Here I go again, now I got retune my drums all over...

Great to have Steve's practical and pragmatic advice and insights into sizes, bearing edges, and the other sound variables. And nice to see a vintage-era shout-out for the internal mufflers!

Fantastic explanations! Sensible and to the point. Loved this video!

Thank You So Much... to both of you, Steve SR. & JR. (and all else involved) for taking the time and generously sharing your knowledge and then posting this video for all to see and learn from. So often, it’s just the one or two little jewels or nuggets that we need to hear or learn... and if we’re willing to put in the time... many times, we’ll find exactly what we were seeking. I have an 8”, 1934 Radio King Snare that I love so much and it just has some magic that other snares don’t. I decided that maybe I need one or two solid shell / 1 ply snare drums in a more common size (like 5.5” or 6.5” x 14”, etc) I started researching and I found your video about Angel Drums... the 5.5” Ash Stave Shell snare blew me away and was everything that I was hearing and wanted in my mind. Since then, I started by buying 2 Doc Sweeney 5.5”x14” snares... one Maple and one Ash. They’re both incredible... but the thing that REALLY blew me away... (I just new that it was the real answer that I was after... and more important that a new or better drum) was the tuning of that Angel ASH snare. I watched both parts one and two of this video looking for the answer... you explained it or eluded to it in part one... but right at the very end of part 2... after an hour of watching... you walked us through it, demonstrated your process and there it was... THAT SOUND. It’s not the drum... you can hear the differences from drum to drum. But what I was after was how it was that almost any and every drum you play has THAT SOUND. I truly appreciate it and I can’t wait to start experimenting, learning and tune many and all of my drums this way and see what happens... And I have been playing drums professionally for 35 years now... I traveled as a tech, tuning others drums for a year... and I used to teach drum corps at 2 different Highschools and several different JR. Highs and all at the same time... tuning all their drums regularly. But I still learned from you here... and I learned a little subtle key difference that is golden and so valuable to me. Thank You, Thank You. I was actually wondering if I needed to fly to one of your stores and hang out for a while to solve this mystery. ALL THE BEST to both of you and thank you so much for your immeasurable contribution to the drumming community. 🙏👍🤩😊

Thanks for the upload.

Great tuning lesson from a great drummer. Steve Maxwell. Thank you.

Great video Steve, man those drums look (and sound) beautiful! Keep groovin'! DC

Big Thanks to you for this video.

Very educational.

Excellent stuff!

Thank you very much for this video!

Very educational video. Thanks so much!

Thank you for this.

Beautiful !!!

Awesome Steve. Thank You for your fine presentation. I have learned a bunch from your videos. I am just a few years younger than you but you are never to old to learn from a master.

Good advise, good presentation, well done... Thank you

Great seminar i’v learn about drum tuning and different ways achieve your sounds 👍🥁

Probably the best drum seminar I have watched. Lots of insight, great stories and practical info.

@stevemaxwelldrums

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much!

It's great advice your giving I'll take it on board

Thank you Steve. I've recently gone to the bottom heads on the toms being about a 4th lower and generally a higher tuning for my jazz kit. Last week I hosted a jazz jam and the kids came up to play my drums really sounded great in the audience. I think I do prefer the sound of the drums from behind with the tops lower, but I am changing my thinking. This has helped. I have never cared for the Dynasonics or the Super Sensitive snares. To me, working on drums and brass instruments for a living (31 years now) I have never seen nor heard a significant improvement with either of those snares. The Ludwigs never engage properly unless I have repaired them to. The Dyna sounds (to me) rather dry and less sizzly. In my opinion, lots of legend and lor over these two drums that has done nicely to drive up the vintage value, but that's about it. Someone came out with the pre-tensioned snare wires (Danmar?)for a on/off strainer. I tired them. Meh. Sounded like a Dyna. I prefer a well tuned snare drum with an on and off strainer. Don't even get me going on the Black Swamp 5 wire snare selector. Great for orchestra I guess, but not my cup of tea.

Hey Steve, Great stuff and lots of practical information in there. How about a video reflecting on your lessons with the great Papa Jo Jones?

I appreciate the knowledge and concepts displayed here. For me, I find that the resonant head is indeed responsible for projection, tonality and “presence” if you will of the drum. In my opinion and experience, it needs to be tuned up somewhere in the middle range. That’s where it seems to resonate the most and creates the big round tone that projects into the audience. Too tight and like he says, it doesn’t project as well. But not tight enough does the same thing. It needs to “sing out”, which is at a mid range tuning. With that being said, I like the top heads slightly looser. Not for any special effect, but more for feel and for pitch of the drum. This type of tuning works well for contemporary pop, rock, country music, records well AND sounds good acoustically.....in those types of musical settings. If I was old school and playing acoustic jazz or in a big band, I may alter the tuning and head selection to achieve a sound more appropriate for that type of music (i.e. single ply coated heads, higher tuning overall, etc.). In general and as a rock player, I try to get my drums to sound as big and as loud as I can with little to no muffling on anything other than the bass drum, using only felt strips with it. It works for me and I’ve gotten compliments from audience members, sound guys and other drummers about how good the drums sound in each particular situation they are in. Just my 2 cents.....

Excellent video, thanks so much, I have a question regarding the thread differences on some tension rods, I know DW have some models that have finer threads so they require a bit more turning than standard rods to reach the same tension. Do you know if any other manufacturers use different thread spacing's ? as my brass yamaha and cheap Sonor poplar snares arrive at different pitches with say one full turn on a key.

makes a lot of sense Steve, get the best out of what you've got and if your not happy move on and get the right instrument for the job, many thanks

Hi Steve. Any idea on why, when they reissued the new cast BnB lug dyna's, that they did NOT make the mounting screw spacing so it would exactly match the old BnB spacing? That would have made all those old pre 1963 shells viable again. As it stands, the new lugs are like an 1/8" too far apart, meaning you do have to do a touch of filing to get them to fit an old shell. If you can get them to fix that, it would be great. Thanks.

Excellent and informative video! I wish you talked a bit more about tuning beds that are deep and narrow..Do you tune these snare's reso heads higher? Crank down the two rods near the beds?

Steve gets a beautiful sound out of the entire kit - so, after he’s got a kit tuned, MEASURE IT. With a TuneBot. Both heads of every drum. That way, you can share it with other players. And of course drums can be tuned to a note. Hitting the drum causes air to vibrate and that pitch can be measured. Drums tuned to a pleasing interval just happened to be tuned to the key of F, when measured (mine!) So now an individual drummer keeps a record of the tunings that work in the studio, or live in a small setting, or as Steve says in a hole with 30 foot ceilings. So the next time this drummer goes to a similar place, the correct tunings can be quickly achieved. Steve seems so open to tone controls, etc - but refuses to try a TuneBot- and it’s ironic that the first thing he says is guitar players are taught to tune their instrument. Well, the TuneBot is the first device that hears the pitch of the drums just like a guitar tuner hears the pitch of the guitar. The most often stated phrase in this video? “I like”, “if you like” - absolutely! But remain OPEN to ways of achieving, recording and sharing what we like ! The TuneBot is an aid that helps achieve that. It’s also a great way to teach students to tune drums - Have them try to get each lug at the same pitch, then put the TuneBot on and show them how close they are.... Thanks Steve

Amen

I found the people walking through the camera sight line very distracting. SM has a remarkable amount of information to share and total attention to his presentation is a good idea.

+SteveMaxwellDrums *I'm the sort who sweet-spots all drums on the kit,* tuning the heads to the shell's Helmholtz frequency in order to get maximum resonance from kicks and toms. On my current Tama®/Hoshino® IMS145, I had to go tight on both its Evans®/D'Addario® heads (B14HD top, S14R30 bottom) to deconflict from the high tom (an IMT08A with Evans®/D'Addario® B08EC2S batter, stock 7 mil resonant); I also improvised a six-turn monofilament nylon snare, as I'm used to the no-buzz response of guts. For a Rogers® Dyna-Sonic™, I'd want the guts frame, as I'm used to the no-buzz response of symphonic and marching snare drums; this frame packs a master tension and individual clamps for the cofilament nylons. The "tone control" mention at Time 17:48 gave me an idea: Why not expand the Evans®/D'Addario® EMAD/GMAD line downward into the snare/tom/timbale range! A B14EMAD2 coated white would probably be the driest specialty batter a studio engineer could ask for, fitted with the wide foam damper.

I was going to try putting a evans calftone on the snare side. I think I heard Steve Maxwell or someone else recommend this. I have been putting a piece of a paper towel under the snares due to sympathetic snare buzz when my band plays. Any recommendations appreciated

Steve's drums always sound great. Above all, drums need to be tuned for the room in which they are being played. As Steve says, the resonant head tuned below the batter head aids projection to the audience. The resonant head tuned above the batter head sounds better from the drummer's perspective and is ideal for both close and room miking, and therefore is the modern preference. There is no right or wrong when it comes to tuning, just whatever sounds best in the given environment. Great information...thanks for the upload.

Steve’s right...just about every other KZread video, tunes the opposite to his method, yet Steve’s drums always sound great.

Interesting to see Steve chose Gretsch for this , considering he could have chosen any brand he wanted.

@TheHellpoy

6 жыл бұрын

Well either he uses the possibility to promote one of the exclusive USA Custom finishes or he just adores the kit.

@roybeckerman9253

6 жыл бұрын

Good taste....but expensive !

A drummer should know to tune his instrument, thats so important!!! I think tune in the old skale of 5 notes its name is pentatonic skale!!! So it sounds very good!!! If you habe 5 drums 1th snare than rack tom than 14x14 and 16x16 and than bass drum!!! That sounds amazing!!!

@nichtimmer9134

4 жыл бұрын

I love to tune my bop drum middle and deep so it sounds also fett and deep like biger shells!!!! And for jazz you can tune the classic high tune, but depper tuning sounds in jazz also good and interesting!!!!

What's the spec of the whole kit! Love it! DC

@stephenmaxwell8226

7 жыл бұрын

Hello, that is a vintage build 8x12/14x14/16x16/14x18" Gretsch USA Custom in Espresso Burst. There are different snare drums used during the video.

@davidcurtis4478

7 жыл бұрын

Stephen Maxwell - thanks Stephen! Appreciate the feedback. Keep groovin'! DC

Great job guys! I wish I could of made it there! Are there any plans of a BR Rogers kit?

this tuning way makes no sense because when a drum is hit both the top and bottom heads plus the shell vibrate when hit unless you have the top heads really padded so top tom heads resonate and send out sound just as much as the bottom.

Drum tuning opinion is like the perfect cooked 🥩 steak opinion!. They are like AzzHoles! We all have our OWN!☝️🤣

Maybe I'm going way over with my tuning turning the lugs to much on the bottom and top heads because it's still sounding like a piece of garbage I can tune a guitar and a bass guitar because I play both but drums it's a different world

AS LIKE YOU, WE HAVE A LIFE TIME UNDERSTANDING ALL OF THIS HOWEVER, THE KIDS HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, AND WILL NEVER KNOW HOW IT ALL WORKS, THIS WAS A WORLD WE LIVED IN THAT WERE WITH THE BEST MUSICIANS TODAY ALL THE KIDS KNOW? IS HOW DO I LOOK ON STAGE?? MOST ARE BRAIN DEAD WHAT WE KNOW IS IN THE PAST.......AND WHAT THEY KNOW WILL NEVER LAST? HOWEVER FROM ME TO YOU STEVE YOU DO KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT? I SHOULD KNOW.YOUR BUDDY PHIL AMBROS

@Gretchluver1

6 жыл бұрын

Good grief, turn Capslocks off!

@jaybreen1010

4 жыл бұрын

That was coherent.

I video my small jazz gigs all the time with no mics and I tune the bottom higher than the top. It projects to the audience on the video camera perfectly. Your theory, Steve, is not true. Old Jazz recording of Joe Moreallo, Louie, Buddy Rich tuned the same way on Video and they weren't close miced in the 40's and 50's. Back then you could hear the drums perfectly on video not close miced. A lot of the Old JAzz Jgigs were recorded with just an overhead mic in the room with no closed mics. Led Zepellin also recorded that way and Bonham drums cut through perfetly. Bonham also tuned bottom head tighter than top.

@roybeckerman9253

3 жыл бұрын

Are you saying you don’t agree with Steve’s tuning, or that other methods work as well.

Most common sense I've ever heard when it comes to tuning a drum. Steve leaves room for your particular taste but brings a nonsensical approach to getting the most out of the drum's capabilities.