I never cared much about drum tuning until my band decided to do a Journey tribute. I used five toms for the first time and had to really dig into tuning through forums on the Internet. One thing I never tried to copy was the sound, as least as far as the tone. I used my ears to develop a sound that worked best with my band. And it was more than successful. Also, my main band is a Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute band. Our guitarist uses the same amps and guitars that Stevie used. We even have a vintage Fender Vibratone! For my drum sound, I just use what sounds best in the clubs. My drum sound is similar, but not always exact. We are more than fine. My favorite recording of drum sound is Jimmy Chamberlain's Yamaha kit on Smashing Pumpkins first album, Gish. It sounds like a drum set that was supposed to sound like a drum set. Ive never tried to copy the sound other than to make my drum set sound like a drum set! Pun intended. I've never found it important to copy any drum sounds. The farthest I've tried is to have a similar setup, tone, or note spread. How many drummers are there to really emulate in regards to sound? Not many. John Bonham, Phil Collins, etc. That's a small list. Still, I enjoyed this video as it also teaches how to think about sound. It's a fun topic that also forces us to understand our own gear and sound. Excellent drum teaching as usual, Cody. Thank you for you talented teaching skills and sincere devotion to the music.
I have a Jeff Ocheltree sorry if spelled incorrectly dvd and he talks about tuning Bonhams drums. At one point in the video he hits the kit with a mallet top and bottom heads. I tried to copy those tones by ear to recreate the sound on my snares which were far from a LM402. I came pretty close surprisingly and tuned reso around a g# and batter around a d to d# depending on the drum. I found that even listening to moby Dick and tuning batter by hitting with my hand snares off to copy the tone helped hugely also. I finally bought a supraphonic tried the tuning and it wasn’t working. Swapped the head for a coated emperor same tuning and boom was way closer.
That point at 7:00 is something I ran into about a year ago. Me and my friend were both learning "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream. I couldn't get the drums to sound right, and for the longest time I chalked it up to it being an old recording. That was until I watched a live performance where I saw Ginger playing with timpani mallets. Instantly pulled them out of my stick bag, and with a little bit of tuning, voila. It sounded like "Sunshine of Your Love"
For me, what I think may be most helpful as a starting point is an example of this process. If for example you were to make a video of you tone matching and explaining your thought process along the way. Let us know what you were listening for, identifying what sounds apply to what, what sounds to discard, etc. At least for me, it is the most useful learning tool to see someone do the thing, and understand the _why_ of what they're doing, rather than the _how_
Yes...thats the way! My preferences was the Drumsound from the Black Flamingos in the Song "Kali Ma". I wanted to record any own Songs with this Drumsound. Our Sound-Engineer (a friend of Mine) help me to get this specific Drumsound in his Studio. He lend me his Vintage Ludwig Maple-Drumkit and with a little Bit Tuning and muffling we finally get it in two ours Soundcheck. Great!
Ears for the win! It is a challenge to truly listen, and I try to limit my use of guides for getting say a “fat snare sound”, I just try to listen to the snare, for every small turn of a key. This as I don’t just mean “fat”, I also mean resonant and full. Also, as a patreon, the cymbal series is amazing, I’ve learned so much from that series.
is there something that can be done in physical that does the opposite of muffling (accentuating overtones and high resonances and decreasing the fundamental) so that the center of drum sounds more like the edge? normally I get this sort of sound using narrow very-boosted Eq bands and an exciter but it'd be nice to be able to get it in the acoustic domain
I would say thinner heads (Fiberskyn Diplomat is a great head) and more resonant tuning might get you there. Try tuning the reso not as tight as usual, really let the drum do it’s thing. Experiment with unison tuning, and batter tighter than reso tuning. I think with both heads kinda cranked, you get more of that “muffled-in-the-center” effect. (That can be a good thing too, with a ringier sound outside and a short, crisp center. But a more open center/rimshot can be good too!) Good luck 👍🏽
And that’s something that we’ve all had to contend with for quite some time now. Again, we’ve got hundreds of videos with all sorts of different sounds for you to reference, completely free of post production.
![“Fixing” Your Snare Sound [Step by Step] | Season Five, Episode 40](/img/n.gif)
I never cared much about drum tuning until my band decided to do a Journey tribute. I used five toms for the first time and had to really dig into tuning through forums on the Internet. One thing I never tried to copy was the sound, as least as far as the tone. I used my ears to develop a sound that worked best with my band. And it was more than successful.
Also, my main band is a Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute band. Our guitarist uses the same amps and guitars that Stevie used. We even have a vintage Fender Vibratone! For my drum sound, I just use what sounds best in the clubs. My drum sound is similar, but not always exact. We are more than fine.
My favorite recording of drum sound is Jimmy Chamberlain's Yamaha kit on Smashing Pumpkins first album, Gish. It sounds like a drum set that was supposed to sound like a drum set. Ive never tried to copy the sound other than to make my drum set sound like a drum set! Pun intended.
I've never found it important to copy any drum sounds. The farthest I've tried is to have a similar setup, tone, or note spread.
How many drummers are there to really emulate in regards to sound? Not many. John Bonham, Phil Collins, etc. That's a small list. Still, I enjoyed this video as it also teaches how to think about sound. It's a fun topic that also forces us to understand our own gear and sound. Excellent drum teaching as usual, Cody. Thank you for you talented teaching skills and sincere devotion to the music.
I have a Jeff Ocheltree sorry if spelled incorrectly dvd and he talks about tuning Bonhams drums. At one point in the video he hits the kit with a mallet top and bottom heads. I tried to copy those tones by ear to recreate the sound on my snares which were far from a LM402. I came pretty close surprisingly and tuned reso around a g# and batter around a d to d# depending on the drum. I found that even listening to moby Dick and tuning batter by hitting with my hand snares off to copy the tone helped hugely also. I finally bought a supraphonic tried the tuning and it wasn’t working. Swapped the head for a coated emperor same tuning and boom was way closer.
That point at 7:00 is something I ran into about a year ago. Me and my friend were both learning "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream. I couldn't get the drums to sound right, and for the longest time I chalked it up to it being an old recording. That was until I watched a live performance where I saw Ginger playing with timpani mallets. Instantly pulled them out of my stick bag, and with a little bit of tuning, voila. It sounded like "Sunshine of Your Love"
For me, what I think may be most helpful as a starting point is an example of this process. If for example you were to make a video of you tone matching and explaining your thought process along the way. Let us know what you were listening for, identifying what sounds apply to what, what sounds to discard, etc. At least for me, it is the most useful learning tool to see someone do the thing, and understand the _why_ of what they're doing, rather than the _how_
Here you go: ua-cam.com/video/BlI5OOvGXlA/v-deo.html
@@SoundsLikeADrum can we make requests?
Yes...thats the way! My preferences was the Drumsound from the Black Flamingos in the Song "Kali Ma". I wanted to record any own Songs with this Drumsound. Our Sound-Engineer (a friend of Mine) help me to get this specific Drumsound in his Studio. He lend me his Vintage Ludwig Maple-Drumkit and with a little Bit Tuning and muffling we finally get it in two ours Soundcheck. Great!
Been binging all your vids recently. So much golden info. Thank you!
Ears for the win! It is a challenge to truly listen, and I try to limit my use of guides for getting say a “fat snare sound”, I just try to listen to the snare, for every small turn of a key. This as I don’t just mean “fat”, I also mean resonant and full. Also, as a patreon, the cymbal series is amazing, I’ve learned so much from that series.
Always good stuff!
Great tips!
is there something that can be done in physical that does the opposite of muffling (accentuating overtones and high resonances and decreasing the fundamental) so that the center of drum sounds more like the edge? normally I get this sort of sound using narrow very-boosted Eq bands and an exciter but it'd be nice to be able to get it in the acoustic domain
I would say thinner heads (Fiberskyn Diplomat is a great head) and more resonant tuning might get you there. Try tuning the reso not as tight as usual, really let the drum do it’s thing. Experiment with unison tuning, and batter tighter than reso tuning. I think with both heads kinda cranked, you get more of that “muffled-in-the-center” effect. (That can be a good thing too, with a ringier sound outside and a short, crisp center. But a more open center/rimshot can be good too!) Good luck 👍🏽
Gene Krupa's snare that was specially made for him and used on his drum battle with Buddy?
What about it?
👍
..🥳👍💫
Fully mixed and mastered drums are giving me unrealistic tone expectations
And that’s something that we’ve all had to contend with for quite some time now. Again, we’ve got hundreds of videos with all sorts of different sounds for you to reference, completely free of post production.