Tag Archives: yamaha

Kick Drum Tuning

by on 02. May, 2011 in 5 Minute Monday

I looove the sound of an amazing kick drum. And usually it’s not by accident. There is a method to getting great sounding kick drum, part drummer, part engineer. Today we’ll cover the drummer part.

I like big drums!! Sorry, I just can’t make a 20″ kick drum sound huge. I like 24″ and 26″ kicks. I’ve found that the maple ones sound better to my ear than the birch ones, although some would argue with me. That’s just what works for me.

I like the powerstroke 3 head on the batter side. I also like a thicker head for the front side. Oftentimes the mylar heads that come standard on the front side of the kick are too thin, and the front side of the kick is very important, albeit, often overlooked in the importance of the overall kick sound. That’s a really long way of saying, don’t get a crappy front head. You’ll be scratching your head to try and figure out why you kick drum sounds so thin. The air has to get past that head before it hits the mike.

The front, batter head combinations that are out there, generally work very well. I just like Remo. They are like levi’s to me, comfortable.

I generally use plastic beaters with the flam pad, they don’t make a huge difference in sound, but they make a huge difference in how long the head lasts. And the engineer will eq the drum anyway, so if there is too much top from that combination, he or she will adjust.

Another note. I never put toms on mounts that are mounted to the kick drum. I like the kick drum to be ‘free floating’ without anything dampening it. So my tom mounts are mounted onto cymbal stands. I think this is important.

Tell me what works for you and why u think it does. I would love to hear your thoughts!!

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the “Fat” snare sound

by on 18. Apr, 2011 in 5 Minute Monday

Name pretty much any song in the 70′s. They will all have the ‘fat’ snare sound. From “Take it to the Limit” by the Eagles (my daughter used to pronounce them the ‘oogles’ when she was 18 months old…now she’s driving) to ‘Someone saved my life tonight’ by Elton John. Anything country up til the early 90′s loved the fat snare sound. It is a sound that must be in your arsenal. By the way, on the 70′s song “Mandy” by Barry Manilow…don’t laugh, it’s a really amazing drum sound….the snare used for it was a small 3×13″ piccolo, tuned way down of course.

One thing that I neglected to mention in the video ( I shot it at 10:45 at night, hence the unbelievably bad hair, why didn’t my daughter say something?….reminds me of Gene Wilder in a wind storm) was the use of moon gel. Moon gel is actually something that I never used until recently. My drum tech Keith Daniels introduced me to it. It really works great. I just see it overused way too much, but I really like it. Zero rings work as well, but they dampen way too much for me. Some people use them on the toms. Let me just say that I NEVER use them on the toms, UNLESS, someone is asking for a waaaay dampened down drum sound. I did a folk record last year and they wanted dead, I mean dead toms and snare. I literally took a sheet of paper towel on each drum, folded it in half and duct taped it to the head. There was basically no ring, just the impact of the drum. I loved it! It was way cool and vibey.

I just use tape because I always have. I’ve used board tape, masking tape, duct tape, and my current fav, flourescent yellow gaff tape.

If I use zero rings, I sometimes will cut them in half and put them on with a small piece of gaff tape. You don’t need the whole thing.

For 75 percent of the country stuff I record, I hit the drum in the middle. It just sounds better.

Hope u like the out takes, I was a bit loopy. Still am…..

Metal snares work great for this sound as well. One of the best gushy sounds I ever got at Sound Kitchen in the big room was with a 6 1/2″ black beauty. Babies were conceived to this snare sound I can tell you. Or they should have been….

By the way, welcome to the party all the guys from Drum Bum!! Hope you have fun with this.

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Tuning the drums-session 1– toms

by on 28. Mar, 2011 in 5 Minute Monday

When I first asked for what everyone wanted to talk about, I was overwhelmed with ‘tuning!”  Ok, let’s launch into it.  I’m probably going to do several of these, because it’s a very deep subject.  I’m starting off with toms for a very deep and philosophical reason…..I had to change heads at my home studio. (You wouldn’t believe how some weeks I literally have 45 minutes to tape and mix the audio, dump this into the computer, and take it on the road and edit, it’s crazy).

First of all, I’m a fanatic about drum souds.  What’s the use of playing if your drum sounds suck!

Tuning is very, and I mean very sujective.  People tune drums high, low, many different ways depending on how they play.  I do sessions in Nashville, so I tune m drums according to what pleases me when I listen back.

Toms are really overthought when it comes to tuning.  There is a simple formula for me.  Each tom has a range where it really “sings.”

Each tom has a range where it’s too loose, or a range where it get pinched and choked.  Now mind you, I’ve tried tuning some drums, ie. at some churches, etc. , and if the drums aren’t great, they are not going to sound great.  Yamaha is my drum of choice, and they just sound phenominal.  When I left Pearl many years ago and switched, all the engineers that I worked for made immediate comments about how bigger the drums sounded.  My drum of choice in the studio is the absolute birch for toms. I use a maple kick. They just work for me.

The common sound looked for in today’s music is the ‘dip’ in the tone.  When you strike the drum, there is a note, then it dips down.  Also, sustain is important.  With yamaha, there is a trick that you may or may not know about.  If you put the drum far out on the tom pin, it will sustain more.   If you put it further in, it will sustain less.  If an engineer asks me to have a drum sustain less (which has happened, my 16″ birch yamaha absolute tom will ring forever) Iwill put it further in on the pin.  And there are other tricks which I will show you in future posts.

Some of my fav tom sounds growing up was listening to “Nigel.”  Check out “Someone Saved my Life Tonight” by Elton John, off of the Captain Fantastic record.  Amazing tom sounds!!!  His were single headed, no bottom head, which is a cool and legitimate sound, also used by Phil Collins, very successfully.   Mutemath drummer Darren King, I believe, from what I’ve heard, uses drums this way as well, although I could be wrong.

I could on forever about tom tuning.  I get a lot of compliments from engineers about my tom sounds. Let me know any questions that you have and I’ll try my best to answer what I can.  thanks!


 

 

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Welcome to 5 Minute Monday!!

by on 07. Feb, 2011 in 5 Minute Monday

Hello everyone!!  This weekly (hopefully weekly!) venture is one that is going to allow me to start mentoring and teaching.  I’m by nature not a great teacher, so it’s something that I want to cultivate and work on.  Each monday I’ll post a YouTube video with a 5 minute lesson or discussion on a certain drum topic, groove, concept, etc.  We’ll talk about different grooves, concepts, tuning, philosophy, and hopefully have some fun.  We’ll tackle some simple stuff and delve into some more complicated stuff as well.

This is in no way meant to be a one way street.  This was started as a way for me to connect with other drummers around the world.  It is meant to be a discussion.  This is why I need your ideas.  Please tell me what you want to talk about, discuss, and if it’s something I’m not sure about, we’ll learn together!

So this is where you come in!  Please comment or direct message me on twitter and let’s get started!  Thanks a bunch and I look forward to our Mondays together!!!

Blessings!!  Tommy Harden

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