Anyone tune their tom resos *lower* than batter?

Mastiff

Mastiff

Senior Member
I'm spending some time actually trying to tune my kit right instead of winging it. So far, sitting here dialing everything in with the tune bot is making it all worse. This is for a home recording setup, so I'm after a lot of punch and low sustain. My drums are nice, so I don't think I should have to cover everything with gaffer tape... When I got my floor tom nicely dialed in, the result is that it is ringing out for a long time and resonating continuously with bass drum hits. This is with the reso 1.5x frequency (4th I think) of the batter.

The other thing is the actual fundamental of each drum. Historically, I just go by ear, but the one issue I've had is for the occasional song that has unison toms, like floor and rack, it can sound dissonant. Is that in my imagination, because I thought tuning to notes was mostly optional and not super common?
 
I always tune the top head higher than the reso. To my ear it sounds “right” and everything else sounds “wrong”. I also tune pretty high compared to the “everything just about wrinkling” approach loved by home players. That helps enormously IMHO.

I don’t have a fixed interval that I aim for between the heads, although my snare tends to usually have the batter a third above the reso. On toms it’s a little less, perhaps a whole tone between them. The important thing however is that the batter is always higher than the reso.

🙂
 
Kind of a tubby tonal sound-- I can't do anything with it. I may try again just to see, but no.

Mastiff said:
I'm spending some time actually trying to tune my kit right instead of winging it. So far, sitting here dialing everything in with the tune bot is making it all worse. This is for a home recording setup, so I'm after a lot of punch and low sustain. My drums are nice, so I don't think I should have to cover everything with gaffer tape... When I got my floor tom nicely dialed in, the result is that it is ringing out for a long time and resonating continuously with bass drum hits. This is with the reso 1.5x frequency (4th I think) of the batter.
Click to expand...

Seems like that's as much a question about recording/EQing techniques as it is about drum tuning.

Mastiff said:
The other thing is the actual fundamental of each drum. Historically, I just go by ear, but the one issue I've had is for the occasional song that has unison toms, like floor and rack, it can sound dissonant. Is that in my imagination, because I thought tuning to notes was mostly optional and not super common?
Click to expand...

If something sounds weird to your ear, try to fix it. No reason to go on faith that it's going to sound good to other people.
 
I’ve done both reso higher and lower than the batter and currently I am settled on the batter having most of the tension so that I could get good response, I have my toms in the medium high range, both sound good I just like being able to get a tight feel. Though I might be wrong but what I noticed with the batter higher was more “meat” with quieter playing.
 
I’ve done the resos higher, lower, and same as…each drum will tell you what it WANTS to be tuned at. By experimenting with different tunings, you can cause the drum to sing, or to choke, or to rumble, or to pitch bend.

There are no hard and fast rules, I’ve found. I used to believe things that I read online like, “tuning the reso head lower will cause the pitch to bend down,” but after years of experimentation, I know that it’s not true—90% correlation is not proof of causation. 🤣

Experimentation is key. If your goal is primarily recording sounds, then you have the added complication of mic choice, placements, and sound treatment. Even the “best-sounding” drum on its own might not translate to the ultimate recorded drum sound.
 
Occasionally on rack toms if I'm trying to get a ringy, cracking timbale-like rimshot. Pretty much never any other time.
 
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I think that's for a "near-field" sound for when you want the sound to bounce-back at you.
Whereas the opposite throws the sound out to the audience side...
sometimes a narrow drum (like an ugh 10"..) will benefit up close from a lower resonant
overall I like zee resonant higher or equal to throw the toms and bass sound 'out there' - sometimes to quiet mellow-out a shallow Snare drum lower the reso..
 
it's like ballast on a ship... port Side! heavy Lo!
whatever it takes to get her to sail straight.
 
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Mastiff said:
The other thing is the actual fundamental of each drum. Historically, I just go by ear, but the one issue I've had is for the occasional song that has unison toms, like floor and rack, it can sound dissonant. Is that in my imagination, because I thought tuning to notes was mostly optional and not super common?
Click to expand...
I have come to learn that drums sound fantastic tuned to specific fundamental notes.

A rack tom tuned to 117 Hz (2Bb) and a floor tom tuned to 78 Hz (2Eb) sound fantastic together, struck individually or in unison. Those notes are a perfect 5th apart and work really well in a 1-up and 1-down setup. They're also pitched up a little so that your drums don't get swallowed up by the band when playing live. Added bonus :)
 
I tried tuning the reso heads higher than the batter ones but don't like how it sounds, kind of weird to me.

The tune-bot makes it easier to tune toms to certain notes / intervals which musically match (like notes in a chord, i.e. a C chord: C E and G or Eb: Eb G and Bb).

You don't mention which heads you are using you find too resonating.
Maybe you could try double ply or dampened heads. Or use o-rings.
 
Everything I read/watched over the years said to always have the resonant head tuned higher than the batter, so that's what I did. Granted, tuning has always been a huge mystery to me (even after getting a TuneBot a couple years ago), so I didn't experiment once I got a half-decent sound out of my kit.

However, I recently had a rehearsal at another band's studio space, and I really loved how punchy his toms were. I checked the tuning with the TuneBot and found out he was tuning the batters 8 or 9 semitones higher than the resonant heads. I've yet to experiment on my own kit, but it was definitely intriguing to think about.
 
IME, resos lower tend to make a downward pitch bend, which I've never found appealing. Resos higher make the batters sing at a consistent pitch as the volume fades.
 
When I tune the batter higher it seems to result in a sound that is less pleasing to my ear behind the kit but rounder and fuller out in front. I’ve actually noticed with a couple drums that at the most lifeless (where you hit it and it almost just goes “clank”) gets a really rich resultant tone.

There are also times where it just sounds like ass no matter what and i change the ratio. Every room, ensemble, and method of capture seems to point towards a different optimal tuning approach.
 
I’m still confused on this but right now with my new coated emps over clear ambs on my gretsch kit I’ve got all toms tuned with both heads to the same pitch, and if there’s any weird sounds or too much sustain I put a gel(s) on the batter head. By the way I use Slapklatz gels and use them as instructed.
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He took all his experiences with Gretsch over to where and when ever he went next
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"yOu Never Forget your first Wife" 🫡
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I just posted that also in what are you listening to thread (y)
 
jda said:
He took all his experiences with Gretsch over to where and when ever he went next
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"yOu Never Forget your first Wife" 🫡
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I just posted that also in what are you listening to thread (y)
Click to expand...
True. It’s interesting how he makes that wood hooped Yamaha snare sound almost identical to the big heavy Tama bell brass snare.
 
Which tells you what.. a) it's easier as the player on the ears and (snare stand ha) 2) check Time Is Of The Essence Michael Brecker it's all over that 3 tracks. the 5 sparkle w.wood hoops
and Some hyped things are "not needed"
 
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