Additions to the home studio.

[Studdy]

Dave can you please share some more insight on the tune bot. I've been toying with this thing for a week now. Can you please suggest some tunings for me to experiment with.

I have literally read/watched everything available online for the tunebot. Still can't quite get it to work perfectly. For example can you tell me how you would go about tuning a tom. Where do you start? what readings do you look for? My major problems are inconsistent readings even when using the filter button. Also the reading between the lug vs the fundamental, It seems like the suggested settings are way to high, but when i use my judgement the lugs are almost loose enough to rattle out. Where am I going wrong.

Can you tell me what you would suggest for
Batter and Reso Tunings. Fundamental and Lug. Note (ex. 2A, 3D) and Hz would be great
10inch Tom
12 Inch Tom
16 Inch Tom
22 Kick
14 Snare

All my drums are birch.

Thanks so much Dave, your samples sound sweet man. I know that there is no "right" answer to drum sounds but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DavePiatek]

Dave can you please share some more insight on the tune bot. I've been toying with this thing for a week now. Can you please suggest some tunings for me to experiment with.

I have literally read/watched everything available online for the tunebot. Still can't quite get it to work perfectly. For example can you tell me how you would go about tuning a tom. Where do you start? what readings do you look for? My major problems are inconsistent readings even when using the filter button. Also the reading between the lug vs the fundamental, It seems like the suggested settings are way to high, but when i use my judgement the lugs are almost loose enough to rattle out. Where am I going wrong.

Can you tell me what you would suggest for
Batter and Reso Tunings. Fundamental and Lug. Note (ex. 2A, 3D) and Hz would be great
10inch Tom
12 Inch Tom
16 Inch Tom
22 Kick
14 Snare

All my drums are birch.

Thanks so much Dave, your samples sound sweet man. I know that there is no "right" answer to drum sounds but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I've attached the sheet I use for drums. Since I'm not the best when it comes to music theory, I have to cheat. I'm a drummer, after all.

Drum Tuning Cheatsheet

You can use the table to convert notes to Hz and then translate that directly to the TuneBot. If your TuneBot is giving you a value WAY higher than the note you're trying to tune to, just look at the value for the next octave up and tune to that. Alternately, you can set the high-pass filter on the TuneBot to get rid of the octaves below what you're trying to tune to.

 

[Studdy]

Thanks Dave. So how exactly are you using this sheet. I see you have the drum listed and then have multiple notes underneath. Can you also explain setup. Do you start with just the reso on? do you finger tighten read with tune bot then a few cranks in a star pattern. Any help is awesome

Thanks again!

 

[Viral_Tyler]

Thank you guys so much for the replies, I'm glad to know I'm at least on the right path.

Some extra info for ya'll ^^

My drums are made of Basswood, which is supposed to mimic Maple. The brand is DDrum, I got the D2 version, 7-piece kit, but I don't use the 8" or 14" tom. I use the 22" kick, the 14" snare, and the 10", 12", and 16" toms.

I use the Audix i5 on the bottom snare, didn't mention that earlier.

Current I'm using both a laptop and desktop with Windows 8 and 7, respectively. I use a portable harddrive to transfer files. I have Adobe Audition to "master" any tracks, even though mastering is its own beast, I don't know much but the more I know the better off I am in the long run.

I have 2 guitars, both with 24 frets, B.C. Rich Warlock with passive humbuckers, and a ESP V with an EMG-60 active bridge humbucker.

I also have a Ventura acoustic electric guitar, and a very old Silvertone acoustic guitar.

I use the Line 6 Ux1 to record pretty much everything right now unless it requires more than one microphone, bass, electric guitar, and vocals; it sounds the best to my ears even over the lepou cabs / heads / guitarhacks impulses, or DI.

I don't have a true tube amplifier right now, but I have a solid state Marshall MG100 head, and its matching 8ohm v-30 half stack. I also own a Peavey Envoy 110, which is a transtube, but the speaker needs replacing. Don't really have any effects or noisegates, though I have a Digitech Metal Master distortion with a power supply.

I also have an old Yamaha PSR-6 keyboard lol.

 

[Viral_Tyler]

Ah, forgot to mention this.

The current place I record in is my guitarists house, in a spare bedroom, but they are moving out soon; my next recording spot will be in a remodeled one-car garage that was turned into a den at my parents house.

The floors are carpet over a subfloor I believe. We will be installing engineered hardwood floors, 7 or 9 ply, with a true wood ply on top as a veneer.

The walls are drywall and form a rectangle.. It is within inches of 13' x 19', and ceiling at 8' 3", but there is another room at the end of the rectangle where the walls are gapped by 4' 2". That room is a laundry / pantry / utility room with tile and drywall and two wooden doors, one to a kitchen and one to the exterior.

There are two big 6'x4' windows in the rectangle room, on the furthest wall in the back, and to the left wall(as you are walking in) in the back near the other window. I have the windows covered with bamboo shades, and over that I have medium-thin cloth camouflage blankets covering every square inch up.

On the furthest away wall when you walk in there is a window seat plus that window and cabinets built in, made of ply wood.

I also have built 4 big absorbers with the thickest owens-corning insulation I could find in town, covering them with burlap attached to a frame. (I won't be using them all right by the drum kit, most likely in reflective corners, and behind where I sit at my computer station)

I intend to build a fold-able absorbing wall to divide the rectangle up, and when I record another drummer I can have my equipment on the other side of that absorbing wall.

If that isn't enough, since the floors will be hardwood technically, and the walls drywall, leaving 3 exposed reflective surfaces... I may also end up building a floating absorber above the drum kit.

Any suggestions? lol

 

[DavePiatek]

Thanks Dave. So how exactly are you using this sheet. I see you have the drum listed and then have multiple notes underneath. Can you also explain setup. Do you start with just the reso on? do you finger tighten read with tune bot then a few cranks in a star pattern. Any help is awesome

Thanks again!

Put the drum on a soft surface so that the resonant head is muted. Take off the batter head and replace. Finger-tighten all the lugs. Make final adjustments to the head, making sure it's even on all sides and then press down hard in the center. You'll hear a cracking sound, this is normal. After you've properly seated the head, tension the head in the star pattern a little bit each time. At the first point where you can start hearing a discernible tone, start using the TuneBot. Go around, making sure every lug is in the same tuning and then gradually raise the overall tension of the head until every lug matches the pitch that you're shooting for on the TuneBot. Placing your finger in the center of the head while you check pitches by the lugs is a good idea. Repeat for resonant head.

My general practice is to tune the resonant head a major 3rd above the batter head. You can use the chart to figure that out. The two columns of tunings you see on the chart are batter/reso starting points for the drums. You can go higher or lower by a few notes if you need to. The major and minor keys are listed so that you can cross-check the batter notes against the key of the song you're in, so there's no weird rubbing of notes going on between the toms and the key of the song (particularly a problem for floor toms).

Honestly, I can't figure out how you're having such a bad time with the TuneBot. That thing is dead simple to use and works every time for me.