What do you guys feel about bass drum tuning in the studio?

[Cirrus]

Next week my band's going into a studio to record a three track EP, and this evening me and my drummer have been at our practice space putting new heads on the drums, and getting them to sound good.

 

I tuned the bass drum the way I normally do; as low as it'll go so it's basically thump and click, no discernable note. But my drummer didn't really like that, and I got to thinking, I always find it hard to fit my recorded bass drums in the mix (I've done quite a lot of recording with the band over the last year). We started to tune the bass drum higher, until it had a definite tone to it; it was interesting because I didn't like it on its own at all but when the drum kit was being played you could actually hear it singing out; it wasn't flubby, it didn't ring forever, and when I stuck a mic in it it had a punch that I never thought I'd hear from a bass drum tuned so high.

 

That's my little anacdote there, my question to you guys is how do you like to tune bass drums, and do you find you need to do anything different when recording? Although I initially didn't like the high bass drum, I'm thinking with a resonant frequency up at around a bass guitars "D", it's going to be neatly audible on stereo systems etc and'll probably cut through the mix much better...

 

It'll be interesting when we get to the studio; having spent ages getting the resonant bass head sorted I'm half expecting the producer to cry "get that front head off! that's not how we do things here!!!" or something like that.

 

Thanks for reading!

[nerol1st]

The studio kick shouldn't be all attack and no sustain (like a lot of newb drummers seem to think sounds good on the whole kit). While the sustain should be much much less than all the other drums it should still be there. So getting rid of some blankets (or using a head that doesn't need any dampening) to get some air moving is good.

 

The head should also have a thud to it, and not a "fewp" if you get what I mean.

 

 

There is also no reason the engineer should tell you to tear off the res head. I would have an open mind, but I don't like it either so you shouldn't have to. I am a fan of the ported res head but even that shouldn't be a "MUST DO".

[UstadKhanAli]

 

There is also no reason the engineer should tell you to tear off the res head. I would have an open mind, but I don't like it either so you shouldn't have to. I am a fan of the ported res head but even that shouldn't be a "MUST DO".

 

 

I agree with this.

 

A long time ago, we were recording in a studio and had a drum tech. We described what kind of sound we wanted - deep, a lot of thump, hits you in the chest, solid, etc. - and to our surprise, he began tuning the kick drum higher. We didn't say anything because we figured he knew what he was doing. Eventually went inside, and the darn thing sounded glorious, exactly how we had described it.

[Phil O'Keefe]

On some projects, a tech will retune the drums for each song; optimizing the sound for that particular track.

 

The idea is not without merit IMO, although it is a lot more work.

 

I use an Aquarian Super Kick on the studio kit, and I really like it a lot. It doesn't kill the overtones or resonance completely, but it does manage and control them. As far as tuning it, I don't like to go too loose and flabby. I want a bit of tone to the drum, and not just a "flapping" sound. If you loosen it up too much, you actually lose the note attacks AND the bottom end. Each drum has its own resonant frequency, and that is going to somewhat dictate where the optimal tuning range for it is going to be, but you can usually vary it a bit within that range. But it's really all about the sound the drummer wants to get ("personal preference"), and what's appropriate for the music IMO.

[Lee Knight]

I tend to go for the lowest possible pitch philosophy. Not flappy by any means. It's got to resonate. So you tighten the batter head to the point that the drum is stretched just enough to give you a pitch.

 

I saw a great youtube video from the Evans rep on tuning a bass drum and he has good refined technique for this method.

 

Seat the batter

Tighten lugs just enough for the head to resonate without flap.

With finger lightly dampening the center of head, back off on each lug till you see wrinkle in the head refection. (Clear head is obvious)

Re-tighten till the wrinkle goes away.

Same process for the front head

 

Lowest possible pitch

 

I love that sound.

[Cirrus]

Ah cool thanks for the replies guys, I was worried this was about to fall off the front page but looks like the A team is here!

 

nerol1st, I definitely agree about the blankets. I kinda have the notion in my head that the ideal tuning wouldn't need any kind of dampening at all, and the more you put in there, the quieter and less "alive" it will sound.

 

UstadKhanAli, that's exactly the thing I was getting at - the counterintuitive way that drum tuning can be - you think it's getting a bit pissy sounding then suddenly it opens out and you've got all the low end you could want, which of course ties in with what Phil notes (bad pun!) about a drums' resonant frequency - I found that round about "D" the bass drum was opening out in a really surprising way.

 

Lee, that's kind of the sound I like, but I think in persuit of it I can end up going too low. In the tuning session yesterday I found that by putting my ear right up to the drum head I could hear the low note much more clearly than when I'm just kneeling over it with a tuning key. The other thing about the lowest pitch is that I think as the drum gets stretched and generally used, the lowest pure pitch you can get from the head rises a bit.

[KillerV]

I usually go for something similar to what I think you are describing Lee Knight. It's advice I got way back that's been working very well for me and drummers love the way their kick drums sound, both acoustically and in the mix. I also don't have huge issues to make the kick sit in the mix. This is what I do:

 

Seat the batter head

Tune it up just to the point where there are no wrinkles in the head

Tune the head up one quarter of a turn on each lug

Make sure the head is in tune with itself

 

This usually produces a really fat, low pitch that is very resonant and not at all flabby. You can actually hear the shell of the kick drum.

 

I usually like to do this with a resonant head with a hole no larger than +/- 6" and just enough dampening with a pillow - a not too heavy one - inside to make it "nice" (tough to describe, but you'll know when you hear it ). If it doesn't need any, I don't use any and I usually don't put the pillow up against the batter head. Drummers sometimes look at me funny when I take out all the blankets, pillows, etc. from their kick drums, but they come around as soon as they hear it.