With a good drummer and the right room, well tuned drums are the final piece in the puzzle to get right before pressing record. With some drummers and engineers leaving it to the other to know how to coax the best sound, we share some tips.

Drums are a bit like cars in as much as they often get the most attention when they go wrong. In the studio, basic functionality is a given but when things break or need attention some drummers will be receptive towards anyone who shows an interest in them and their drums. Certainly, knowing how to change a head, or knowing how to stop that loud buzz when the bass player hits that note is going to win friends and instil confidence.

The good news is that with a little knowledge and some listening, good results can be achieved that can take even the worst flea market biscuit tin into a crisp, powerful rhythmic centrepiece in minutes, not hours. While cheap cymbals often sound brash and clangy, a well-tuned inexpensive drum will always sound better than a badly tuned expensive one, and record-ready sounds are there to be had by all.

This guide avoids discussions about recording sound and concentrates on getting the best sound to record. Here we share our seven tuning tips to keep both drummers and musicians happy. Only kidding…

1 - Expect The Unexpected

The physics and acoustics of drums, combined with matters of taste and genre mean that an easy recipe for tuning is basically impossible. On this first point, the video below demonstrates best why even the greatest minds can get themselves in knots over tuning, or indeed synthesising drums.

While the strings of guitars, basses, pianos, and just about everything else essentially only move in a polarised motion, drum heads’ chaotic three dimensional movement isn’t for the faint-hearted. This huge complexity means that (like so many things in music) the science is only half the story; listening and experimentation are essential.

2 - Understand Drum Design

Most toms and bass drums are made out of wood, although other materials such as carbon fibre, steel, or even transparent acrylic shells are available. While metal shells can be spun, or occasionally cast, wooden shells are usually constructed in bent layers (plies), although single ply or stave (wine barrel) designs are also available.

For the engineer, in broad terms, wooden shells have fewer overtones and tend to sound slightly darker, whereas metal drums (such as snares) are brighter, requiring more careful tuning or damping. Far from being a gimmick, transparent acrylic shells actually sound great and take tuning very well. Vintage drums tend to have fewer plies, and are quieter as a result. These require good internal balance from the player to keep cymbal level in check.

Modern designs pay attention to avoid placing mounting hardware at points of maximum vibration, and acoustically, the purest sound comes ‘free-floating’ designs, where top and bottom heads’ tuning rods are connected to each other but not the shell. Vintage drum nerds (and sample libraries) fetishize the drums of yesteryear, but as an owner of vintage kits, my advice is record with a modern kit and shoot the video with a vintage one… Snare drums exempt.

3 - Understand Drum Heads

Drum skins were named after their bovine providers, however modern plastic heads that keep their tuning took over beginning in the early 1960s. These have stable structures that don't really waver regardless of atmospherics - the drum tensioning itself will drift before the head does. The playing side is the ‘batter’ head, and the underside is the ‘resonant’. Single headed toms sound much shorter than double headed drums’ full sound.

Old heads lose their elasticity and don’t tune as well. Any head that has dents and lots of stick marks will probably have a well in the middle when removed- replace and move on. Clear or coloured heads often have two plies, and their added weight responds well to lower tunings. Powder coated ‘textured’ heads are common in jazz and for brushwork. They are often tuned higher than average for these styles, although medium and lower tunings are possible.

Thinner heads require fewer turns for a given change in pitch, with ‘resonant’ bottom heads, and especially snare-side heads being especially responsive.

Most bass drum front heads are ported, but this is mainly to make mic placement easier. Acoustically, smaller holes are best, and bass drum heads with no hole whatsoever can often afford an enormous low end. Try it.

4 - Tuning And Tensioning Are Not The Same Thing

Some drummers like to tune toms to have well defined pitches with a strong fundamental (more on which later). That said, the drum shell’s dimensions will lend itself to a fixed fundamental frequency, and the purest, cleanest ‘note’ comes from tuning that supports that pitch. Trying to achieve musical pitches against the drum’s own wishes will result in sounds that are either pingy or flabby, or too complex.

To tune to the shell’s fundamental pitch:

1. Remove the heads, and hold the shell up in the air with one finger inside the drum.

2. Tap the shell with another finger and listen for the pitch. Write the pitch down (using another instrument can help)

3. Tuning can compliment this pitch. The usual aim is for a strong, clear fundamental rather than a particular note.

In this way, getting the best sound can be thought of as tensioning for the best recorded result. Trying to ‘tune’ the drums in the musical sense needs a clear purpose and drum sizes that aid the pitches involved. Interestingly, the same tuning for a whole album project can still sound varied as different songs’ keys provide a relative change of pitch for the drums.

5 - Change A Head In Five Minutes

When a drum goes quiet, it can only mean one thing. If the drummer is looking at you, it means two things: Not only is the drum head broken, but also you are going to be the one changing it. Keeping at least one spare 14 inch snare drum batter in stock is wise if you’re out in the sticks - you can invoice for it. Don’t worry, because the odds of the drum sounding better than it did before the blowout are in your favour. Remove the old one and breathe…

1. Wipe away any fluff or debris around the edge of the shell, and place the new head in position. Put the hoop on the head and line its holes up with the lugs on the shell. Lightly screw the tension bolts into position without tensioning the head.

2. Lean down onto the head with just enough force to get the odd cracking sound from the head. This is normal. Tighten each bolt up with your fingers until it just presses up against the hoop. It’s a good idea to work in opposites of a clock face, ie, 12, then 6, 3, 9. Periodically look across the drum to check the hoop isn’t cranked up or down on one side.

3. With a key, apply a whole turn clockwise at each lug, working in the order above. This might be enough to achieve a basic medium-low tuning, dependent on thread pitch and other factors. The point at which the wrinkles are only just gone is the lowest you can comfortably be.

4. For a universal tuning that will get things moving again, apply an extra half-turn to each lug. You now have a basic even medium tension to work with. It might even sound great already.

6 - Refine The Sound

If the drum sounds good, nothing else is needed. However, with the basic tuning above as the foundation there are a few options, especially when it comes to getting two heads to work together. Going back to the basic tuning above, raising everything up by as little as three-quarter turn will take you from near the bottom to near the top of the drum’s useable tuning range. Everything in-between will be to taste. To tune the whole drum:

1. Unmount the drum, and put it on a towel or carpet (we’re only listening to one head at a time). Place a finger lightly in the centre of the head and tap around the edges at each lug with a finger to check for even pitch, and adjust. Use very small movements of the key to iron out any dissonance, and be aware that some differences come from the lug opposite.

2. Flip the drum over, and repeat to start from scratch on the other side. This is the best way of ensuring even tension without losing your mind. If this is the bottom head, matching the pitch to the top head will get the cleanest, fattest ‘note’. Lower bottom heads give less sustain overall. Higher ones increase complexity. Intervals of around a fourth or so between heads are common.

Snare drums’ tunings tend to be higher than tom tunings, with the batter head feeling more like pressing on a piece of wood with your thumb. Top and bottom intervals are common, with the resonant head going slightly higher. Kicks tend to be lower than toms’ tunings. Jazz kicks are often high with little or no damping to give a slight note to the sound.

Remember, changing anything changes everything so keep a mental note of how many times you just turned that key… ‘Drum dials’ or other tuning gadgets are popular with some, and help to get repeatable sounds with known head/drum combos.

7 - Match Tuning And Production Style

As styles and genres evolve, so too do the gear and techniques used in the studio. One of the biggest changes seen in drum production must be the development of close mic techniques being embraced in the mid 20th century.

Close mic styles tend to work best on slightly damped drums with lower or medium tunings. This isn’t always the case, but close mics do tend to magnify rings, pings, and rattles disproportionately. Conversely, minimal, distant mic techniques with medium to higher tunings can smooth out noises, and imbue the recording with size and vitality.

• Modern Jazz, Soul, and Hip Hop toms and snares tend to be medium to high. Kicks higher for trad jazz, and medium to low for others.

• Rock, Metal, and Alternative toms and kicks are nearer to the ‘wrinkle zone’, whereas snares can be anything from low to high. Low tunings in any genre have a dead feel that many players dislike.

While these aren’t ‘the law’, it’s unusual to see a low, damped jazz kit, or a high un-damped metal kit.

Anything Else?

Bear in mind that the sound often changes a lot once the drum is remounted. Re-tweak in situ; at this point even tension might need to slightly bent to get the sound back. Quite often, rack toms hold on to a lot more of their low end when used on a snare stand. Deliberately detuning a lug or two on the top can introduce a pitch drop to the sustain on toms.

Changing the tuning of the snare and/or rack tom to get a greater pitch differential between the two can fix big buzzes when the tom excites the snare. If recording live, the same from bass amps can be remedied (beyond turning down) by moving the amp a bit. This physically moves the point of pressure maxima away from the snare at the offending frequency.

Drums with fewer lugs may keep their tuning better than those with more. This is because the fewer lugs there are, the higher tension each one will need in order to achieve the same pitch. At low tunings, a ten or twelve lug snare will be closer to lugs working themselves loose. Pressed drum hoops (a.k.a. 'standard' or ‘triple flanged’ hoops) can flex when the drummer performs a snare rim shot (where head and hoop are simultaneously hit for a bigger sound). This momentary deflection loosens the lug at that point. Die cast hoops have a solid form that does not bend, making them ideal for a consistent sound.

Damping is a whole subject on its own, but in short, less is more. Moongel, or other commercially available damping gadgets work well. ‘O’ rings made from old heads work well, or even the drummer’s wallet (There is a myth that Motown drummers used to quip that the one with the deadest snare sound had the most work!). Many small rings or rattles are inaudible in the mix regardless.

Bass drums are usually damped with pillows or similar, and less is definitely more for the most low end - too much will thin the drum out. Felt strips are very old school but they help to keep the air moving.

Drum tuning is a huge subject, but hopefully some of these tips will help elevate your recordings, or at least make sure they happen in the first place. What are your favourite tuning tips? Have we missed anything? Let us know in the comments.