Hi Pavel
Which British drummers would you choose as the best currently?
I don't really know who's best (or have any favourites other than ones from some time ago like Simon Phillips and Tony Beard) nor am I really in touch with the younger players on the scene these days. Sorry for the boring answer.
Hi Phil (KeithEnglish) - thanks for the nice message.
Hi cdrums21
So there is a video on YouTube of you doing a soundcheck for Remo drum heads and the drums sound really, really good. All the comments on the post state how great the drums sound and beg for a tuning video to show exactly how you get that sound. From a past post of mine that you were so gracious to answer, you said that you weren't really concerned with specific intervals, but did have the toms tuned to notes which I believe ended up as some in fourths or augmented fourths. For those of us who are tuning geeks, I have two questions. One, are the bottom heads tighter, and if so, can you say how much...1/2 step, full step, more?.... and is the interval between top and bottom heads consistent with all the toms? Also, the largest floor tom is tuned pretty low and sounds really nice. There can't be much tension on the tension rods....do you have that drum or any other drums tuned as low as they will go?
Thanks - I do get requests about making tuning videos - and I am considering it. I think it goes a bit beyond the drums/heads/intervals etc and more into an overall concept about sound. Anyway I did check the intervals for you and I can tell you that the bottom heads are always tighter than the tops. On the kit I have in front of me at the moment the toms are 8x7 10x8 12x9 15x13 18x15 the intervals are as follows:
8" tom. Top head = E. Bottom head = G
10" tom. Top head = B. Bottom head = C#
12" tom. Top head = F#. Bottom head = A
15" tom. Top head = B. Bottom head = C#
18" tom. Top head = G. Bottom head = A
*some of these notes are a little bit flat or sharp of the mark.
I do just tune by instinct - I've tried many tuning devices but I didn't really like the results better than what my ears were telling me.
I would say that the last two toms are tuned in a way that is very hard to play a double stroke roll on (the 12" is a bit hard as well).
Something else is that they are tuned for this setup. If I were to take away the 8" drum and move everything to the left and add a 13" (so the rack toms would become 10",12",13") I would tune the 10" and 12" higher than they are in the list above.
cheers
Gavin