Drummer's Review Guide To Snare Drum Tuning
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- In this special video we take a look at how we approach tuning for all of the snare drums we feature here at Drummers Review. Filmed at Middle Farm studio, July 2018. For more info, head over to www.drummersreview.com
Is it just me, or does Nolly have the world's most soothing voice? I could listen to him tune drums all day!
Thanks for not fast forwarding the tuning parts and let us "hear" the tuning process. This helped a lot.
Tuning drums is the Alchemy of the instrument. About 10,000 variations you can do it ....or more. I appreciate this method....because the snares in their videos always have zero muffling...and always sound incredible. I can spend hours trying to get a snare drum tuned right. Good to know there is a better way.
"that's a very solid d here"
Haha I get it (erect male organ)
Well....I have no clue WHAT exactly it is that you said or did but, DANG...my snare FINALLY sounds GOOD. I have been able to get a somewhat good tone from my toms but never my snare. Thanks a million. I will DEFINITELY be looking for more videos from you.
I completely agree
You con clearly hear the pitch going down after the first rimshot! BTW great video from a great engineer. I like that you chase for the right tone with the drum free to breathe. Most people only tune their drums on with one head muted. This is a better approach.
I have always been a "just tune till it sounds good, don't bother with the notes" guy.
Then I ran into massive sound problems with a Sonor Designer birch snare that I had acquired. I was totally at the end of my knowledge so I finally decided to try this method. OH MY GOD I HAVE BEEN MISSING OUT ! Turns out the main problem was that, what I thought was a tight reso head, was rather loose. I had it tuned to an F# so I still had one and a half notes to go, to get to the A. That basically made the snare sound so so much better, it is unbelievable. Now it actually sounds like the money it is worth. Tomorrow I will try it on my other snares and see if I like them even more
Thanks so much for the in depth explanation !
yes! please do a bass drum tuning video!!!
Gonna tune my snare the right way today, thanks a ton Nolly! Also Nick makes that drum sound amazing!!
Love it! A Tom tuning video would be awesome also
Nick Robinson his tom tuning methods are interesting, and always sound amazing
th-cam.com/video/9acA7vyaDag/w-d-xo.html
by far the best tuning method if you want to balance between the punch and the crack of the snare while keeping the ring in control.
Thanks Nolly! you have been educating me for years!
That was an awesome tuning lesson.
love that the label on the mic stand says "kick out"
Thanks for a great video Nolly! Discovered it by accident today and I now have the pleasure of going back and watching all your other ones. What pitch pipe app are you using? Thanks from a drummer who has been drumming for 39 years and who still loves learning about his instrument.
You know, we've never heard from Nick...... not a word! I wonder if he sits back and thinks to himself, I'm just the muscle here, they're just using me for my talent behind the kit- why aren't I allowed to talk? ...... It would be interesting to see him actually say something about a kit he's playing along with Nolly and Matt.
Wait - aren’t you the bassist for periphery?
Hello fellas. Excellent video very clear and informative, as was the tom tuning vid. I can only find the tom tuning information on thee website though, the page for the snare tuning info seems to have crashed.
Sounds great at all three tunings!
I didn't try a lot of methods yet, but this is working out really good. I tuned a Ludwig Supraphonic with a used Ambassador and a cheap birch snare with a heavily used Remo UK drumhead. Both sound very good now, especially in D and E Tuning. Didn't try F# because cranked is not my thing.
Fellow supraphonic owner here. Try C#. Something magical happens with a supraphonic when the batter is at that. It's a pleasant snappy and punchy quality, hard to describe.
D 147hz??? and F#185 ?
@@The-CHVPTERSD is 294 HZ AT LUG Frequency. F NOTE IS 349 HZ AT LUG The frequency.
Any videos on how you tune the resonant head specifically? The snare beds seem to make tuning challenging.
which pitch pipe app do you use?
I'm way too late to this, but is the bottom head tuned to an A3 (220hz) or an A4 (440hz)?
A4 440Hz which is higher than recommended frequency on tune bot website (not to go over 400Hz). To my ear, tuning reso head to A4 is really great. 😊
What about 2 ply on a 14?
Im a tuning noob so this might be dumb. Is the fundamental pitch tuned to an A or is the lug tightness tuned to an A? also A2, A3, A4?
Love your reviews.
nolly used to have a page somewhere that had snares and their tunings like he has for the toms and different sizes. i cant find it though. anyone else know?
Kenny Sharrets has tuning intervals on his channel 👍
Nolly, what note recommendation would you give for a 13 inch snare? I usually tune the resonant head to a G on my 14s. Maybe an A would work on the resonant head? Or should I go higher.
If you're going for a mid-tuning general use snare sound id do G to an A on the reso, and then a D to an E on the batter head.
Also I love the lamp
Man, I am a huge Chris Adler fan. I start by tuning the drum as high as I can to stretch it, and then dialing it back slightly until I find the sweet spot. I do this but backwards and it's always served me well
Great vid! Btw, have I missed it or is the yamaha snare giveaway winner going to be announced soon? Thx!
Batter side looser than the resonant head , or vice versa. ?
Is the snare side A3 or A4?
Anyone know what pitch pipe app he used?
Find out?
When we're talking about tuning the reso head to an A, are we talking like 440 hz? That's seems super high.
What did he mean tho? Did you find out?
@@petarpavasovic6333 I do believe it is tuning the snare side head to an A at 440. I recently bought a new snare and suddenly that doesn't seem that insanely tight anymore. Trying to get my old snare to 440 would result in breaking the head lol
@@austingoodrich1468 Thanks!
Nolly, when you tune batter I can see that you aren’t muting the reso. Are you technically tuning the whole drum to a note, or are you only tuning the batter specifically?
Nolly (and a lot of studios/drummers) will tune to an interval rather than a specific matched note. In this video, we see he is tuning the reso to a high A, and then for the batter, he first tunes to a C. This would be a 6th degree interval (root + 6th note of major scale). Next he tunes the batter to a D, which is a perfect 5th when paired with an A. Lastly, he tunes it to F#, which is a minor 3rd interval with the reso.
Because of this, it's like the snare drum is playing a chord rather than a single tone, though there is a very singular dominant note coming from the batter.
Graham Scanlon Drums - Tried tuning my reso to an A. Was super tight. I think an A is 440hz but my tunebot recommendations say nothing over 400. Just seemed way too tight and choked. But it sounds great here.
Man. Songwriting is hard.
Isn't an A3 for a reso head too low? One time you said that you tune it really, really high, up to the point where trying to bend the head with your finger won't work, but right now it sits even below your "low" tuning of the batter head.
It's an octave above the batter. Assuming you went by the sound of the pitch pipe in the video, it's an octave above that.
Oh, you're probably right. It's difficult to hear though. I was of course referring to the pitch pipe as you can't clearly hear the note of the reso head. Maybe a little comment about that would have made it clear.
Nolly does the same thing then when tuning to a high F#, but it's more audible there.
F# or C#?
You can put your phone onto the head, it will resonate? Rick Beato trick
Ele desafina a caixa completamente e depois quer aplicar uma frequência? 😁
Where's Matt?
Man was the best guitarist in periphery, man played bass in periphery and now schooling us drummers on how to tune our snare, next thing you know nolly will conduct an orchestra and run for prime minister of england 😂😂😂
Whoa... you can hear it drop out of tune quite a lot around the 8:43 mark when he plays rimshots.
I don’t agree with your choice to not use your fingers for initial rod tightening. You need to get in there and feel the tension which will bring the head to zero much quicker.
why can't these type of videos not focus more on the snare side, it is really at least as important to the sound I noticed over time
@13:45 it's my lowest pitch on tha snare lol
Nolly; we lost a lot of semi tone there
My ears; what? which one? are you cheating?
*I know i got to train my ear, so piss off i am not taking a piss on anyone
the 2nd lug on resonant head was a full pitch low and you didn't even catch it./
Not a great idea to tap the head with the key when you're tuning. You may inadvertently dent the bearing edge. Better to use your finger.
Jazz Martyrs gently tapping the head is going to bend steel a few inches away...? Meanwhile drummers like Simon Phillips stand on their heads to seat them😅
@@jobelewis6416 You misunderstand what I'm referring to. The bearing edge is the edge of the drum shell. When you tap the head with a metal object, you may accidentally tap immediately above the edge, and that could result in a small indentation into the wood. The bearing edge is not something you want dented.
How can a rim shot not dent a bearing edge while a gentle tap can?
@@eduardoricardo94 First of all, a drum stick is wood. Secondly, a rim shot, by definition, is when you strike the head and rim simultaneously. Striking the drum so that your stick makes contact right where the bearing edge meets the head would be almost impossible, but I guess it could happen. It would indicate some serious lack of control on the drummer's part though.
Tapping with a metal drum key while tuning is much more likely to result in hitting the bearing edge. You would be tapping very close to the rim in order to accentuate the higher harmonics. That's the danger zone.
@Jazz Martyrs Maybe Nolly has your thoughts. That's why he used metal snare. 😅
This tuning you use isn't right even if it is from the scratch.You must tune with crossing method and with 1 turn at time to avoid some lugs tuned too much and others not tuned at all.In my opinion you must first do crossed fingertighting untill you can't turn it and then with the key in a fiew tension rods find the note that you want to tune the totally drum.Also you must (if you use a new head) push it to the center with your hand not too much but only untill you listen a small crackle noise, to seat perfectly the head to the bearing edges.If you find the note then crossed again continue to tune all lugs at this note.With that method i described you cut alot of time to tune if you think as example that the drums needs tuning before a gig and you must do it fast!
Honestly... You're way over thinking this process. It's just not that difficult. Put the heads on.. tunning them quick and hit the damn drum! Adjust from there. Tune bots and all the other gimmicks are just that. Maybe it's just me..
Brent McGuire to be fair this process is much faster if you aren't explaining as you go. I'm sure Nolly could have got that mid tuning in no time on a real studio session using this technique
Brent McGuire I agree with Sean here. Nolly is a pro and specialises in drum tracking, he can tune a drum up to notes properly in about a minute if he wanted, and it wouldn’t just be willy-nilly tuned
Agreeing this is so quick if you're not explaining it. This method is really beneficial while tracking drums for keeping a consistent tuning throughout takes. Tuning to a specific note for reference is a easy way to recall what the drums were originally tuned to.
@@traviswoodall6547 usually is.. haha
Very useful advice coming from the guy who over-processes the shit out of everything he mixes :)
ShittyMcPoopyBalls incorrect. If, like myself, you’ve ever gotten Nolly’s raw drum recordings in the DAW to mix, you’d realise just how little processing he applies. It’s 80% source tone
load of crap right there when you actually watch how he approach his mix in his masterclass mixing at GGD channel
Where has this channel been all my life.
Glad you like it! Thanks for watching / subscribing. Best wishes, DR
same.
Ditto - good reviews - articulate, thoughtful, gets on with it
I know!! So helpful :)
IVE BEEN PLAYING SINCE 1964 AND I can tell you sir this is the best tunning method I've ever watched.also be consistent with other snares you reveiw.Keep up the great job guys,can't wait for tom tunning.
Hi David, thanks for your kind and encouraging comments - much appreciated. Thank you for watching/ subscribing. Best wishes, DR
I love at 8:43 when the rim shot popped the glue of the new head and it stretched out a bit.
I didnt catch that! thats awesome
The drum sounds great, but.... The method needs some clarification. Tune the reso to A - An A4? That would be so tight it’d make tabletops look squishy. A3? That’s really low, so doesn’t fit the description of ‘tight’. Seems like half the comments are asking the same thing one way or another - Which A? At the lugs? In the center? Help us out Nolly!
i believe he means an A4 at the resonant side lugs
David Tavares Rosa I guess he must... That’s craaaazy tight for a reso head.
Listening with headphones, you can hear the snare wire sound is not great - at low tuning the snares sound sloppy, the reso head is too tight and it’s just bouncing the wires around. At the high tuning it sounds pretty good, but super dry (as you’d expect with BOTH heads that tight!). This might be a “safe” way to demo a snare, despite the low tuning not sounding ideal, but it’s not letting the drum tone come through. At 440hz a reso head is no longer functioning as a drum head, it’s choked to death. You’re going to go crazy trying to get a good snare wire sound as well.
A more usable range for me would be:
F#-G for reso head (370-390hz)
B-D for batter head (250-300hz)
This will give you a great snare wire response, let the shell be heard, and feel good to play.
@DZNTZ No, you want your snare to sound like a wet paper bag... 380-400 HZ Is the ticket to wake up a good quality drum.
I know you've done a similiar thing on your Creative Live class (which i've bought and it's amazing), but maybe you'd consider doing a full series on drum recording and tuning for dummies? :)
awesome video btw
Search URM Ultimate Drum Production
>implying i haven't seen seen all of the livestreams and haven't cried myself to sleep not being able to afford it
Bummer, cuz it's incredible!!! I'll give you one free tip: Telefunken M80-sh on snare drum... You're welcome.
I actually know about that one, Matt suggests it everywhere hahah
This video is amazing, I've played drums for years and one thing I've never quite 'got' was where a 'low' or 'high' tuning was meant to be, if that makes sense.
Finally having someone put this into numbers and context is amazing, really appreciate this
Thank you! This is great info. Targeting the A for the reso head is key. I spent the afternoon tuning snare drums, and now I've got all five sounding amazing!
Did he mean 440Hz A note or lower?
@@petarpavasovic6333440 A4 THATS THE 🔑 TO A GREAT SNARE SOUND WITH Sensitivity and crack.
Hey Nolly. I have the written guide on the website for toms, but do you have a similar written guide for the snare drum tuning? If so, can you provide a link please?
This is exactly what I've been looking for since I was 16. I'm 40 now. Thank you DR!
Do you the same thing for all diameter snare drums or do you start higher? For example, a 13 inch starting at Bb or a B?
You were actually turning to a high harmonic. Your ‘pitch pipe’ is matching an upper partial, not the fundamental tone of the drum. This is completely fine of course, I happen to tune drums on the same principle. Those upper harmonics are much easier to hear and tune accurately. And what’s the main goal anyway? To make the drums sound great. We aren’t tuning a violin or a cello to an accurate A440 or what have you.
Great tuning method, relatable for me and you throw in lots of good little tips. Thank you.
Amazing low tuning sound. How did you tune the resonant head on this one? Do you have a particular note? Like G or an A? Amazing!!
As stated in the intro, the resonant head is tuned to an A.
When you find out this soft spoken man was the bassist for one of the heaviest bands ever
And the guitarist of the band has said that the bassist plays better the guitar than the band guitarists..
The snare drum doesn't sound bad, but I'm still puzzled about the technique used to tune it. On the one hand I was convinced that the only membranophone with a precise note was the timpani, and on the other hand, even if I would admit that a snare drum can have a precise note, I find it very difficult to recognise the note emitted by the tuner in the snare drum itself. But I probably have a bad ear ...
Also, and even if this were possible, I am puzzled by the idea of simply tuning a drum on a certain note, as if getting a certain note was a sufficient factor to say that the drum sounds good. The response of the head, the sound obtained by playing complex and fast rhythmic figures (or even just a quick double strokes roll), the integration of the drum into a complete set are all factors that should be considered carefully to say whether a drum is well tuned or not.
The video: full of drum knowledge
The thumbnail: VSAUCE!! Nolly here..
Pro tip for you Nolly...When you work on the resonant side with the snarewires on...Loosen the wires and put a stick under the wires cross the drum...This way you don't have to hold them up with your hand...😎
Great vid! Do you find leaving the reso head and drifting pitch on the batter is fine? Trying to match the difference with the reso can sometimes get hairy with tension. Broken reso skins a few times haha but I guess other factors come into play when using such high tensions on thin ply heads too
Sorry for the stupid question but what octave is the A? I ask because I have a tunebot. Is it A3 or A4? Thank you for the video.
This is a real teaching man thanks brother
I hope you will see this, I heard you say reso around an A. Which is 440hz. Tune bot at most they say is 400hz. Which is a G. I always end up going with a G. Top a C. I’ve popped many heads going really really tight. So my question is when you say A, your saying 440hz? Thx so much. Love all your stuff!! Very helpful. I see you tapped edge where lug is , perhaps it’s higher than a G near lugs. If I cranked reso itself to an A. IDE prob pop the head. I’m not sure what to do now. I just installed new heads. Bottom head is def a G. 398hz. IDE hate to push it being brand new. But I’m confused some.
Tight Snare Gang rules this earth.
Hi vsauce Michael here!
Sounds phenomenal
hi great tutorial which pitch-pipe app do you use?
Nice job . I love the reviews . I myself is very fussy about my snare drum sound. Got some tips today .
What is the app that you've used on the phone please?
Thanks Nolly 👍🏼
04:08 such great advice
What app is he using????
Forgot the resohead?
What an amazing video! Thanks for this. Love the channel! =)
Hi Dan, thanks for your comments. Thank you for watching/subscribing. Best wishes, DR
Nolly is really good at drums stuff than the actual drummer 😂😂
do you also add/remove a whole tone per diameter inch for the snare-side head, or do you like it at an A regardless? thanks for the videos.
This method is brilliant, but it works a lot better when your hoops aren’t oval shaped😂😂😂
I’ll be trying it again once I get Halpern’s new Pearl snare!
Re tuned my Mapex Warbird. All I did was completely loosen it. Turn all lugs 1½ turns. Sounds good 🤣🤣
This and the Tom tuning video are so helpful. I hope you’ll add a kick drum episode.
What about the resonance head?
tune it like fourth-fifth (5 or 7 semitones) above the batter head
i don't know why but everything this man does is so accurate and right and yet so boring
great video Nolly! I need that drum in my life! haha it sounds amazing!
So what reso head did you use here? You never mentioned it.
Very useful tutorial to snare drum tuning ! Thank you for sharing and cheers from Formosa Argentina !
Dont forget to stretch the batter head when you first it put on, only when new though
Vsauce?
This is way more scientific than any video Vsauce could make!
Bass Drum Tuning next, please!
would love to see that also!!!
Which pitch pipe app do you use?
Top notch tutorial.. thanks a ton
Didn't expect shorts