Drum Tuning Fundamentals with Aaron Serfaty
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- Опубліковано 23 вер 2024
- Aaron Serfaty takes us through his drum tuning PROCESS ... and I write "PROCESS" in all caps because I want to emphasis that that is what it is. It's not just slap the heads on, turn the screws x amount of times in a star pattern, and you're done. There's a little more to how he does it, and that little bit of difference makes a big difference in how and why he gets the drums to sound so great!
When I studied with Aaron at USC, he taught me so much about music and drums, and how to tune drums for the music. Not only is he an incredible musician and teacher, he is truly a one of a kind, genuine person, as you will see.
Since I realize most people won't watch the whole thing in one sitting ... you can jump around here:
01:25 Snare Drum
07:10 Snare Drum Under the Mics
16:05 Bass Drum
22:28 Bass Drum Under the Mics
30:46 Rack Tom
32:28 It's the Process
35:05 Rack Tom Under the Mics
40:30 Floor Tom
42:46 Floor Tom Under the Mics
45:32 Important Stuff
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What are your favorite head combinations on kick, snare, and toms?
I’ll go first ... snare - coated ambassador top, snare side hazy on bottom, toms - coated ambassadors on both sides, kick - clear powerstroke 3 on batter side, smooth white powerstroke 3 on front. BOOM!
I love a powerstroke 3 clear on Bassdrum, ambassador on snare and clear ambassadors on Toms bottom and pinstripe or powerstroke 4 on top.
Thank you so much for the video I’ve been waiting for so long - I really appreciate your effort :)
Powerstroke 3 coated on snare drum and bass drum and powerstroke 4 coated on toms till I saw this video 😵💫
@@JakeReedmusic Snare: Emperor Batter, Ambassador Hazy Reso. Kick: Power stroke -3 Clear Batter, Ambassador Coated Reso. Toms: Emperor Clear Batter, Ambassador Clear Reso! Super informative video guys, thanks!
snare - controlled sound coated top, snare side hazy bottom
toms - black dots top, ambassador clear bottom,
kick - powerstroke 3 coated batter, fiberskyn ambassador front head unported for that fat boom, try it ;)
It's about DAMN TIME that someone captured Aaron Serfaty's madman drum knowledge in a longform, goofy video. This will be forever referenced, thanks!
That was my thinking behind doing this video - Aaron is such a legend among LA drummers and I wanted to make sure we share him with the whole world!
@@JakeReedmusic interesting to know. Could you please talk a bit about why he’s a legend in the LA scene? I have just heard about him after watching your video. Thanks!
One of the best drum tuning video’s on UA-cam. Simple, honest and realistic. This is really how drums behave with no effects and without dampening on the drums.
love to see the cajon used as the only thing it is good for - a side table
LOL
This video is great. I've always hated tuning drums because I'll follow some prescription process and it will turn out like crap... I would end up just turning until it feels right enough and move on always thinking I was F'ing it up and taking too long. Seeing this gave me permission to listen and go toward the sound I want and listen to the drum - the process may be different every time. Thanks!
best drum channel, i’m an audio engineer and i bought my first drum kit because of you after wanting one since i was a kid!
Yaaaaay! Man, playing drums is just the best!
As someone who managed to lose their touch regarding drum tuning during this pandemic, thank you.
You’re welcome! Aaron is truly a drum whisperer!
This is far & away the BEST video on drum tuning I've found. Thank you for making this!
Happy to help!
watched this morning and did about 2 hours today of tuning my drums and rearranging the mics, sounds so much better now, thanks for the awesome content! 🥁🔥🤘
yay!!! Glad to hear it!
He works like a chiropractor! 😂
Excellent video!
Again. 👍
LOL had never thought of it that way. Love it!
UA-cam is for videos like this. Thank you for posting this kind of stuff, Jake. Your sharing your resources and improving the drumming world! Thank you!
Thanks! Happy to help!
Great education on tuning. This video is fun to watch. Great job.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
drums are the most f**k-up-able part of recording/producing. Im interested in diy home recording and i find myself reading and watching like 90% drum info stuff and like 10% guitar/synth/vocal stuff. ima be rewatching this video 80 times to put all this good stuff in my brain. thanks a million to both of yall for making this gem.
Happy to help!
Definately the most important part of the production
It feels illegal to not pay for this masterclass
LOL
@@JakeReedmusic seriously might be the greatest drum video ever
@@deathtomodifiers x2
I can't tell you how useful and informative this video has been. I have watched so many videos where the expert says "this is how I do it" but doesn't explain the reasoning or what it is they are looking for in the tune/tone. After so many years of having a sound I have never really been happy with, this has changed the way I tune/tension ;-) drums forever. Thank you
Awesome! So glad this video has helped you!
The lack of music on the blanket removal was funny.
Exploring the space!
Your mustache is fantastic.
Thanks!
Don’t know if many of you drummers know this, but drum teachers are very important to all musicians. At Berklee as a guitar player , I had an “ incredible drummer friend “. I was having problems with playing rhythm and melody. He said to me, how the F do they think that you can learn both well at the same time??? So he gave me some drum books and taught me rhythm. You guys can really help others this way .
This has been eye opening! Changed my whole process. Best tuning video on UA-cam by far. 10/10 recommended to friends.
Yaaaay!!!
I knew it was Ron that said it should be called tensioning, not tuning. I couldn’t find the quote but here it’s confirmed so thank you. Subscribed.
most informative drum video i have ever ever seen.... since late 90s, early 2,000s
Thank you!
My kit sounds amazing now. Thanks.
That’s great news!
Thank you Jake for introducing Mr. Serfaty! This content is supreme!!!
The Best drum channel?
Yes dude
Cheers from Argentina
Thanks dude! I really appreciate the kind words!
Aaron seems like a great guy, i've been tuning similar to what he's doing here for years. lots of great advise in this video.
Man you have the most underrated drum channel in UA-cam. Every video is a masterpiece
dude this is my 2nd video of yours.. i LOVE all of it... every aspect of your whole deal
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing the knowledge! Cheers from Brazil
you're welcome!
this has to be the best drum tuning video ever.
one thing is still unclear to me tho: he doesn't seem to care much about the reso heads. is it because you tuned them off camera or because there is no need to care much about? I mean, apart from "making the bottom head a little bit even with itself", don't you have to do the tapping stuff and trying to find where the shell wants it to be like you do for the top heads?
The bottom heads were already on, but he really brought down the bottom head on the low tom in the video and goes through the process of evening it out and finding where it wants to be. It might look confusing since we used coated ambassadors on top AND bottom. BUT, ALAS! It is the same process and like we both say in the video, it usually ends up that the bottom head is a minor third higher .. not an exact science and not even how everyone does it. I had first heard about this from my teacher John Von Ohlen in college in Cincinnati, and he said he got it from Mel Lewis. Aaron simply confirmed the minor third thing for me when I was studying with him at USC, but he REALLY showed me the process of how to get it, which is what this video is all about. Sometimes you’ll find that you have to raise or lower the bottom just a tiny bit to get the sound to open up or to unify the sound of the whole set - check out the part of the video where Aaron does this with the rack tom bottom head! He doesn’t lower it much but it really opens up the sound. Like he says at the end: BE PATIENT! Hope this helps!
@@JakeReedmusic okay I think I get it.
anyway I must be lacking some hearing abilities, like for instance @34:40 "that one sounds lower right?" well no, I'm sorry but I can't tell any difference :D (at least from what the camera picked up). at that point I can clearly hear a B as a fundamental, and an F at the upper fifth, among a few other quieter frequencies but no really noticable difference in pitch whatsoever. am I listening to the wrong stuff? or maybe my ear isn't accurate enough.
anyway, thanks for sharing all of this with the world. that's awesome!
@@dreumad something that really helped me understand all of this was to try to sing what I was hearing. Try matching your voice with the frequency you're hearing. It's like ear training for drums! Also, like Aaron grills me on (lol) - try thinking of it more like "tensioning" instead of "tuning" ... it's not really about tuning to exact pitches like B or F# but more about finding where the drums sings most and then trying to match all of the other lugs to that frequency/tension. You can do it! Just keep listening!
@@JakeReedmusic look I understand the whole idea of trying to find the sweetspot where the drum resonates best with the heads and not caring mutch about exact pitches (I mentioned B and F to illustrate what I was hearing at that particular point in the video, but either way I dont give a sh* about tuning drums to particular notes)
what really blows my mind is seeing you guys tapping around heads and then knowing exactly what lug to turn up or down and what effect it's gonna have on the overall balance of the tensioning. I'm barely able to hear any difference between two lugs, but you can tell that one lug "sounds lower", you turn it up and everything sounds more even with itself. Aaron does this with such ease, even being able when tapping the top head to find out instantly that the ring comes from the bottom head... that's impressive. he's a wizard :D
Haha! Yes, Aaron is a wizard indeed! BUT, like I said, trying to sing the pitch I’m hearing really helped me with hearing higher or lower around the drum. It takes a lot of patience, listening, and trial and error to get the hang of it and understand what I was actually hearing. You can do it!
Thank you Jake and Aaron! Just bought my first acoustic kit (been learning with edrums at home during covid). Im getting my kit in a few days. Going to grind tunings so i understand the workflow.
Awesome dude! Wow! Excited for you to hear and feel the difference between acoustic and electronic drums.
Best tuning video I've seen so far and Aaron seems so nice as a person. It was so lovely to watch and learn from it. My main kit is a late 80's DW some like pre-collectors jazz thing which I always wanted to tune lower than at should I guess. This "The Drum tells you where it need to be - mantra" really changed my mind little. I can't wait to get back to the studio and try some of these tricks.
Aaron is fukkin AMAZING in this video. Let's call it "Aaron's higher self teaches what he doesn't even believe he has mastered". The level this man is on is nearly unimaginable these days. The human brain is the most impressive tool. How have we been using it, all this time, unaware of its awareness? No AI will EVER replace this level of true knowledge and mastery and its teacher! Tonight, I've heard the natural, but modern, drum for the first time.
Excited for this video.
Amazing! Just what I needed as I’m transitioning away from SD3 for all my “real drum” sounds in productions and starting to build my drum collection for the studio. Been awhile since I learned these fundamentals!
Awesome!
Jake your content is amazing and you sound is great! im studying music production at the university here and you taught me so much about how to approach the drum kit, thank you!
Wonderful! Thank you for the kind words! Happy to help!
Man this Video is Gold! And I love that you studied with Aaron!! My countryman. 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾❤️
Thanks! Yes, Aaron is the MAN!
You also are the man! I’ve been watching your videos and learning lots! Thanks!!!🙏🏽 keep up the great work!
@@Antonioriveromusic Thank you! I hope to make some more videos soon!
Aaron! My teacher. Learned a lot from him back at LACM, thx Jake!
"Trust the Drum" ...best advice i ever heard for tuning! Love your entertaining style making video in a messy room!
Thanks! Yeah ... every time Aaron and I hang out the room gets very unorganized lol!
@@JakeReedmusic ups :-) i thought that is concept of your videos, but i love like that, very authentic...you know these other yt-guys with the sleeky studio-backround, perfectly lighted up like a cooking show talking a lot of shit...can´t see it anymore...love that you are only talking shit, lol :-)
Lol
It was a pleasure to watch this beautiful process. I moved a time indicator a little bit, but only because to make sure that I will come back to it! :D
Naaaah, just kidding. Great work Gentlemen. Thanks!
Haha! Thanks! I purposefully left a lot of the tuning process unedited so everyone could really experience the patience it takes.
This is such a treasure. Thanks Jake and Aaron!
Thank YOU!!!
Not sure why I’m only just now finding this video that is two years old, but there’s some great info here. Thanks Jake and Aaron for sharing your knowledge. I did want to tell you a tip I learned from Chris McHugh on how to get rid of excessive basketbally reflections on Toms and kick, partially line the inside of the drum with some type of light, absorptive material. You put a layer of tshirt material or something thin in there and use the lug screws to hold it in place, I’ve also seen masking tape and paper towels for a more temporary solution-works great to kill those stray high reflections bouncing around inside the drum 👍
Chris is a killer drummer! Great idea! Sometimes I’ll rest a pillow up against the inside shell of my 16” concert tom to get rid of those pesky frequencies.
Incredible tuning video ! Thank you so much
You’re welcome!
ESL and he speaks way better than I do 😆 articulate and informative. Well done!
It's refreshing and about time somebody makes a real tuning video! I'm a stickler for tuning and alot of drummers have no idea and it's not rocket science but it does take experience and an ear to tune correctly and it's also personal taste, styles and ECT! It's not a one size fits all or a 5 minute tutorial. Good job
Thanks!
Dude…solid work.
Not just here, but other vids too. I appreciate the casual, but informative and always fun loving vibe of your content. But yet you’re still a real G behind the kit. Nice!
Tuning IME is as much an art as a science…drum tuning is a total mystery to most musicians. Mainly a lot of listening and intuition based on many years of thoughtful playing. Though thankfully there’s good content like yours to speed the process. The Jedi master from SC is really a chill sensei.
I will say that in my experience the players I’ve had the most trouble with were drummers who were very determined to keep their kit “wide open”. Yes, it can work…but only for the best of the best, w/the right number and size of properly tuned drums. Usually the drummer who is dogmatic and entirely opposed to the idea that recording their instrument for a track is totally different than themselves listening to it at home. This disconnect presents the problem. These also seem to be the cats who have like 4 or 5 toms. No tea towels or removing unused pieces on tunes without all those toms etc…you know they type. The whole kit becomes a mumbling rumbling nightmare to capture in the room and overheads. Every kick drum hit triggers each of the toms and pretty soon there’s a “MMMMMMMM” running the whole time. That robs the kick and snare from being punchy in the room and OH mics, which are sure to be compressed. Anyways…I’d love to see how you guys would have dealt with this type of scenario.
Coated heads aren’t the devil in these type of larger kit situations…I’ve had great results with the Evans stuff, but yeah…if you’re looking at a 4 piece rock kit then I can get on board with wide open Remo coated Ambs.
Babbling now…basically wanted to say top marks for great drum related content. Happy to have found your channel😊
Best,
J
His hands and arms ARE strong... we've been deceived! 😂
Incredible video! Thank you, both
Thanks a lot for this amazing video, Aaron truly it's the best at tunning. You guys gave me a new perspective on how to aproach the tunning of my drum kit and I Can't wait to test it
Very nice video, thank you for making it!
FWIW the 'beach ball' effect from the kick with nothing inside it is a result of high frequencies having no where to go (no soft textures to absorb them) -- they bounce around inside the drum against the polyester heads and the painted wood (sealed) resulting in that character. Putting the pillowcase inside the drum provided the properly textured mass needed to absorb those higher frequencies, so they disappear quickly after the initial attack.
Can't reccommend Bibin snare wires enough man. So superior and more sensitive.
Thank you so much! So many gems in this video!
Aaron knows his stuff!
Loved this lesson taking it with me thank you!!!!
As far as using kick patches go, I find that when not using one, denting the bass drum head is inevitable, so ill take the extra bit of attack that using one adds to the sound in exchange for a drumhead which will last years. If youre using a subkick or any other front of kickdrum mic, the low end from that will be blended with the attack of the kick in mic
Do you bury the beater? That's usually the reason the head gets dented. I have to play *pretty* loud on some rock sessions and still don't dent the head b/c I let the beater come off. Subkicks can help, but sometimes mixing engineers don't like them because they add too much low energy around 80 Hz. They're definitely cool for some things though! I guess our whole point is not to always have to rely on the mic to compensate. What if you go to a session and they only have one kick mic?
@@JakeReedmusic very fair points!
No I play off the head (heel down mostly) and I only use felt beaters, I guess I'm just too scared about it happening, or I don't want the risk of someone else sitting down and denting the head! Using a big fleece beater takes away a lot of the click too, I've found!
Love the john mayer album in the background
Thank you very much for that very high quality and fun insight ! It feels good to hear the sound from the mics, this is gem !
Wow this is great ! Appreciate you
"Which one should we tune higher, the front head or the batter head?"
"Yes."
That Cedar Snare is killer!!
Sugar snare drums are awesome!
@@christiancanalita6487 They sure are!
So killer! I’ve used it on so many recordings. Super versatile.
Thank you! This is amazing! I need to test this
You’re welcome! Yes - there’s def some trial and error involved but you can do it!
Thank you so much 😂 love you guys from Israel
35:04 just to remind us how GOOD this bass drum is after tuning
29:00 stopp buying start damping and beating well
excellent, thank you, subscribed
This video is awesome! Thank you so much. Sounds like a high quality sample pack
Thank YOU!
Thank you for this amazing material. It really helps, I really love your channel and drumming philosophy Jake 😌😌😌
Thanks so much! Happy to help!
Yes! Thank you for doing this!
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!
thank you
Amazing! Love the point to seek for the tone the drum likes to be in.
Aaron is great as is this video 👍
one the best tuning videos anywhere by anyone! Thank you Jake!
Thanks!
This is pure gold, thank you so much for sharing this essential drum knowledge. 🙏🏼❤️😎🥁
This was fantastic! Can you ever do a video on your new BAE pres?
That’s a great idea!
Great video as always! It'd be interesting to expand this for a jazz/bebop tuning. Keep up the great work!
Thanks! Same rules apply to jazz/bebop/higher tunings ... just probably would not want a hole in the front head and a little less muffling.
I like this video.I tune my drums my ear 👂🥁
This is great
Thank you both for this!
Yessir
boom.
Amazing 😊
Sometimes I end up having a lug or two that is almost an octave higher or lower than the others, and trying to get those lugs in tune is really difficult because I'll hear it as being lower pitched, for example, but in reality it's just under an octave higher than the others. Just throwing this out there that this can be a possibility if you're not careful about bringing the lugs up to tension at the same rate.
Great video. I would also say that tuning the drums to actual notes and also paying attention to the intervals between the drums is just as important as the tension and actually these inform each other. For that reason, tuning the drums to the 4th or 5th in the key of the song always works best as it doesn't cause a clash with any major or minor chords in the music. I'd also go further and say that the size of the drum will also tell you which notes it likes to be tuned at for it to sing those notes with good sustain and without any pitch dive. You could even take it further and mark your drums as "go to" pitches in the studio based on their sizes..so when you need a snare that's tuned to D, you have a snare that's always tuned to D etc, much like guitars and basses of different scale lengths have their "sweet spot" tunings.
Having said that, it also depends on the style of music and the arrangement. In Moby Dick for example, Bonham's snare produces a clear C# while the song is in D, so even if it's not the ideal note to tune it to, the thickness of the other instruments obscures that and the drum just sounds good in the music.
great lesson! thank you guys!
Someone didn't like this video, what is there not to like?
Freaking incredible video! Thank you!
Thank YOU!
Incredible video! And entertaining as well! Thank you:)
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it!
This is just tooooo good!
Thank you!
so good. thanks so much.
Thank YOU!
While pushing down in the center get rid of the wrinkles add another full turn on the batters and 1.5 turns on the reso's, and call it a day.
Nevermind listening to what it sounds like lol
Slow clap 👏
Bravo 👏
🥁
🙏
That was super helpful!!
Yaaaay! Glad to hear it!
Thanks for all of your content, this video in particular. I'm a guitarist/pianist looking to get into playing drums for recording, and this sort of stuff makes the mountain look like a molehill. Can't wait to use this tuning knowledge, only to ruin it by muffling the life outta the snare ;)
Happy to help!
Far more useful and usable info in this video than in my 15 years of drums/percussion. Thanks Jake (and Aaron)! (Also, I can tell you're both drummers - you're both shouting at each other in a normal conversation! ;) )
Question: what do you two think of the idea that "if there's a pitch discrepancy between two lugs, try adjusting the lug opposite"? I've heard a couple of people advocate that.
Yaaaaay!!!
Yes! Adjusting the opposite lug is a good trick too! I learned that one from Aaron!
Nice video. I"m a new drummer and tuning videos can be frustrating not knowing where a should drum should sit, or even what sound I should go for. This video was good, but I'm still confused just with my lack of experience with drums. I guess the take away would be what sounds good.
The main thing I learned from Aaron was to always use your ears. Find where the drum resonates best and tune to that!
@@JakeReedmusic Thanks for the reply. I've used the method Rob Brown made a video about, where you just put pressure on the middle of the skin, and turn the lugs until the wrinkles were out. That helped me when I first started out playing drums maybe a year ago and had No idea what to do in regards to tuning. I definitely want to re tune my kit and try this method and kind of learn the finer intricacies of tuning. I'll probably try this method and play around with my drums today and see where I end up. I just changed the batter heads that came with my starter kit not too long ago. Thanks for the videos man, Your channel and yourself are awesome!
Aaron!!!!!!!!!!!
A small pro tip: use your thumb before mounting the head, and crack the glue. Oh and off course only on glued heads. NEVER on Evans heads for instance. It will speed up the tuning process a LOT when using Remo heads.
Yep! That’s a good one!
Great video Jake!
Thank you!
You have an incredible drum collection and technique to boot...I've grown up in an nyc apartment never thinkin I would have real drums but I see that it is the way. I was wondering if you might have a suggestion for a versatile kit under 1k
Thank you! I’m a huge fan of the Gretsch Catalina Club kits. BTW, one of my best friends is named Dan Martinez, so until you said you grew up in NYC I almost thought it was him LOL!
@@JakeReedmusic Thank you! and I may not be your best friend but I'm a sub now ;)
Yaaaaay! I’ll do my best to keep the videos rolling.
Explained it very well Sir!!! 😊🥁🇵🇭
hello Jake...how to get a muff bone? Thanks for the great videos.....
Paul Kreibich makes them. They also sell them at Pro Drum in Hollywood.
wow amazing
It finally happened! Thanks!!!! 💕💕💕
Yes!
@@JakeReedmusic Yes!!
YESSSSSS
WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!