Sup,

Just got a new drum set (my first one) and I'm trying to get it tuned to something I like. I've always enjoyed how Sato has tuned his drums, especially from the living field stuff.

Any drum experts here have any idea what his snare and toms are tuned to?

I tried searching the forums, couldn't find anything related to this.

I've never heard anything about this and don't think we have too many drummers around...maybe try the band score translations in the Library section, but iirc there is nothing about tuning there, just how Sato plays the songs.

Best bet is to learn to tune yourself (maybe you already know? If not, it's easy enough to do, even I can do it and I play drums like shit...) and then go by ear for how you want to sound, listen to some of the tracks you like and *smack* *tune* *smack* *tune* until it sounds about right.

Good luck!

[quote="Little Bastards"]Just got a new drum set (my first one) and I'm trying to get it tuned to something I like. I've always enjoyed how Sato has tuned his drums, especially from the living field stuff.

Any drum experts here have any idea what his snare and toms are tuned to?[/quote]
On most of Kool Spice and Living Field, Sato's snare sounds very dry (i.e. quick attack and short sustain, akin to a whip-like "crack!" sound) and is usually high-pitched, which indicates to me that he was tuning his snare fairly tight. Jazz drumming puts a heavy emphasis on musical expression, so a lot of jazz drummers like to tune their drums very tightly in order to get a more nuanced response out of their drums. It's hard to describe in words, but if you listen to Sha-La-La-Lla and Happy Slave, you may notice that his snare playing is much busier than it is in most pillows songs, and the tight tuning is what makes this kind of busy, articulated snare playing possible.

On the other hand, his toms sound fatter, and generally are much lower-pitched and have a longer sustain (which is a fairly standard style for rock drumming). They are likely tuned on the loose side, but not so loose that they sound floppy and have a very dull response. While it's practically impossible to tune drums to an exact pitch, the general rule of thumb most drummers follow is to tune their drums so that they roughly align with musical intervals. In Sato's case, I'm fairly certain his rack tom and floor tom are tuned to a fifth. (For more on tonal tuning, Bob Gatzen has some [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJD_ZggLwTs]nice[/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsqdi5Lzl-4&feature=relmfu]videos[/url] on YouTube.)

That being said, to spare you much frustration and disappointment, let me warn you: you will not be able to ever really match Sato's recorded sound. In fact, you will not be able to match [i]any[/i] recorded sound, for that matter. There are just too many variables to factor in when tuning the drums themselves (size and material of the shell, quality of the bearing edge, material and coating on the drum head, the relative tuning between the top and bottom heads, etc.), and this isn't even accounting for how the drums were recorded in the first place.

Let me know if you want any other tips on drum tuning. It's pretty difficult, and it takes a lot of practice just to get them sounding good in the first place.

Sha-La-La-Lla features some of his best pre-PML drumming IMO.

These Bob Gatzen videos are tight, just wish they were higher quality.

yeah, he really hit the nail on the head, it's really about tonality. I'm trying to get the tonality to where I like it.

I see what you mean by saying his snare sounds like a whip crack. In something like a romance, they sound very light, yet punchy.
I guess I may have to make mine tighter to make them sound light, but have that quick attack.

In something like a romance, what do you think Sato's floor tom is tuned to? It's barely used in the song, but I think it's an E3.

Yeah, I understand that I won't be able to tune my set to his. Different materials and sizes. I'm using a Pearl Rhythm Traveler...I know his set is made out of birch, mine are Mahogany.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/drums-pe ... s-hardware

So... I guess right now i'm just searching for the sound that I feel comfortable with.

I'm gonna try tuning my drums to:

floor E5
10" tom E4
8" tom A4
Snare D5


I really like how Gatzen tunes his drums. I'll also try his D5, D4, G4, C5 tuning.

[quote="Little Bastards"]In something like a romance, what do you think Sato's floor tom is tuned to? It's barely used in the song, but I think it's an E3.[/quote]
Pretty sure he's tuned it to an A, but with drums, it's hard to distinguish exact pitches.

In my experience, the size of a drum, more than most factors, determines the best pitches to tune it to. Finding your drum's ideal pitch (or the ideal interval for your whole kit, for that matter) is mostly a matter of trial-and-error, though.

Another tuning tip: the tension on the snares themselves also affects tuning a bit. If you tighten them up a lot, you get more of the dry, quick-attack jazzy sound, while if you loosen them, the snare becomes more open, wet, and "fatter" sounding. Tuning the pitch on a snare is an inexact science, mainly because of the snares factoring into the sound, so I've found snare tuning often devolves into more of a trial-and-error process.

Speaking from 15+ years of experience, don't ever try to make your drums sound like what you hear on an album. Take a minute to think about this: drums on an album are going through a myriad of microphones, compressors, processing, EQ, mastering, etc. The most common outcome of trying to make that sound is you deadening your drums to hell with tape, moon gels or simply tuning them so loosely that there is zero resonance

Also, tuning your drums to a specific pitch/note is ridiculous. Drums (when used in anything but orchestral music) are not meant to be melodic. The only thing you should worry about is making sure that each lug is at equal tension so that the drum is "in tune with itself".

While the idea of achieving "goals" like this to make your kit sound like your favorite drummers' kit, it's impossible and a waste of time. The only thing you should be concerned with is making YOUR kit sound the best that it can... or rather accepting it's limitations. What it really comes down to are what heads you are using and how you tune them.

With all that said, the Pearl Rhythm Traveler is not a real drum kit so you shouldn't expect to sound that way.

Have no idea how this thread is still on the front page...

Regardless, has anyone used Tune-bot? It's been getting great reviews and people are saying it's super accurate.

http://www.amazon.com/Overtone-Labs-Tun ... s=tune-bot