One acoustics theory that will immediately improve your knowledge and ability with drum tuning
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There's one key acoustics theory that will immediately improve your knowledge and ability with drum tuning. As a result of knowing this theory, you will learn the skill of drum tuning faster, with more knowledge of the instrument and you’ll find it much easier to get the sound you want from your drum kit. You’ll be able to tune more precisely, more consistently, and if you wish, to musical notes and intervals on the drum kit.
The theory applies to all musical instruments, but is particularly relevant for drums and drum tuning. It's quite simple, basically the drumhead vibrates at many different frequencies all at the same time. So when you hit the drumhead, many different frequencies are heard as the drumhead attempts to vibrate in different ways and shapes, we call these frequencies and vibration shapes 'vibration modes', and depending on where you hit the drum, some modes/frequencies resonate stronger and louder than others.
Two of these frequencies are the most important for drum tuning:
The fundamental frequency, which we call 'F0' is excited most when the drum is hit at the middle and sounds like a BOOM
The first overtone frequency of the drum, which we call 'F1' is excited most when the drum is hit at the edge and sounds like a PING
We use the F0 fundamental (centre frequency) to set the overall pitch of the drum.This can be high for Jazz type drumming or low for Rock style drumming, and anywhere in between too. Every drum has a range between the drumhead being too slack or too tight, so there are lots of frequencies and tunings to experiment with, based on the type of music you are playing and your personal style too. The benefit of using iDrumTune here is to take a reading of the pitch and identify what frequency you prefer for each of your drums. Then you can make sure your drum is always tuned to this frequency every time you play, or if you play in different bands you might use different tunings for different music genres, so the app helps you quickly get the sound you need at any moment in time. It's also useful if changing drumheads, or to make a record of the tunings used in a recording session.
Every note on the piano has a corresponding frequency, so if you want, you can tune the fundamental pitch to be on the musical scale - for example 98 Hz is note G2 on the piano, 110 Hz is A2 on the musical scale, C3 is 130.8 Hz - these musical frequencies are also indicated and described in the iDrumTune app.
You can also use this frequency to setup the intervals between the different drums in your kit. So as you play a drum roll around the kit you go up (or down) in frequencies at well spaced intervals. If you tune to musical pitches then you can start to develop really musical phrases around the kit, and your fills will sound pretty cool.
The F1 overtone frequency, which is most prominent when hitting the drum at the edge, is important to ensure that the drum is tuned evenly and vibrates with a clean and consistent profile. If one point has a slightly different frequency, this causes a vibration clash on the drumhead which makes the sound of the drum warble or modulate. In acoustics we call this condition ‘beating’ which occurs when two or more close but not exact frequencies occur at the same time. Beating in the drumhead means that the sound is not smooth and you don’t get the pure tone of your drums when they are hit.
Unfortunately, because of the many different frequencies being excited on the drum at the same time, it can often be really hard to hear of different points are the same or not. It can even be hard to hear if one is higher or lower than another, because our ears get drawn to different frequencies and our bran finds it hard to interpret all the information. We call this the limits of ‘psychoacoustic perception’, but generally it means there are only so many frequencies our brain can hear accurately at only one moment in. Tim - so don’t feel inadequate if you find this aspect of tuning difficult!
The great thing about the iDrumTune app for tuning around the lugs at the edge of the drum, is that it’s programmed to ignore all of the other frequencies except the one that is most powerful, so it gives a reading and lets you know exactly which lugs are lower or higher than the first one you hit. You can then make some fine adjustments and measure again. If you get each point to within 1 Hz then that is really pretty good, and not many humans can hear to an accuracy of 1 Hz anyway, apart from a few incredible individuals who have perfect pitch and can tune a piano with no assistance.
Apple (iOS 10.3 upwards): http://bit.ly/iDrumTunePro
Android (V8 upwards): http://bit.ly/iDrumTuneAndroid
http://www.idrumtune.com