Drummer's Review Guide To Tom Tuning

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[MikeLuke]

If Nolly would explain how to cook pasta, how to change tires from a car or how to pick the right outfit for the beach, I would listen, too. ;) Great content, guys. Thanks for all the work.

[robinjohnson]

This is hands down the best video on drum tuning I've ever seen. And I've seen quite a few!

[podgemurray]

dunno if its ever been said before
but your man nnolly
seriously takes care of his skin

[Prodrummer]

Used this approach on my own kit. Got a 10, 12 and 16" so I tuned to an D, A and C. Sounds amazing !!!

I also tried the perfect 4th method. It will give you a shorter, more attack focused sound with less overtones.
To achieve the final pitch you just have to tune the resonant head to that exact pitch and the batter head a perfect 4th lower.

So in my case this would mean:
10": D (Reso), A (Batter)
12": A (Reso), E (Batter)
16": C (Reso), G (Batter)

[drumurrrgh]

This is by far the best tuning guide I've ever come across, I keep coming back to it, same with the snare tuning video. When can we expect a bass drum tuning video? Need the pro tips for that thunderous kick sound ;)

[christophertracy]

Just tried this method on a 10" tom (Gretsch Catalina maple) and it produced a beautiful sounding D. I experimented a bit with the method of loosening & retightening the lug. Since there are so many frequencies coming out of the drum before it starts to sing, I was having a tough time discerning the change of each lug at the lowest possible pitches. I found the following helped my ear a lot: I fired up Adobe Audition, but you can do this in any app that performs a real-time FFT and displays it on the screen. In Audition, there is a real-time frequency analysis window in the Advanced Mixing Workspace view. It does require some zooming in/out to make it display in a useful way for drums (zoom to 0-1kHz/logarithmic view, adjust FFT size to as high as your computer can handle and still update really fast). By tapping and adjusting each lug just as shown in the video, I could also watch the FFT window and actually watch the peak move left as I loosened and right as I tightened. This helped ensure I didn't tune it too tight, I could literally watch the fundamental and overtones coming out of each head, to and to a large extent for each lug. I don't think I'll need to be this exact in the future but it was super helpful in training my ear for what tones to be listening for (e.g., the "chasing" mentioned in the video), I recognized where my ear/brain was getting confused. Oh, and the other thing that was helpful was actually watching the video while Nolly taps on the drums and adjusts the lugs and watching the FFT respond, so I could see precisely what I needed to replicate.

[mick_thundus]

First, those tom roll downs he plays in the beginning clip are just squeaky clean, well done. Second, thanks for putting so much time and effort into educating the community. From the production to the actual content your videos are of the highest quality, and I always end up learning more than I could've imagined. What a wonderful channel!

[roycox]

I’m usually not much for more complicated tuning methods but I simply cannot stress how effective this technique is for me after trying it. I took my 12” Tom and tried this out recently and I literally have never heard my Toms sound better. You absolutely must try this and thanks so much guys for posting this amazing video tutorial!

[zbqba]

After watching this video and really taking the time to try this method, I can happily say that this is the best my kit has ever sounded.

[BenjaminGib]

Excellent video! I’ve watched tons of drum tuning videos, and this one takes the cake. Thank you!

[zenoncastro]

the way the drum really starts to sing around 4:25 is so pleasing. yamaha RC drums always a treat

[KennethACrashwaggonMusic]

Finally got around to trying this...and it really works. Not groundbreaking per se, but explained in a way that makes perfect sense. And since implementing it, I've recorded the best sounding drums I've ever done. And nothing has changed apart from the tuning! Well, other than I no longer have to use any sort of dampening on my toms - which I previously thought was impossible.

[GrantEllman]

Always struggled with Tom tuning and this got me the results I’ve always been looking for. My favorite part is you can tune multiple kits the same to compare the sound of the kits independent from tuning... I did this and discovered that I prefer my $700 Yamaha stage customs over my mapex Saturn Vs which cost 3x the price. Lol. So now I can sell the saturns and this tutorial just saved me a lot of money!

[salvadorrosas]

This is very similar to the method I have been using for probably a decade, I was tuning the resonant head to the note I wanted (technically an octave higher) and then the batter head 5 semitones lower. But I saw this video and I had to try this method, and it works!
I might try doing this from now on because sometimes my batter head would be just a bit too low so sometimes I’d hear that wobble of the note, this seems like it fixes that by having a better balance between the two heads.
Cheers!! 🍻

[ograin]

As others have posted, best tom tuning guide I've seen!

[Martin-knvc]

I've known about this video for a while, but it was only today that I put it into practice. I can absolutely confirm that this method works! We have a lowly Mapex Meridian Birch kit at work, and I could never get the rack toms to have any sustain to their note, as it would just die out really quickly. From the spare time I had today, I tried it out on the second rack tom (the 12 inch) and got the best sound I've ever gotten from it. Okay, it's not going to easily compete against higher quality kits, but the sound is more than useable under the mic considering how cheap the kit is. Thanks, Nolly!

[eliasfigueroa]

Cool, i usually make them the same, but since I’ve only recently started getting into studio recording, imma try this method out and see how it goes.

[mjm]

Both toms sound great...But that floor tom is just gorgeous!

[ChrisHaas]

Thanks so much for making this video and putting the tuning guide on the website!! Like you said, it did sound good in isolation, but needed some tweaking once I put the 5 toms together. Liked and subscribed. Keep up the great work!

[eduardoricardo]

The science is convincing. Thanks Nolly!