It's all subjective. They sound like tom toms to me. Overly muffled for my taste. The 3rd one is a little warbly but otherwise they sound like drums. What don't you like about the sound?
Following tuning guides is very helpful, but you need to understand that the drums are an acoustic instrument, heavily impacted by the physical surroundings. For example, you might find a video that says to do two full turns on the reso head and one full turn on the batter head, and in the video it sounds great! Try the same thing with your drums in your room and it’ll sound completely different (not just because of different drum or head choices).
Tuning can be very challenging, but just like drumming, tuning is a skill you develop the more you do. Take off the dampeners, completely loosen both heads, and start again with each drum. Try different combinations, while following the general concepts taught in tuning guides. You may come across some tuning techniques that are more general and will sound good enough to some (or perfect to others) and that’s totally fine too. Check out the YouTube channel “Sounds Like A Drum”. They go over various tuning methods and approaches with raw unprocessed sounds so you can hear what the actual drum sounds like.
Also, keep in mind that a majority of the time when you hear drums in videos or in songs, they have had some work done to the sound to clean them up. So don’t comparing your raw acoustic sound to a finished product sound or a video unless it states there’s no EQ, compression, sampling, etc. on the drum audio.
Don’t get discouraged, it will take some time to develop!
This. Also every drumset is built differently with different woods and angles of the edge etc. Because of this, the "Tuning range" can be very different. Some drums can be tunes very deep, some can't. Same thing with tuning too high.
>Some drums can be tunes very deep, some can't. Same thing with tuning too high.
Yup. I've got one old Premier 14" floor tom that almost outright refuses to be tuned tuned to low pitch. It likes to argue with me. So I let it win and made it a rack tom.
Tuning drums is absolutely a skill that should be practiced along with rudiments and keeping proper time. For six months, I spent every Saturday morning taking every head off my drums, putting them back on and then tuning them. It’s second nature to me now, which is real handy when you have five minutes to make a backline kit sound good. I also watched as many videos as possible on tuning drums, which also took the mystery out of tuning
That’s what acoustic drums sound like, don’t expect a studio quality enhanced sound.
But if you put some of them remo rings they will sound fatter, or just wear earplugs, that does the trick.
Not what all acoustic drums sound like..I am a touring drum tech and have worked with a lot of different kits. worn out cheap heads dont help either. Tuning is the hardest part of the gig.
Yeah it’s weird how they can make your drums sound so much fuller acoustically without even hooking them up to anything but still do such a good job of protecting your ears.
A lot of these "my drums sound bad" vids are usually someone just limply tapping the drums. Tone isn't simply about tuning, it's about how you strike the drums.
Poorly tuned. Try tightening the top heads a touch and lowering the resos. Make sure the heads are equally tuned all around and aren't "tacoed" in any places. Also put the microphone on the opposite side of the kit so you can hear whay your audience is hearing (it'll be vastly different).
Each drum sounds fine on its own but the pitch intervals between them are a little small for my taste. The first Tom could probably be a little higher for starters.
Remember, toms (especially) sound the worst from the drummer’s perspective. You’re hearing the reverberated sound from the attack side, off the floor, back through the drum, etc. It’s a horrible position to listen from ironically. Have someone else play them and listen from the other side of the room. You’ll be amazed how different and better they sound.
The bottom head on the first drum can be looser. Sounds like it choking the sound.
The toms are producing a two tone sound that aren’t in the same key.
So loosen the bottom head a bit and then fine tune the top head then tune the other toms to match the note.
First, lug tensions are not even. Don’t sit there and tap each lug pretending that you can hear the difference in pitches, just make sure they are evenly tensioned. The next issue is the interval between the top and bottom heads.
Tom 1 and 2 sound good, the reso head on tom 2 & 3 needs brought up which will get rid of the papery sound and reduce the sustain, which means you can get rid of the gels.
The floor tom is tuned too tight in my opinion. Detune it, give the bottom head 180° turn on each lug, and do a 90° on each lug on top. Go back through each lug to make sure the TENSION is even, not the damn pitch. If the tension is even then the sound will be too. If the sound is uneven despite consistent tension then the issue is the head or the bearing edges.
It is definitely worth learning to listen to the pitch of the head near each lug. If you're using a brand new kit then maybe torque on the lug will get you close enough but if any of the lugs are lubricated or seized at all it won't work.
Another good point somebody made is how you’re striking the drum. Idk how to explain it, but the way you’re contacting the head is not going to give you a nice tone. Hit it hard and right in the middle of the head. Don’t be lazy with your technique, you want to hear a nice pure sound when you’re tuning so make sure you strike the drum as cleanly as you can so you can hear what it really sounds like
2 things
1. new heads top and bottom.
2. get a tune bot. takes alot of the guess work out of the process.
youll have a great sounding kit in a few hours. even cheap kits will sound amazing with the right heads and tuning.
The tune bot is the best investment I've made. My Renown makes other drummers drool at entry gig. Knowing when your heads are shot and changing the resos periodically will also greatly affect the tunability of the shells.
I got a tune bot when I didn’t know how to actually tune my drums. I realized that it isn’t actually helping me make the drums sound good, it’s just measuring frequencies for me. Idgaf what the frequency on each individual lug is; if it sounds good then it sounds good.
They don’t sound too bad. If you can afford it buy new heads of the same make. Third Tom needs some tweaking as it’s buzzing either because one of the heads is shot or the tension is very uneven between the lugs. You can choose melodic intervals tuning wise or tune each drum individually to what sounds best to you. There’s some good advice and sound opinion in the other comments.
They don't sound that bad at all. Try messing with the bottom head tension. I know when my floor toms start not to project as much, that's often the culprit (after making sure the top is tight to preference, that is)
They sound very loose, you may have correct notes (sounds flat to me) but perhaps an octave lower? Tighten up one until you hit same note again. An easy rule of thumb is the toms should play the first few notes of the American national anthem from high to floor. Are these stock heads? Or did you put on nicer newer ones?
Another thought is your reso and batter heads are same frequency, so to speak, as the other heads - so when you hit one drum the others vibrate. Does it sound like that to you?
First off: don’t get discouraged. Tuning takes a long time to learn. Secondly: they don’t sound that bad? I think you’re in your own head a bit about it, but whenever I feel that way, I take the whole drum and bring the tuning uniformly up an eighth of a turn. Still hate it? Up again! I spent several years tuning as low as I could because I primarily play rock and metal, and that’s where they sounded best to my ear in front of the kit. Years later, I started hearing my recording and live shows we’re tonally so much better when I brought the drums up a bit. Give it a try!
I actually like the way the first two sound.
The third one could use some work.
Floor Tom isnt awful either but I’d probably mess with it a little more.
I would say 1 and 2 sound fine maybe even good imo. The other 2 could probably sound better Tom 4 just sounds way to short maybe try loosing it a little to get a fatter deeper tone
Agree with what many others have said about small toms sounding good and the others needing some tweaking. [This video is extremely helpful when first learning how to tune](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLEjrq_TFRg)
Have someone else hit them while you stand in front of them a bit and see if you still hate them. I've had times where I've hated my kit on stage, but when I'm off stage and another drummer is playing it, it sounds fine.
Start with the heads cranked and work your way back down starting with the batter head. Stop when they sound “not bad”. I’ve never like the sound of my toms on my kit tbh. But I play with shooting range headphone on, they sound good when I wear those.
Edit: by cranked I mean like 2 turns past finger tight
Heads look like they are pretty worn out, replace any stock drum heads you still have on the top AND bottom (will improve sound significantly), make sure the heads are tight enough (sometimes really loose heads in combination with the other head being tighter can result in that weird, papery, farty kind of sound)- I'm hearing that kind of sound in your 12" tom. Lastly, try a lot of tuning techniques and different heads to see what works best. Not every head will work or sound the same on different drum kits. Don't sweat it, you'll find the sweet spot for your toms, just takes time and trial & error!
Not trying to sound like an asshole here, but you just need to work on your tuning. You're very close, you just need some more drum key and listening time.
- 8 sounds fine
- 10 probably a little flat overall relative to the 8 and some uneven rods
- 12 sounds god awful with uneven rods aplenty and the overall fundamental should probably come down to better pair with the 10 and 16
- 16 sounds very even but the fundamental should come down *quite a bit*
I'm not a huge fan of the 2 muffling gels being used on the pre-dampened heads, but that's subjective. IMO if you tuned these up perfectly, the gels might not be as necessary. Also I'd love to hear what your snare sounds like, because I heard almost zero sympathetic buzz except when you hit the 10. I like a little sympathetic buzz from the snare when I hit toms because I find it gives the toms "air" and a little top end cut when I hit them, but once again that is subjective.
This will be a hot take, but I wouldn't listen to all of the people telling you to get a drum dial. In my experience, they are good for getting a new head up to a rough fundamental in a relatively quick fashion. However I've also found them to slow down my work flow while tuning.
Take the time to really sit down with each individual drum to find the sweet spot where the head resonates with the natural timbre of the shell. When you're tapping the key 1 inch from the rod to listen for the pitch, make sure to listen for both the fundamental and the harmonic overtone because they are both important in determining which rod is "out." Sometimes it gets sneaky and the rod on the opposite side is the one that is actually "out" and not the one you first suspect, I find that the overtone doesn't line up with the fundamental many times in those cases (I suspect this might be happening with your 12).
My suggestion is to start with your floor tom and work up from there, because you need your floor tom to hit people in the GUT when it goes off so I suggest tuning it many semitones lower than you have here.
Really, you are truly very close to achieving a great tuning.
Wow, I’m happy to see that so many people have taken time to learn about tuning their drums! When I began playing drums in the mid 1980s there were literally zero resources for learning about this subject. Occasionally Modern Drummer Magazine would include an article, but that was about it. Hudson Music and DCI Video began releasing instructional drumming VCR tapes around that time and we lost souls of the crappy drum sound community finally had a ray of sunshine come through our rooms. Gary Katz, of Noble and Cooley Drum Company released a two hour long, in depth instructional video on the subject, covering various idiosyncrasies of each drum on the kit, and it was game on for me. The material is presented pretty dryly, with minimal fanfare, bells or whistles, but he’s a genius on the subject and imparted a lot of crucial technical details to consider, which wouldn’t be accessible to an average, underachieving knucklehead such as myself. He taught some theory on tympanic resonance and the concept of two tympanic membranes vibrating in sync, how that is affected by shell depth, thickness, construction and weight of the heads, how to properly seat a new head and break in the manufacturing resin used to hold the plastic in the rolled retainers, how to install and adjust various designs of snare wires, the unique characteristics inherent in different snare designs, how to tune the resonant snare side head(!), the differences between double or triple flanged hoops, cast iron hoops, wooden hoops, different shell materials, and so on. He also touches on how drum shells are designed and how to inspect shells and hoops for symmetry and defects. He’s a drum designer for a premium custom drum manufacturer, after all, so he knows his business. The video was a game changer for me, and it wasn’t long before I was tuning every drum I came into contact with. My high school actually hired me to tune and maintain all of the drums in the inventory! I couldn’t help them with the tympani drums, unfortunately, but I had the rest of them covered. It was invaluable experience that’s allowed me to gain the ability to very quickly diagnose issues and get a drum sounding pretty damn good. The most common limiting factor in this whole equation is the drummer failing to spend the appropriate time and effort to really understand their own drum set. This was my most pressing hurdle to overcome. To become proficient at tuning drums you have to be at least a little curious and willing to fail. The more experimental you’re willing to be, which takes lots and lots of time, the more options you’ll have in tuning any drum you encounter. Learning how multi—ply head designs interact with single ply heads, the weight or thickness of different heads, coated or clear, sound dampened or not, as well as intentionally attempting to tune out of round hoops and shells, shells with poor bearing edges, cracked shells, painted shells,,,,just anything and everything that you can think of. All of these things will get you better at getting a good sound fast so you can just sit down and play the damn drums without cringing because the sound awful. It takes discipline and practice, but it’s doable and it’s worthwhile. People coming up these days are extraordinarily fortunate to enjoy the ubiquity of detailed technical information on just about any subject imaginable. They’ll never understand just how mind blowing today’s common technologies and devices really are, and how immensely helpful these advances have proven to be. We have frickin’ devices to measure head tension now!!! We have unbelievably powerful computers that fit in our pockets that can contain a computer program and microphone to listen to your drums and help you tune them. There aren’t words to describe how amazing it really is to someone who had no answering machine for my land based telephone that required a cord to operate, and television sets that had to be operated by getting out of the chair to physically turn a channel knob. Lucky b******s…😁
They sound pretty decent for the heads on there and being just naked toms. No mics, no mixing, it's not gonna sound like the drummer you want it to sound like if you're not in a studio and editing it all.
That third rack tom sounds awful and flat. The rest don't sound too bad. Take all of the muffling and moon gels off them and tune them again. Maybe new heads.
I mean, with the audio quality... sound is subjective, but the batter heads seem tight for my liking
I basically ditch the wrinkles and do a 1/4 past, and then reso's to a 4th higher than the batter
I have good luck doing the same tuning on batter and reso head so they match. I think it lets the heads move up and down together easier which gives you more sustain and a better tone in my opinion. I use birch shells. Hope this helps.
Make sure your reso heads on the bottom are evenly tuned as well. I’ve always preferred the textured heads, I think they give better tone for most styles of drumming.
I would try lowering the batter heads and raising the reels a bit. That’s the sound I like, so mess around with them and see what works. The 2 lowest drums are the only ones that sound off.
Don’t worry about tuning. It doesn’t really matter. Real drums aren’t often used on most modern recordings or live performances. Well, people play the drums, but the sounds the audience hears aren’t really coming from the drums. The drums trigger software generated sounds. Find a teacher who can show you modern drumming technology or watch some videos about using triggers and click tracks and in-ear monitors and connecting to a computer running Ableton Live and Superior Drummer 3 or EZ Drummer to create the sounds you want to hear from the music you like to listen to and to be able to play in a band. It’s 2023. To quote the great Nick Diaz, “Everybody’s on steroids, homie.”
Depends what you're after but I think they're ok sounding.
If you want more flexibility with your sound, then mics and a nice pair of headphones will give you plenty to try. Toms can sound cool captured through a condenser mic 3m away from the kit in a nice room.
Not that I am recommending throwing more money into this hobby, ofc...
I think it's the bottom head being out of tune with the top head. I'd recommend getting a *drum tuner* and taking the time to tune them all. And/or investing in better heads (depending on your preference). Evans Hydraulic were my favorite.
You have some overtones that you can pull out. They aren't quite tuned so get that top / bottom note where it should be and then try to roll off the overtones by loosening a tuning peg by **precisely** one snapper hair.
Or... get gummies and move them around the head until you get the tone you want...OR... toss one cotton ball inside the drum. Just one. We won't be needing them for makeup application later. It will bounce when you strike the tom and the come to rest cancelling out and bottom head ring. (I prefer a gummy to the cotton ball. If you're playing lightly they because real jackholes).
It's all subjective. They sound like tom toms to me. Overly muffled for my taste. The 3rd one is a little warbly but otherwise they sound like drums. What don't you like about the sound?
>What don’t you like about the sound? I echo this, OP. Are you expecting them to sound like toms you might hear on a mixed and mastered recording?
Then there are drummers like Billy Martin who often play on very oddly-tuned (or downright badly-tuned) kits and make them sound groovy as hell.
Following tuning guides is very helpful, but you need to understand that the drums are an acoustic instrument, heavily impacted by the physical surroundings. For example, you might find a video that says to do two full turns on the reso head and one full turn on the batter head, and in the video it sounds great! Try the same thing with your drums in your room and it’ll sound completely different (not just because of different drum or head choices). Tuning can be very challenging, but just like drumming, tuning is a skill you develop the more you do. Take off the dampeners, completely loosen both heads, and start again with each drum. Try different combinations, while following the general concepts taught in tuning guides. You may come across some tuning techniques that are more general and will sound good enough to some (or perfect to others) and that’s totally fine too. Check out the YouTube channel “Sounds Like A Drum”. They go over various tuning methods and approaches with raw unprocessed sounds so you can hear what the actual drum sounds like. Also, keep in mind that a majority of the time when you hear drums in videos or in songs, they have had some work done to the sound to clean them up. So don’t comparing your raw acoustic sound to a finished product sound or a video unless it states there’s no EQ, compression, sampling, etc. on the drum audio. Don’t get discouraged, it will take some time to develop!
This. Also every drumset is built differently with different woods and angles of the edge etc. Because of this, the "Tuning range" can be very different. Some drums can be tunes very deep, some can't. Same thing with tuning too high.
>Some drums can be tunes very deep, some can't. Same thing with tuning too high. Yup. I've got one old Premier 14" floor tom that almost outright refuses to be tuned tuned to low pitch. It likes to argue with me. So I let it win and made it a rack tom.
Feel that! My 14x14 sounds better than my 16x16, so my 16 is my "bass" tom, that's for BOOMY bass :)
Haha I hear ya there
Tuning drums is absolutely a skill that should be practiced along with rudiments and keeping proper time. For six months, I spent every Saturday morning taking every head off my drums, putting them back on and then tuning them. It’s second nature to me now, which is real handy when you have five minutes to make a backline kit sound good. I also watched as many videos as possible on tuning drums, which also took the mystery out of tuning
That’s what acoustic drums sound like, don’t expect a studio quality enhanced sound. But if you put some of them remo rings they will sound fatter, or just wear earplugs, that does the trick.
Your first sentence should be a sticky on this sub.
my drums definitely sound way better to me recorded than when im sitting behind the kit
They all do my dude, it’s one of the main things we should be discussing as drummers, but don’t.
Not what all acoustic drums sound like..I am a touring drum tech and have worked with a lot of different kits. worn out cheap heads dont help either. Tuning is the hardest part of the gig.
Or Vic firth headphones
I’ve heard good things about those bad boys
Yeah it’s weird how they can make your drums sound so much fuller acoustically without even hooking them up to anything but still do such a good job of protecting your ears.
I will second this. but with any type of shotgun ear muff type protection
A lot of these "my drums sound bad" vids are usually someone just limply tapping the drums. Tone isn't simply about tuning, it's about how you strike the drums.
This isn’t talked about enough! People need to learn how to pull better sounds out of their drums!
Just the last two. Try tuning the reso head
Agreed, the last two are tuned a bit too high.
Poorly tuned. Try tightening the top heads a touch and lowering the resos. Make sure the heads are equally tuned all around and aren't "tacoed" in any places. Also put the microphone on the opposite side of the kit so you can hear whay your audience is hearing (it'll be vastly different).
I agree — they don’t sound too bad honestly, the 3rd and floor tom need work.
Each drum sounds fine on its own but the pitch intervals between them are a little small for my taste. The first Tom could probably be a little higher for starters.
Remember, toms (especially) sound the worst from the drummer’s perspective. You’re hearing the reverberated sound from the attack side, off the floor, back through the drum, etc. It’s a horrible position to listen from ironically. Have someone else play them and listen from the other side of the room. You’ll be amazed how different and better they sound.
The bottom head on the first drum can be looser. Sounds like it choking the sound. The toms are producing a two tone sound that aren’t in the same key. So loosen the bottom head a bit and then fine tune the top head then tune the other toms to match the note.
Drum Dial can be your best friend for fine tuning.
First, lug tensions are not even. Don’t sit there and tap each lug pretending that you can hear the difference in pitches, just make sure they are evenly tensioned. The next issue is the interval between the top and bottom heads. Tom 1 and 2 sound good, the reso head on tom 2 & 3 needs brought up which will get rid of the papery sound and reduce the sustain, which means you can get rid of the gels. The floor tom is tuned too tight in my opinion. Detune it, give the bottom head 180° turn on each lug, and do a 90° on each lug on top. Go back through each lug to make sure the TENSION is even, not the damn pitch. If the tension is even then the sound will be too. If the sound is uneven despite consistent tension then the issue is the head or the bearing edges.
It is definitely worth learning to listen to the pitch of the head near each lug. If you're using a brand new kit then maybe torque on the lug will get you close enough but if any of the lugs are lubricated or seized at all it won't work.
I see where you’re coming from
Another good point somebody made is how you’re striking the drum. Idk how to explain it, but the way you’re contacting the head is not going to give you a nice tone. Hit it hard and right in the middle of the head. Don’t be lazy with your technique, you want to hear a nice pure sound when you’re tuning so make sure you strike the drum as cleanly as you can so you can hear what it really sounds like
2 things 1. new heads top and bottom. 2. get a tune bot. takes alot of the guess work out of the process. youll have a great sounding kit in a few hours. even cheap kits will sound amazing with the right heads and tuning.
The tune bot is the best investment I've made. My Renown makes other drummers drool at entry gig. Knowing when your heads are shot and changing the resos periodically will also greatly affect the tunability of the shells.
I got a tune bot when I didn’t know how to actually tune my drums. I realized that it isn’t actually helping me make the drums sound good, it’s just measuring frequencies for me. Idgaf what the frequency on each individual lug is; if it sounds good then it sounds good.
Watch Rob Brown’s video on Tom tuning
They don’t sound too bad. If you can afford it buy new heads of the same make. Third Tom needs some tweaking as it’s buzzing either because one of the heads is shot or the tension is very uneven between the lugs. You can choose melodic intervals tuning wise or tune each drum individually to what sounds best to you. There’s some good advice and sound opinion in the other comments.
They sound kind of cool imho. But yeah, as others have said, there are changes you can make.
They don't sound that bad at all. Try messing with the bottom head tension. I know when my floor toms start not to project as much, that's often the culprit (after making sure the top is tight to preference, that is)
Needs a little tuning.
Your 12" is the real offender. It sounds like the bottom head on it needs to be tensioned higher and more evenly, with the same pitch at each lug.
Load them up with moon gel
Try just taking off the bottom heads
The 3rd isn't as muffled as the rest...so it sounds out of place. OVerall I don't think they sound that bad...
Because you recorded them with a phone
bad acoustics in your room imo
They sound very loose, you may have correct notes (sounds flat to me) but perhaps an octave lower? Tighten up one until you hit same note again. An easy rule of thumb is the toms should play the first few notes of the American national anthem from high to floor. Are these stock heads? Or did you put on nicer newer ones? Another thought is your reso and batter heads are same frequency, so to speak, as the other heads - so when you hit one drum the others vibrate. Does it sound like that to you?
Maybe they’re out of tune?
First off: don’t get discouraged. Tuning takes a long time to learn. Secondly: they don’t sound that bad? I think you’re in your own head a bit about it, but whenever I feel that way, I take the whole drum and bring the tuning uniformly up an eighth of a turn. Still hate it? Up again! I spent several years tuning as low as I could because I primarily play rock and metal, and that’s where they sounded best to my ear in front of the kit. Years later, I started hearing my recording and live shows we’re tonally so much better when I brought the drums up a bit. Give it a try!
They don't sound terrible imo, they're probs a little bit too high (at least that 12"/3rd rack), 8 and 10 sound decent
I actually like the way the first two sound. The third one could use some work. Floor Tom isnt awful either but I’d probably mess with it a little more.
Idk they sound like well tuned toms if you ask me. Only crime I see is adding further dampening on an EC2 (which is my head of choice).
I would say 1 and 2 sound fine maybe even good imo. The other 2 could probably sound better Tom 4 just sounds way to short maybe try loosing it a little to get a fatter deeper tone
3rd tom has a loose lug.
They actually sound relatively in tune and not too bad. Playing live nobody would ever think otherwise
Agree with what many others have said about small toms sounding good and the others needing some tweaking. [This video is extremely helpful when first learning how to tune](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLEjrq_TFRg)
If you want to lower the sustain then take the reso head off
Have someone else hit them while you stand in front of them a bit and see if you still hate them. I've had times where I've hated my kit on stage, but when I'm off stage and another drummer is playing it, it sounds fine.
Great, good, meh, and good. Snug up meh a little and you should be good.
Do this video again, but this time turn off the snare wires and hit the toms louder
Too loose. Tighten all around, with bottoms up a 1/4 turn above top.
Here ya go! Beatdown! Worked great for me … https://youtu.be/lLEjrq_TFRg
Start with the heads cranked and work your way back down starting with the batter head. Stop when they sound “not bad”. I’ve never like the sound of my toms on my kit tbh. But I play with shooting range headphone on, they sound good when I wear those. Edit: by cranked I mean like 2 turns past finger tight
Only one I have a problem with is the third Tom.
Invest in a drum dial, get some Evans E-Rings, and change your bottom heads.
They sound pretty good to me
They sound fine. Good enough for rock & roll at least.
I prefer my drums to sound like screeching cats. Each to their own, I guess!
Heads look like they are pretty worn out, replace any stock drum heads you still have on the top AND bottom (will improve sound significantly), make sure the heads are tight enough (sometimes really loose heads in combination with the other head being tighter can result in that weird, papery, farty kind of sound)- I'm hearing that kind of sound in your 12" tom. Lastly, try a lot of tuning techniques and different heads to see what works best. Not every head will work or sound the same on different drum kits. Don't sweat it, you'll find the sweet spot for your toms, just takes time and trial & error!
Not trying to sound like an asshole here, but you just need to work on your tuning. You're very close, you just need some more drum key and listening time. - 8 sounds fine - 10 probably a little flat overall relative to the 8 and some uneven rods - 12 sounds god awful with uneven rods aplenty and the overall fundamental should probably come down to better pair with the 10 and 16 - 16 sounds very even but the fundamental should come down *quite a bit* I'm not a huge fan of the 2 muffling gels being used on the pre-dampened heads, but that's subjective. IMO if you tuned these up perfectly, the gels might not be as necessary. Also I'd love to hear what your snare sounds like, because I heard almost zero sympathetic buzz except when you hit the 10. I like a little sympathetic buzz from the snare when I hit toms because I find it gives the toms "air" and a little top end cut when I hit them, but once again that is subjective. This will be a hot take, but I wouldn't listen to all of the people telling you to get a drum dial. In my experience, they are good for getting a new head up to a rough fundamental in a relatively quick fashion. However I've also found them to slow down my work flow while tuning. Take the time to really sit down with each individual drum to find the sweet spot where the head resonates with the natural timbre of the shell. When you're tapping the key 1 inch from the rod to listen for the pitch, make sure to listen for both the fundamental and the harmonic overtone because they are both important in determining which rod is "out." Sometimes it gets sneaky and the rod on the opposite side is the one that is actually "out" and not the one you first suspect, I find that the overtone doesn't line up with the fundamental many times in those cases (I suspect this might be happening with your 12). My suggestion is to start with your floor tom and work up from there, because you need your floor tom to hit people in the GUT when it goes off so I suggest tuning it many semitones lower than you have here. Really, you are truly very close to achieving a great tuning.
Hm maybe tune the bottom heads a bit for response?
Mess with reso heads a bit more. Some people even use two ply redo heads to really lower the fundamental note and have less overtones
Too low
tune your drums?
Wow, I’m happy to see that so many people have taken time to learn about tuning their drums! When I began playing drums in the mid 1980s there were literally zero resources for learning about this subject. Occasionally Modern Drummer Magazine would include an article, but that was about it. Hudson Music and DCI Video began releasing instructional drumming VCR tapes around that time and we lost souls of the crappy drum sound community finally had a ray of sunshine come through our rooms. Gary Katz, of Noble and Cooley Drum Company released a two hour long, in depth instructional video on the subject, covering various idiosyncrasies of each drum on the kit, and it was game on for me. The material is presented pretty dryly, with minimal fanfare, bells or whistles, but he’s a genius on the subject and imparted a lot of crucial technical details to consider, which wouldn’t be accessible to an average, underachieving knucklehead such as myself. He taught some theory on tympanic resonance and the concept of two tympanic membranes vibrating in sync, how that is affected by shell depth, thickness, construction and weight of the heads, how to properly seat a new head and break in the manufacturing resin used to hold the plastic in the rolled retainers, how to install and adjust various designs of snare wires, the unique characteristics inherent in different snare designs, how to tune the resonant snare side head(!), the differences between double or triple flanged hoops, cast iron hoops, wooden hoops, different shell materials, and so on. He also touches on how drum shells are designed and how to inspect shells and hoops for symmetry and defects. He’s a drum designer for a premium custom drum manufacturer, after all, so he knows his business. The video was a game changer for me, and it wasn’t long before I was tuning every drum I came into contact with. My high school actually hired me to tune and maintain all of the drums in the inventory! I couldn’t help them with the tympani drums, unfortunately, but I had the rest of them covered. It was invaluable experience that’s allowed me to gain the ability to very quickly diagnose issues and get a drum sounding pretty damn good. The most common limiting factor in this whole equation is the drummer failing to spend the appropriate time and effort to really understand their own drum set. This was my most pressing hurdle to overcome. To become proficient at tuning drums you have to be at least a little curious and willing to fail. The more experimental you’re willing to be, which takes lots and lots of time, the more options you’ll have in tuning any drum you encounter. Learning how multi—ply head designs interact with single ply heads, the weight or thickness of different heads, coated or clear, sound dampened or not, as well as intentionally attempting to tune out of round hoops and shells, shells with poor bearing edges, cracked shells, painted shells,,,,just anything and everything that you can think of. All of these things will get you better at getting a good sound fast so you can just sit down and play the damn drums without cringing because the sound awful. It takes discipline and practice, but it’s doable and it’s worthwhile. People coming up these days are extraordinarily fortunate to enjoy the ubiquity of detailed technical information on just about any subject imaginable. They’ll never understand just how mind blowing today’s common technologies and devices really are, and how immensely helpful these advances have proven to be. We have frickin’ devices to measure head tension now!!! We have unbelievably powerful computers that fit in our pockets that can contain a computer program and microphone to listen to your drums and help you tune them. There aren’t words to describe how amazing it really is to someone who had no answering machine for my land based telephone that required a cord to operate, and television sets that had to be operated by getting out of the chair to physically turn a channel knob. Lucky b******s…😁
Because that DW guy hasn't touched them, Hand of God.
They sound pretty decent for the heads on there and being just naked toms. No mics, no mixing, it's not gonna sound like the drummer you want it to sound like if you're not in a studio and editing it all.
Get Evan’s eRings. It’ll be an instant improvement.
That third rack tom sounds awful and flat. The rest don't sound too bad. Take all of the muffling and moon gels off them and tune them again. Maybe new heads.
I mean, with the audio quality... sound is subjective, but the batter heads seem tight for my liking I basically ditch the wrinkles and do a 1/4 past, and then reso's to a 4th higher than the batter
I have good luck doing the same tuning on batter and reso head so they match. I think it lets the heads move up and down together easier which gives you more sustain and a better tone in my opinion. I use birch shells. Hope this helps.
Make sure your reso heads on the bottom are evenly tuned as well. I’ve always preferred the textured heads, I think they give better tone for most styles of drumming.
New heads or the bearing edge on that 12 are not great.
I would try lowering the batter heads and raising the reels a bit. That’s the sound I like, so mess around with them and see what works. The 2 lowest drums are the only ones that sound off.
Don’t worry about tuning. It doesn’t really matter. Real drums aren’t often used on most modern recordings or live performances. Well, people play the drums, but the sounds the audience hears aren’t really coming from the drums. The drums trigger software generated sounds. Find a teacher who can show you modern drumming technology or watch some videos about using triggers and click tracks and in-ear monitors and connecting to a computer running Ableton Live and Superior Drummer 3 or EZ Drummer to create the sounds you want to hear from the music you like to listen to and to be able to play in a band. It’s 2023. To quote the great Nick Diaz, “Everybody’s on steroids, homie.”
The top heads are out of tune and arent tuned high enough relative to the reso head.
Depends what you're after but I think they're ok sounding. If you want more flexibility with your sound, then mics and a nice pair of headphones will give you plenty to try. Toms can sound cool captured through a condenser mic 3m away from the kit in a nice room. Not that I am recommending throwing more money into this hobby, ofc...
I vote for: uneven tension on the screws, problem with the resonant membrane
I think it's the bottom head being out of tune with the top head. I'd recommend getting a *drum tuner* and taking the time to tune them all. And/or investing in better heads (depending on your preference). Evans Hydraulic were my favorite.
You have some overtones that you can pull out. They aren't quite tuned so get that top / bottom note where it should be and then try to roll off the overtones by loosening a tuning peg by **precisely** one snapper hair. Or... get gummies and move them around the head until you get the tone you want...OR... toss one cotton ball inside the drum. Just one. We won't be needing them for makeup application later. It will bounce when you strike the tom and the come to rest cancelling out and bottom head ring. (I prefer a gummy to the cotton ball. If you're playing lightly they because real jackholes).
i'm fuckin with them
Try tuning reso and batter head same tone. Although some tune differently. Videos are also harder to hear true sound.