Originally Posted by
Drumbledore
Bish pipped me to the post with this bunch of points. I might add though, that when it comes to mucking around with tensioning, whether loosening or tightening, for me, what lug you tweak around with after the other usually falls in these patterns. Remember, this is not gospel, but rather what works for me to get my sound.
eight lug drums (eg: some snares, bass drums and floor toms): Tweak the batter head first when loosening up the sound, or the resonant head first if making the drum a little tighter. Think of the eight lugs representing a compass's eight points. Start at 'North', loosen by a quarter or eighth turn. Then the lug directly opposite of that ('South'). Go 'West', then 'East'. Tap the drumhead with your stick in the middle then around those lugs that you have loosened as well as the ones not shifted. Then go the remaining four compass points.....NW, SE, NE and SW, in that order. Then if you need to lower the pitch, repeat the same 'compass points' on the resonant head.
six lug drums (eg: some smaller custom sized snares and toms, or six lug drums common on some cheap budget sets): choose which head as in the above example (ie: batter first for a looser sound, resonant for slight tightening, etc). This time, think of two triangles overlapping each other, rather what I call "The Star Of David" design. Do one triangle's top lug, then the two other points (so if you were counting lugs clockwise, the first lug is obviously #1, miss the second, go to lug #3, etc). Then do the next 'triangle', tapping the middle of the head and then an inch off from each lug, etc. Proceed the same way with the resonant head.
five lug drums (eg: toms on budget sets or congas, doumbeks and similar hand drums, mini timbales): think of a five pointed star. Now, if you counted the lugs clockwise (lug #1, #2, #3, etc), try tuning up or down as follows: #1,#3,#5,#2 then #4 (depending whether going for a tight or loose sound). For me, this is the best way to tune tight or detune loose.
four lug drums (eg: 6"& 8" toms on kits, Octobans, bongos) think of four main points of a compass - North, South, East, West. Tune them that way.
ten lug drums (eg: various snares, high end brand bass drums and other large drums) : as above when it comes to five lugs except this time think of two five pointed stars. Count the lugs clockwise from #1 to #10. Then when you tune it will go this time like lug #1,#5,#9,#3,#7, then the second 'star' pattern will be the even numbered lugs - #6,#10,#4,#8,#2.
And an old trick I got shown by an engineer to reduce the snare buzz on eight and ten lug snares? After everything is tweaked right on top and bottom of the snare, yet you still get sympathetic snare buzz, especially from the first rack tom? Turn the drum upside down and try slightly loosening the two closest lugs on either side of the snare wires - on the bottom head only (no need to do so on the batter).
Experiment with it. Once you have the ability to think like this, you will start to get the handle of not only tuning by ear, but more importantly, troubleshooting any tuning inconsistencies when say tuning even an unfamiliar kit. For example, I was at a new friend's place earlier this evening, whose son has a cheap Taiwanese no-name budget kit. After slackening all heads, tuning up the bass drum first, then the snare, then finally the toms (and using two tuning keys in both hands) I was able to tweak it within 10-15 mins, give or take a few mins. Mind you, having had twenty plus years of mucking around with drum tuning, experimenting and tip swapping with my drum brothers, it doesn't take me much to get familiar with most drums. Chewing the fat talking about this stuff with staff in drumshops, studio owners, better drummers, etc and picking up on what they do also helps.
Traditional cord tensioned drums though (like djembes, tablas etc) is definitely something I'll have to learn someday.
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