Tuning the snare.

[gongchime]

Studio Buddy said tuning the snare was important but that was in the context of recording an actual snare and not using a sample. Are the just talking about making it tight enough or are they talking about tuning it to the song the same way they recommend tuning the bass drum to the song? I can do that to a sample if I need to.

[Tree]

I've always heard tuning a snare in reference to the overall sound of the snare, not necessarily the pitch. For toms you try and get them in the right pitch if possible, but for snare the last 10+ years I've been engineering I've never tried to pitch the snare to a specific pitch (they all have a pitch and you can vary that pitch but the goal is for the overall sound and how it rattles the snares). I'm not a drummer though so maybe a drummer might have a different outlook. So in short, I wouldn't worry about trying to get your snare sample to a specific pitch.

Theresa

[mojobone]

Snares are seldom tuned to a specific pitch; most drummers will probably tell you that there's an optimum tuning and tension for each individual snare drum (even two of the same make and model can have a different optimum tuning and tension) which will vary slightly, given different drum heads and coating, if any, and how tired the heads are. Since the snare is the drum a drummer hits most often, it's character is pretty much his signature. I had this drummed into my head at a session once, when I tried to get rid of what I thought was a nasty overring, using a little subtractive EQ-the drummer nearly took my head off, and he was right; in isolation it sounded bad, but with the band going, it helped his snare cut through, and more importantly, was exactly how he wanted it to sound. (and nowadays, I like a little overring in my snare sound)

Toms and kick drum are often tuned to pitches related to the tonic of the key of the song, but just as often are tuned somewhere between the diatonic notes, so as to avoid them ringing sympathetically with random bass notes.

Unless you have a very good sample set and a killer pitch shift algorithm, it's always better to play back a sampled snare drum at the pitch it was recorded at; you really can't get away with very much shift without it sounding unnatural-not that that ever stopped anybody.

[ernstinen]

Great Topic! I'm not a drummer, but have helped many of my friends tune drums. I'm a piano tuner, but gave that up 'cause it was more trouble than it was worth!

On a real snare drum, you have to tune the drum at each peg. You tap around on (hopefully a new head) to get the frequency you're looking for. At the next peg, match the previous frequency etc. Go around the drum just like that, until you get to peg #1.

If the overall drum frequency is too high or too low, do it all over again. But all the peg frequencies should match the same tuning. Keep at it until the drum sound is at the right pitch for the song... Same goes for toms. It's the same technique.

As far as sampled drums, it's similar. Find the frequency that is perfect for the song. The sampled drum should be tuned properly when it was sampled, so tune it up or down. Personally, I'd find another drum sample that works for your tune and use that.

HTH,

Ern

[mojobone]

Tuning around the head in a circle can cause problems; it's usually best to tune across the head in a star pattern. It's a very deep subject, so this is worth (yet another) re-post. Enjoy.

http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/

[ernstinen]

Tuning around the head in a circle can cause problems; it's usually best to tune across the head in a star pattern. It's a very deep subject, so this is worth (yet another) re-post. Enjoy.

http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/

Alright, Mojo, the naysayer. My method doesn't really matter if a snare is basically tuned correctly. All I was doing was showing the "basic" techniques of fine-tuning a snare drum. Sure, if you have a drummer that has no idea how to tune a snare drum, the "star pattern" is correct. If your drummer can't even tune a "star pattern," than god bless your band. Good luck.

Ern

[mojobone]

Not sayin' you're wrong, Ern, just that you're only a little bit right; you do the fine tuning after you do the rough tuning, and the fine tuning is more difficult. You need ears like a bat. I've seen many drummers fine-tune in a circle; I keep to the star pattern for both. I learned how to do it because I was in a band with an otherwise decent drummer who was tone-deaf, which was good for him, because the other guitarist in that band was also incapable of tuning by ear; he had an early Floyd Rose trem, and I think he had the guitar store tune it when they changed his strings. He also borrowed my tuner, but not nearly often enough to suit me. (call me Guano, Jr.) Hey, even while tuning in a star pattern, I managed to ruin a head last month; I blame the ADD.

I'm fortunate it was a dummy head on an electric kit. Screw it up on a real one and you can warp the shell; even resurfacing the bearing edges won't save your drum if that happens. Just sayin'.