Floor tom tunning(rock/metal tone)

Greg B

Junior Member
I'm some what new to drums and I'm in to punk, metal, songs with distortion est.
Any way I can play decent but I can't tune for the life of me. I'm looking for that deep attack sound that I would describe as a click. Joey Jordison(Slipknot), Travis barker(Blink182), Stevo Jocz(Sum41) and the Rev(Avenged Sevenfold) all have the kind of tone that I'm looking for.
I've looked up countless videos and experimented on my own. I can't win. Does anyone out there have the know how to help me?
 
A lot of those drums go through a lot of processing to get that sound, as we've discussed many times. I would go for clear two ply heads, or clear heads with a power dot to focus the sound. If you want to cut sustain, thin resonant heads like Remo Diplomats or Aquarian High Frequency or whatever the Evans equivalent head is should cut sustain from what I understand.
 
If you're looking for low sustain... pretty much any head combination you try will sound the same on almost any drums if you tune both heads pretty low. Lots of attack, cuts sustain and has almost that sort of boxy, old school drum recording sound to it sometimes too.

Play with it a bit... but if you're looking for that really studio pitch bend-esque sound it's going to be very very difficult to do with just drums and heads and tuning, as was said before there's a lot of editing and processing that goes into their drum sounds.
 
Do you have a tuning tool of some kind? Piano, keyboard, little electronic dealie? If so, and your ear is decent, watch videos of HOW to tune, and then set your low tom to a C, and tune to that.

My toms are a C# chord, they harmonize beautifully and are good and deep. Works PERFECT for rock/metal.
 
If you are playing music similar to the bands listed, and are maybe playing in the same manner, I'd check out the heads those drummers are using.

The thing I have found, is the lower tuning, heavier heads, specialty heads etc...do NOT cut through the music, and do NOT cut through when the drums are mic'd in a normal club with your average sound guy.
Low tuning with your own soundguy on a headlining tour might be great, but in your average club, with whatever sound guy a club can hire is going to work against you IMHO.

I would suggest a plain one or 2 ply head tuned well. This will give you the right amount of attack, tone, and note length.

The most even sound will be with heads that are the same top and bottom--and it doesn't matter what type they are. You will get the most even and longest tone if the films are the same.
Pinstripes, Emperors, Dot heads etc... WILL work on top and bottom (we just aren't used to seeing it done that way these days).

You might hear a little overtone, or a longer note than you want to hear, but playing WITH A BAND, that "extra" is going to give you the projection (making you heard in the band), and the "bit more than you think you want" is going to be absorbed into the total sound of the band--even when mic'd.

Dot heads will focus the sound more than non-dot heads, and will be drier.

Coated will be a bit warmer than clear.

I dare say that a plain old coated Ambassador on top and bottom will get as fat, solid and beefy sound as you'd ever want. Change it to a G1 if you like Evans.
Emps, Pins, G2's t&b will sound huge and fat tuned well and evenly.

Aquarian is the odd head brand because their film is made to sound warmer from the get-go (it's different than what Remo and Evans use), so their heads might take some experimenting, and it seems like the same on top and bottom MIGHT not be the best combo (depending on the type) with Aquarian's film.

Whatever, it's just my 2 cents & what I've seen from a crap load of drummers with a crap load of different tuning on the gig's I've been on over the years (which have ranged in size from the small rooms to 20,000+ venues).

If you keep your ears and eyes open, you'll learn a lot of what NOT to do.

Check out some Bob Gatzen clips on YouTube too.

Good luck
 
The thing I have found, is the lower tuning, heavier heads, specialty heads etc...do NOT cut through the music, and do NOT cut through when the drums are mic'd in a normal club with your average sound guy.
Low tuning with your own soundguy on a headlining tour might be great, but in your average club, with whatever sound guy a club can hire is going to work against you IMHO.

Ditto. Deep sounding toms and dark cymbals are just not audible in most live Metal or Rock situations. If you gig with either, don't expect the audience to hear you well, if at all. Studios and expert sound techs can make magic, but most of the working, gigging drummers cannot.
 
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