Is it normal?

Quai34

Junior Member
That my main Snare, which went up to B3/247 tunebot in hertz (is it too much by the way? It was in 3A# and went up in summer to 3B#), is at 3A/222 hertz when I strike softly it with the snares on and back to 3B when I strike it heavier? It doesn't change whithout the snares though...
Let me know
Sincerely
 
The snare wires will cause the pitch to go up when engaged. That has been my experience.

I typically tune to 196 Hz (no wires engaged) which is 3G but sometimes I'll go up to 3A which is 220 Hz. I prefer a high, pingy snare myself. I like the way fat snares sound when recorded but playing one is a different matter.
 
Why are you overthinking this?

Do you like the way your snare sounds? If so, just play it.

If not, sell it and get something you like.

This isn't rocket science or physics.
 
Why are you overthinking this?

Do you like the way your snare sounds? If so, just play it.

If not, sell it and get something you like.

This isn't rocket science or physics.
Tension, pressure, force, vibration, pitch: it's pure physics. But not everyone enjoys thinking about it that way and that's okay.
 
Yes it's normal. Don't stress it. No listener would ever notice that.
 
When people here say that they tune to Hz and some kind of “ bot” it kind of sounds like rocket science or physics to me . I just tighten or loosen the lugs until the drum sounds ok to me. Guess I’m old fashioned ;)
Nothing wrong with that... but 99 bucks or so gets you a device that will make your drums sound better than you ever thought possible, and you can repeat that at will every time you change heads or move them to a different room. Better still, it's quick and easy to use.

If you enjoy Drum Center of Portsmouth videos and ever wondered how they get all their kits so wonderfully and consistently tuned, it's thanks to a tune-bot.
 
Nothing wrong with that... but 99 bucks or so gets you a device that will make your drums sound better than you ever thought possible, and you can repeat that at will every time you change heads or move them to a different room. Better still, it's quick and easy to use.

If you enjoy Drum Center of Portsmouth videos and ever wondered how they get all their kits so wonderfully and consistently tuned, it's thanks to a tune-bot.
I need to check one out for sure!
 
The snare wires will cause the pitch to go up when engaged. That has been my experience.

I typically tune to 196 Hz (no wires engaged) which is 3G but sometimes I'll go up to 3A which is 220 Hz. I prefer a high, pingy snare myself. I like the way fat snares sound when recorded but playing one is a different matter.
That's what I thought but it went down, to 3B down to 3A when I engage the wires....
 
Why are you overthinking this?

Do you like the way your snare sounds? If so, just play it.

If not, sell it and get something you like.

This isn't rocket science or physics.
Yes, liking a lot what you hear doesn't mean you don't have to understand what's happening, and yes, I was big on physics at school, got 95% at my final exam at the university so, working with the tunebot and understanding what's going on helped me a lot, as a electronic keys player, to learn way faster how to tune a drums kit. And as a Piano player, I had never had to tune it! Plus knowing how works sound is really helpful to program synths as well... Or to do a good balance for live or a good mix.
 
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Yes it's normal. Don't stress it. No listener would ever notice that.
I know, but, as I said, I was expecting the snare to make the snare goes up, not down.... Maybe because I'm already at its max tuning, 3B is very high already.
 
Don’t have Tune Bot but I have Drumtune Pro on my phone, and I quit using it unless I’m way off and can’t figure out why. It’s good, and it really helped me experiment with different tuning ratios, but I always end up having to make a final tweak by ear, so these days since I have what used to be perfect pitch but is now just really good pitch ;) I just tune by ear.
 
Why are you overthinking this?

Do you like the way your snare sounds? If so, just play it.

If not, sell it and get something you like.

This isn't rocket science or physics.

I agree. Stop thinking about stuff. Scientific principals don't apply to drums. I had this one drum that floated in the air, gravity didn't affect it. I can't find it anymore.

If your snare is out of tune, sell it and buy a snare that's in tune.
 
Nothing wrong with that... but 99 bucks or so gets you a device that will make your drums sound better than you ever thought possible, and you can repeat that at will every time you change heads or move them to a different room. Better still, it's quick and easy to use.
Unless it's a 15x8 snare.
 
Unless it's a 15x8 snare.
Yes, on this one, I had a hard time, I did use my ears a lot but your guidance helped me and the tunebot too, just to get goals to reach and approach. I always prefer to use every aid I could, either coming from my ears, the community's experience and some tools as well. Hey, I'm not going to sell my Tama Star Reserve Plain Maple, I like it too much.
 
...my main Snare... is at 3A/222 hertz when I strike softly it with the snares on and back to 3B when I strike it heavier?
Engaging the snares will alter the reading, but I wouldn't pay any attention to that. The drum isn't supposed to produce a pure tone like a piano, and the snares are supposed to introduce some atonal "noise".

I've found that I need to tap the drums consistently when using the Tunebot. The pitch changes if I hit the drum harder or softer, or if I vary the distance from the rim. I also get different readings if I use a mallet or a stick. Someone else could tap a drum and get a different reading than me because they're hitting it differently. So it's not exactly an exact science.
 
I've found that I need to tap the drums consistently when using the Tunebot. The pitch changes if I hit the drum harder or softer, or if I vary the distance from the rim. I also get different readings if I use a mallet or a stick. Someone else could tap a drum and get a different reading than me because they're hitting it differently. So it's not exactly an exact science.

Good tips.

I pretty much do the same thing. I tap fairly lightly but firmly about 1" away from each lug, usually with the tip of the stick but sometimes with the butt end. I use mallets for bass drum tuning.

If I get a wonky reading from 1 lug, I check the others for consensus and filter for the frequency that appears most often or in bunches i.e. if 5/6 lugs say 178 Hz and one says 320 Hz, I filter for 178 and deal with the outlier that way. Moving the tune-bot to another spot on the drum often helps too.

You'll know you're in the right ballpark when the fundamental pitch of the drum is roughly where you expect it to be. Your ears get trained pretty quickly so you don't have to blindly trust the device.

Nowadays, I use the iDrumTune Pro app following the tune-bot in order to set the interval between the batter and resonant head. The app recommends a ratio to 1.5 which is a perfect 5th between heads but my ears prefer a perfect 4th which is a 1.34 ratio. That cuts down a bit of sustain which I generally have oodles of because I've cleared both heads and eliminated unpleasant overtones. I'm getting the best sounds out of my kits using this combination.
 
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Your ears get trained pretty quickly so you don't have to blindly trust the device.
That's the thing - if someone has tin ears (like me) and they spend time with something like a Tunebot, they start to develop a better ear and get better at tuning without the device. So it isn't like the device cultivates dependency, it's also a learning tool.
 
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