will get to a point where the bottom head and top head are finally in sync and there are no milicycles ( pitch bend ) or growl. The drum will sing evenly. Hopes this helps. Its fool proof if you think about it.

As for the bass drum, well, i cant advise you because I am a stickler for a certain feel on my batter side. I just love the feel of a loose batter head and for most drums that will KILL the power/energy/volume of any bass drum.

[rglassma]

I find a drum dial to be an invaluable tool. I tune me snare at 90 batter and 80 rezo. I also try to get my tom heads the same for each tom. The tension all depends on what sound I am after.

[Pearl MCX Man]

All I can say on this subject is find the right sound that you like from batter and reso. Then use your DDial to go around the drum till all lugs are the same number then you write those numbers down for future fast tuning before a gig etc. Never use the DDial as the tuner your ears are better for that. The DDial is for checking the tension all around the drum for a perfect tune.

[scorch whammin]

I love the DD..makes tuning so much easier and quicker.....I currently have my toms tuned to 78 both top & bottom..sounds really good at that setting...however with the DD, experimenting with different settings is so much easier...prior to my current settings..I was tuning the bottom (reso.) to a slightly lower pitch (72)...liked it also

[animal]

so you say you tune all tops and bottoms to 78. 8 10 12 14 and 16 ? How do the 14 and 16 sound so tightly tuned.

[scorch whammin]

so you say you tune all tops and bottoms to 78. 8 10 12 14 and 16 ? How do the 14 and 16 sound so tightly tuned.

Let me clarify my earlier statement..I currently have my 8, 10, 12 tuned to 78 (t&b)..just changed the reso. heads on them, so I decided to try that setting and found that I really like that setting on them...the 14, 16 are still tuned to something like 76-78 (t) and 70-72 (b), I believe...they also sound good at that setting..however, I may decide to try out the 78 (t&b) on them as well...

[animal]

excellent thank you. how about your bass drum.

[Russ]

Don't tune them all to the same reading. There is a chart that comes with the dial, and you can also go to the drumdial website and get settings for each drum size. That should be your reference for a good area to keep the drum tuned in.

[scorch whammin]

Don't tune them all to the same reading. There is a chart that comes with the dial, and you can also go to the drumdial website and get settings for each drum size. That should be your reference for a good area to keep the drum tuned in.

I hear what you're saying...I don't neccesarily/completely agree...ultimately your own ears should be your reference, once your drums are tuned..the drum dial is just there to speed up the process (IMO)...also the tuning chart that comes with the DD provides numbers that can overlap (i.e., be the same)..what types of heads you use also plays into the equation as well.....animal-don't remember what I tuned my bass drum to..but I do know that it was a good bit lower than those settings

[animal]

ok thank you very much.. I appreciate it.

[Tadman]

Essentially, drum dial gets you to a standard reference for the drum (gotta start somewhere!), but taking it the final way usually requires some patience and tweaking. There may be some tension rods that just do not "lock in" to the drum dial number for various reasons (variations in bearing edge, etc.).

[animal]

I couldnt agree with you more. and remember, NO DRUM is perfectly round so that combined with edge variations will make the drum dial seem inconsistent. But it DOES give the region or general ballpark of your tension. Also helps record the tension for communication purposes o sharing your tensions with others

[Bubingabill]

Essentially, drum dial gets you to a standard reference for the drum (gotta start somewhere!), but taking it the final way usually requires some patience and tweaking. There may be some tension rods that just do not "lock in" to the drum dial number for various reasons (variations in bearing edge, etc.).

I couldnt agree with you more. and remember, NO DRUM is perfectly round so that combined with edge variations will make the drum dial seem inconsistent. But it DOES give the region or general ballpark of your tension. Also helps record the tension for communication purposes o sharing your tensions with others

+1

[MagnaRyder02]

I have used the DD to tune my drums, I am not proficient enough yet to tune them. Works well for me.

[Doc_d]

The drum dial is a great tool in my opinion. But you can't take someone else's settings and apply them to your drums and expect the same sound. In fact I don't even think you can take your own heads on and off and get back to the same exact sound. The drum dial will get you back in the neighborhood but it take some fine tuning to get the relationship between the top and bottom head exactly right.

It's the relationship between the top head and bottom head that give you a clean clear note, a pitch bend or a nasty warble. The difference between a perfect clear note and a nasty warble can be as small as 1/16th of a turn on all the batter lugs. So the drum dial gets me in the neighborhood but then I need to go through a complete phase between the top and bottom head to find the exact note I'm looking for.

Right now I'm playing with my toms very low and with a pitch bend. I'm running clear emperors over clear ambassadors. Here is my technique to get to this sound using the drum dial.

Tune the reso head to about 68 at all lugs. Check for a clean undistorted note. If needed, slightly bring the lugs up until you get a decent clear note. For my drums that winds up being about 71 on the drum dial. But I always start low (68) and bring it up to find the lowest clear note. Fine tune the reso lugs so that the reso head is in tune with itself.

Bring the batter head up to about 75 on the drum dial. Mute the reso head by setting the drum on a pillow. Fine tune the batter lugs so the batter is in tune with itself.

Now pick the drum up by it's mount, hit the drum, listen to it and make a mental note of the sound (clear, warbly, pitch bend, etc). Then tighten each batter lug 1/16th of a turn. Hit the drum again. Continue to do this until you've gone through an entire phase cycle. That should only take doing this maybe 6 times or so. What you'll hear is a spot where the drum is muted, a spot where you get some pitch bend, a spot where the drum is very resonant, a spot where you get warble and finally back to a spot where your drum is muted. This excercise was just to get you to hear all the possibilities at this tuning range.

Now set your top head back to 75 and start the process over again until you get to the sound you liked the best.

To illustrate the point that the drum dial only gets you into the neighborhood, currently on my high tom I get a nice low pitch bent sound at 76 on the top head and 71 on the reso head. If I was to take both heads off and put them back on and set the heads to 76 and 71 it might be a nasty warbly sound instead of a nice pitch bend. That because it's easy to be a couple of 16ths of a turn off between the two heads even when the drum dial reads the correct numbers.

[animal]

WOW, now that is an amazing reply. I would LOVE to hear all the recordings for your kit, including the bass drum and snare. Do you have any audible of your kit. I am currently playing without mics and for the bass drum from the players side, it SUCKS, so I had to set up with a solid reso on the kick and crank the reso head in attempts to create MORE compression = volume = coming back at the player. Other wise the kick sound empty flat and gets lost in the mix of the toms, when dressed with a ported reso.

[kaosotis]

Animal, I wish I could help figure out what's "wrong" with your kick tuning. I find the kick the only easy drum to tune, since I don't really tune it too much. Just set the reso just above wrinkle (a la Bob Gatzen) and then the batter a little tighter. And it sounds great on my side and for the audience.

Maybe you can record your kick so we can hear how it sounds?

[animal]

If you heard my kick now from the driver seat you would fall over. its INCREDIBLE. but again, its a solid reso head so its HARD to mic, and it sounds like butt out in front, even though the only thing on front of my kit is my TV stairway.. lol ill work on making a recording

[Warren Wright]

Ive found that after re-tuning with the dial, I place a Woolee ( its a 3" round piece of leather on one side and sheeps wool on the other side) in the center of the drum and then lightly tap about 3/4 to 1 inch from each tuning lug. The Woolee mutes the fundamental tone just enough so you can hear the harmonic note and when you go around the drum you will find variances in that 'Note' even though the DDial says they are the same tension and simply pick one of the "notes" as your foundation pitch and then tune each of the other lugs to that particular pitch. Do that for both heads and then my friend...you will have a properly tuned drum.