The unknown drum set. Part 1

This blog will be pretty long. It will describe my experience about tuning. It will talk about the different brand of drums out there. Also about the choice of skin for different situations. And then it will talk about the obvious truth that we don’t know and has been biting us in the face for so long. I was on a quest I didn’t know existed.

 

I have been tuning drums since I started playing. I confess that it is my only gift. Give me a run down piece of crap drum and I’ll make it sound like a bell in a cathedral. I have a hard time with everything else, though. Understanding any concept in music and drumming takes me a long time, let alone make it my own and digest it to be able to incorporate it in my playing. I’m a donkey. But not in tuning.

As such, my drum kit have always sounded decent. You hit them, you get a good sound. Every time I play in festival with 5 other bands, it’s the same story: after I set up my kit and do the sound check, the other drummers give me their tuning keys and ask me to work on their gear.

As such, I’ve tuned a lot of drum set.

All sorts of sizes.

Of Wood.

Or not wood.

I’ve also tuned drums just before they are being recorded in the studio. I can’t rush the job like in festival. If it’s going to be for history, I got to be much more precise. I take my time. I take 2 hours.

2 hours.

That’s the length to get a consistent sound with all 5 pieces of a drum set. 2 hours. Yes, it’s long.

Too long.

Why? Because… Because we need to talk about a few secrets.

In the next blog…