Added: 4 years ago
From: prodrumtips
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  • is he tone deaf? his singing pitch is way off

  • Bob, I own your tuning DVD and love it. One thing the DVD is missing is focus on floor tom tuning. Would love to see a YouTube vid that shows different floor tom tunings that allows us to hear a few different ways a well tuned floor tom should sound.

    Thanks for all your hard work!!!!

  • In this video - when tuning the top head, is the bottom head on or off, and if it is on, how should it be basically tuned as a starting point for tuning the top head (or does it not matter)

  • This is what I hear. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Well Bob, spit it out already.

  • making the heads sympathize, easier said than done

  • i can tune my kit but i just suck at tuning floor toms for some reason.

  • @drummer4life54 me too, floor toms are difficult to tune

  • @drummer4life54 Right there with you. I got brand new heads this week, and everything sounds great, but for the life of me, I can NOT get the floor tom to even sound decent, let alone good. It's very frusterating

  • @drummer4life54 Haha I've had that same experiance. How I tune my floor toms is how bob tunes his bass drum, with the wrinkle technique. First you put your hand in the center of the head while applying pressure, then detune each lug in star formation until it wrinkles, then you tighten it slightly. It'll give you a deep/loud/thunderous/low end tone, give that a try, it should hopefully work! :)

  • He sings the fifth

  • Bob I just bought my first set of drums (used) and i would like to replace the heads but not sure what to be looking for can you give any helpful info to get me started.... The set was a short lived make OSP Percussion 5 pc entry level set.

  • @MrShredz101 I'm not bob, but maybe i can help. It depends on what kind of sound you want, and what kind of music you play. Ask the people at your music store, they're usually pretty decent

  • @asdfcrow Thanks for the info about the heads. I am a guitarist that plays hard rock mainly. I have since bought a pro tama set and decided to go with Remo pinstripes on one set and evan hydraulic glass heads on the other... Using a remo powerstroke 3 on one and evans emad on other... So far so good getting the sound im looking for...Not to mention moongel is some freaking awesome stuff!!! thanks again...

  • the end result sounds like poop. next video...

  • Hello, Is anyone interested in hearing

    what Bobs first set of Ludwigs from 1970 sound like? Click on the link below;

  • what kind of drum head is he using?

  • @7246rainmaker Evans EC2 SST Clear

  • Hello, I own Bobs first set of Ludwigs.

    The toms sound best with the bottom head higher than the top,

    take a listen to the attached track, Sharron is Happy.

    The toms are only 8 and 9 inches deep.

    And Bob its fusion music so, do not listen to it, you hated

    it the last time you heard it in your store...............

  • keep pressing 8

  • To my previous comment i forgot to mention that i have a REALLY good PDP set with DW heads, not some bad untunable set. Thanks and please respond

  • Help! Every time i tune my drums it sounds decent but not super good. It sounds plasticy and high, is that soft really nice sound only achievable with mics? I tune my heads with a slightly lower reso head and a higher batter head. Thanks for the help.

  • @tameemz90 Look up "John Good: Drum Tuning". John Good is the owner and founder of PDP/DW, and has basically built the basis for "correct" tuning. Tune the resonant head to the pitch of the shell (John Good further explains this in his video) and continuously tap the batter head as you bring it up from the wrinkles, until you get the desired sound. If you need further explanation, feel free to send me a message.

  • I love that he looks confused all the time :D

  • The pitches of the two heads have to be the same then ?

  • There is a good reason he's a drummer and not a singer.

  • This guy knows so much less then he acts like he does. tuning both heads to exact pitch causes a natural overtone that will resonate for far too long, and therefore will continue over the other drums when you do a fill. it may sound okay by itself, but together it will cause audio clutter. the bottom head should always be a little tighter so the heads dont get stuck into a continuous resonating cycle. this will deaden the sound of the bottome head letting the top one resonate and decay better.

  • @Hilariocrocy Bob knows much more than you give him credit for. He wasn't tuning for the whole set anyway. The description says "how to tune toms to perfection", not "how to make them fit perfect in the mix". Maybe someone else would want their drums to ring into the next, I'm sure someone does. Just because he's not producing your sound doesn't mean it's wrong. As Bob says, "if it sounds good to you, then it sounds good"

  • Dude it's tom tom, not taam taam

  • @BrightenHite He said Tom Tom with an accent.

  • @BrightenHite Hi xD

  • @drummerjen ah hier se xD

  • that ending result sucks. if you want to tune well, buy sleishmans

  • I dont know if im doing this right but i tune both skins to a G when the drum is on a flat surface, but when i pick the drum up and play it, it plays an A#.

    Is this normal?

    thanks

  • Thanks, my drums sounds great and I learned a lot.

  • my toms are always super flat sounding and only very recently have they stayed in tune at all. my biggest problem is the reso head. i cant really find the sweet spot. its either too high so i get a ton of over-tones or too low and its either flat or my floor tom gets a decent attack but fades out with a low growl.

  • @GrizDrummer25 one thing that helps me is making the res head a little higher pitched than the batter

  • @xxChubst3rxx ya ive heard that. idk i still have trouble. i shouldve played with them a bit to try to get them right over the weekend.

  • @GrizDrummer25 yea man well are they new? cuz they have to be broken in for the good tone also, from my experience

  • @xxChubst3rxx no theyre pretty old. my main problem is that i have powerstroke 3's (i think) as reso for the floor toms (13"/16"), which are pretty thick. i know i should replace em with ambassadors or something but theyre still in pretty good shape. the 16" has barely been touched. i started it as the top head for a little while but switched when i got a set of coated emperors.

  • @GrizDrummer25 so wait, your using your old batter as a reso? thats not good man, reso heads are thinner than batters and influence the tone a lot

  • @xxChubst3rxx i know. like i said, i should change them, im just cheap lol.

  • @xxChubst3rxx yea, same here lol

  • Always reminds me of William H Macey, except he's a drum guru...

  • Bob your the man i never realized how "dead" my drums sounded, now my catalina jazz set sings, i love 'em all over again

  • Who enjoys tuning drums? NOBODY!

    How about clear acoustic pitch setting or change of any drum head in Real Time?

    Like timpany, only both batter & reson stay in Perfect Harmony?

    ...even While Changing Your Pitch to Whatever You Want?

    Take a look at my videos... Out - of - this - World!

  • @DrumTone3DHDsound I enjoy tuning drums. :P

  • his singing is absolute dog toffee.

  • okay bob, we'll keep this our little secret! :D 5:05

  • that sounds pretty shitty, but i like your techniques

  • @cscrignaro more than likley because the bottom head isn't tuned...?

  • Are bottom drum heads the same as top drum heads?

  • ma ma maaa maaaaa thats what i hear...

  • mahhhhhhhh is what i hear mahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh­hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh­hhhhhhhhh

  • HOW WOULD IT RESONATE IF ITS ON THE TABLE DUMBASS?!?!?!?!

  • @YaronFisherT HOW WOULD YOU RESONATE IF UR TOO BUSY SUCKING DICK DUMBASS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

  • @YaronFisherT You can't be serious. This guy is definitely trolling.

  • it sounds better at the beginning where its DAMPENED. last time i checked u want to get rid of that "residue" or whatever sound. am I right?

  • @9ROTOR lol residue.. that made me giggle.... i think its resonance though

  • @9ROTOR exactly :)

  • yaaaaaa i have stock heads on the bottoms of my ludwigs and thethick remo black emperors on the top, so it sounded cleaner wheni tuned the top slightly lower. if i dont do that the sound just keeps going and going. i like a nice dead bump in my toms

  • It is obvious that we should tune top and bottom head to the same tone to get resonance but for me works pretty well to tune bottom head higher.

  • "Bob Gatzen shows us how to tune toms to perfection"... LOL

  • 5:57 HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

  • Sound Like crap. When he did the opposite thing they never ended up at same pitch watch again and c for urself

  • "Keep it a secret, keep it between us [and the 300,000+ other people who watched this video]"

  • damn sounds like shi* .. Remo Controlled Sound Heads Are The Best!!! John Bonham Played them.. every drummer should know John Bonham... The Greatest Drummer In The World Of Course...

  • so with the OTT does he turn the higher one UP? that's interesting

  • drummers can't sing :)

  • @Darvid1991 ...i can and ima drummer.

  • @MikeDrumsForFun lol. sorry mate my bad... Bob Gatzen can't sing :P

  • @Darvid1991 dave from foofighters did when he was in nirvana

  • Does anyone else think he looks a little bit like Neil Patrick Harris?

  • @Jukle0 Not at all, no.

  • @Jukle0 Yeah...in about 40 years. =-D

  • his voice sounds like flander i simpsons :P

  • it sounded like shit

  • Just a question, my friend here is wondering what he should do if he kind of messed up when tuning his toms because his tensions rods are all at different tensions and he is confused so, what would be a starting point like would you loosen all your tension rods till you get wrinkles or would you tighten then to a certain tension then try to start from there? somone please reply with help for him :P

  • @TTFUnlimited loosen all of the tension rods, take them all out and once they're all out put them back in, so none of them are tighter than the others. Finger tighten them (tighten them as far as you can with your fingers) and once you've done that , tune the drum

  • @CommanderDaz Alright, thanks alot for your help! :)

  • @TTFUnlimited 1. Loosen them so the screws have no contact with the hoop. 2. Turn each individually so that the screws are only just touching the hoop. But no pressure. 3. Use the weight of your hand resting against the hoop and get them "just touching" from there. Then tighten 1/4 a turn with your key. From there, make ever so slight turns to each individual lug til you find your perfect sound. oh. And practice. Tuning can be a lot of fun if you let it. Almost like you're bonding with your set.

  • this guy has no pitch ability. .

  • Hi, Bob. I´ve been using your method for about 3 years now, and I´ve had great results. I've also learned how to use the electronic tuners, and trained my ears to identify my drums sounds. The same method I use on conga drums and they sound great when all the lugs are evenly tuned. TUNING REQUIRES PATIENCE, BUT THE RESULT IS WORTH IT. Thank you very much, Bob Gatzen; these tuning lessons have been very useful to me. Greetings from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

  • Can everyone else hear the 'clicks as he turns the key? I'm guessing it's a mechanisn built in to the drum/hoop so that the lugs don't slip over time. I've never seen anything like this in real life; does anyone know what brand and model the drums are in this video?

  • @gevanrooyen hey dude, i think what you are hearing is the drum head actually getting tightened. great video.

  • @IAusDrummerI So you mean the sound of the head sliding over the rim as it gets tighter?

  • @gevanrooyen The clicks are from the head as the edge kinda crumbles like it should when you stretch the head. Remember, this is a brand new head. But the drum is probably a DW.

  • I didn't know Willem Dafoe played drums!

  • @Thrashtildeath95 Buy either E-rings (Evans), O-rings (Remo) or Moongel....All three of them work great and take all of the excess ring out. If not these, then use duct tape or a thin cloth...Hope this helps!

  • Personally, I think it sounds great in person. This method works, the example at the end just doesn't do it justice.

  • Bob, can we talk about a 5 lug tom?

  • yo my 12 inch tom has this crapy ring after i hit it. I dont know how to get rid of it i tryed to loose it and tighten it and it still does it so please reply

  • You want to at one with the drum key hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

  • Keep in mind, he's using an EC2 head. A head specifically designed to ease tuning.

  • Hi Bob, I just want to say thank you! Your videos have helped me reach a new level in my understanding and ability to tune my drums. I enjoy your approach and the way you lay it out, nicely done... so again, thank you and keep it up! Don't mind the haters, people get all worked up when presented with a new way of thinking. The drums are as much a melodic instrument as they are percussive, IMO :)

    Cheers!

  • reminds me of the sham wow guy

  • DAMAGE THE HEAD???!!!! You bang on them with a stick!!!!!! hahahaha

  • hey bob thanks so much...this video helped me alot. my toms and stuff always seemed outta tune and not sounding good.............now they sound fantastic :) thanks soo much

  • Comment removed

  • I'm down with OTT

  • @earwormsdj YEAH YOU KNOW ME!

  • Is that the guy from Sham wow!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

  • Just one little comment: we should notice that Bob is using one of the greatest drums in the entire world, Noble & Cooley, and one of the best heads, Evans EC2. So we should not be frustrated if we cannot reach this top most sound quality. Yet, if we are using inferior drum shells and heads, we still can get the best sound they can offer with this valuable tips. Thanks a lot, Bob! OTT can solve amost everything! Hehehe...

  • 'Lets get OTT between us' 285722views FTW.

  • this dude came to my elementary school one time with some other guy

  • that sounds terrible...

  • jesus payed this guy to tune his drums

  • wtf i just got a gretsch catalina jazz kit and the rack tom has 5 lugs will that effect seating the head ?

  • @julianisdope

    depends. on nothing.

    its fine

  • @julianisdope nah my drumset has five on the rack toms too yust adjust to five should be fine

  • @julianisdope Nope. Just tighten until it starts to sound good then give it a number of very solid whacks with your stick of choice. I use the butt. If the note flattens a bit then the head is "seating". If it stays the same pitch then your head is seated. Tune to your liking.

  • Man I gotta say that you are all a master drums, I like that sound in your tom, I have a new drum kit pearl, but need new patchs to get that sound, your technique is beautiful very nice job Bob!!!!!! ;)

  • What about the floor tom?

  • Greatest tuning video ive seen, I always watch this before tuning :D

  • thx for this lesson. now i can start ! danke schön.

    greet from cologne germany

  • What type of heads

  • @100jasonallin

    evans ec2 i believe on the top

    and probobly a G1 on the bottom i dunno

  • I have been having trouble bending my drum hoops out of shape... I now know why. The opposite tuning tension method will keep both sides equal for me.

    THANK YOU. This "secret" will get me hired at a drum shop...

  • i like his ideas methods i've never tried it yet cuz i havent had to tune my drums cuz they r good right now but overall the star pattern which is what i call it oppposite lugs as he was doing i do that then sequentially from lugs 1234 and so on to finish it up, i also do the samething for my bottom heads except my bottom heads i put less tension on them so the bottom heads are lil bit loose not too much tho just enough to get a lower SOLID pitch and believe me i get a VERY BEEFY sound

  • I've been tuning drums for about 5 years. People have commented on how nice my kits sound and people get me to tune their kits. I give a lot of credit to you, because you have opened my eyes on how to tune properly. I like to crank my snare and I tune my toms to a perfect 4th, but I use moon gels on my smaller toms and rings and the gels on my larger ones. I get lots of overtones. Can u help me reduce it. Is there a more effective way? Is using that kind of muffling lack of skill or preference

  • @EJsCornerStore Overtones have to do with the location and profile of the bearing edges. Not all drums tune the same. If you need moongels and rings you're not effectively tuning your drums. You might have bad edges. What kind of drums are they?

  • There are waaaaaay too many ppl on here being haters because they don't know how to properly tune a drum.

  • Hey could anybody please tell me what resonates me ? Thank you :)

  • @JoeH757 when you hit the drum it's going to echo equally around the drum as it will in the center, creating a uniform pitch 

  • hey you didnt say anything about the reso

    have reso and head the same tunig?

    

  • dude looks like MacGyver, muhaha

  • I never knew how to make a tom sound so good without taping it up and putting gel pads all over it.. Thanks Bob!

  • 16 people don't know how to tune their tomtoms.

  • taam taams

  • @GarbageDrummer lol tam tams? gongs? XD

  • what does "resonate" actually mean?

  • Very similar to guitar restringing, new strings, tune, play(stretch), tune.....

  • @dmckay91 yeah..but on a guitar you have 6 lugs ...on the average drumkit you have about 56-60 and if your kit is a little bigger you can have 100+ so the hardest thing about tuning drums is patience

  • I actually don't like the sound at the end xD But what about the bottom head? Both the top and the bottom head should be tuned in my opinion.

  • @joshuachan56 He says duplicate them......

  • Maahh I hear that maahh. xD

  • Listen to Bob. Expert Village should be banned from YouTube...

  • Thanks to those who comment. It helps us beginners steer away from b.s. demo vids and helps us find gold like this. Screw expertvillage.

  • @kdbaxter666 I agree, expertvillage sucks. Bob Gatzen is the best.

  • @JOEYJORDlS0N Expert Village sucks balls. Their suitable name should be "Nonsense Village"

  • 5:58 "Now watch" *hits the drum* FAAARRRTTTTT. sounds like crap lol

  • @presbarkeep He hasn't done the bottom head yet, hear how the pitch bends down ward when he hits it?

  • @presbarkeep i thought it sounded good.

  • @lazerath123 Yeah it sounds alright. Its to low, if he tuned it up just a hair more It would be nice and warm

  • @presbarkeep It is standing on the table. You only hear the top head and not the whole drum.

  • @presbarkeep "nice resonant sound" hahahaha embarassing :P

  • @presbarkeep

    That's how it's supposed to sound lol.

    I do agree they sound like farts though.

    I like waffles.

  • @presbarkeep all 30 of those who "thumb up'd" are too poor to have real speakers hooked up. you can't hear it thourgh your 2 cm diameter shit computer speakers

  • @thesilentcircus789 I think it sounds great....

  • @presbarkeep Uh, no, it sounds amazing.

  • @presbarkeep Wrong.

  • @presbarkeep yeah I really didn't like the sound of that... bare in mind though that drums sound alot different hand held as aposed to when they're mounted... so if your tom sounds like that when hand held try putting it on the mount to see what it sounds like then... it may sound better ^_^

  • it sounds nice

  • @presbarkeep I thought this at first when listening through my computer speakers. But once I put in my headphones (Shure EC-2 in ears) it sounded great.

  • @gabemoorhead WTF ????

  • 2:46 thats what she said

  • Great tuning tips. My snare sounds much sexier now and my tom's low side was really brought out after i watched ur vids.

  • 1:23

    he tells it how it is

  • Comment removed

  • Bob, the God of Tuning.

  • "nice resonant sound"

    yeah with like no attack!

    sheeesh

  • @drummindave50 if that's your problem, i think different heads would be better for you.

  • @whophead007 yep, aquarian heads are FAR batter! :D

  • this looks so much easier then tuning a snare... my snare sounds the same on each lugg, no matter how much i change them.

  • HEY SOMBODY HELP DO YOU HAVE TO BUY TWO DRUM HEADS FOR ONE TOM?

  • @bamabassist1234 if you want tone. if you want dead sounding drums just buy one head