Ultimate Tom Tuning Interval Comparison (Higher Reso) | Season Five, Episode 3 

Perhaps in some future video, you guys could repeat this experiment, but record the sound using room mics at 5, 10, 20 foot distances. It might be interesting to see what effect these tuning intervals have on tone projection, if any. Just an idea, for what it's worth. Great episode! Thanks for putting in all that effort!!!

High tom U 2:24 m2 2:30 M2 2:36 m3 2:42 M3 2:47 P4 2:53 T 2:59 P5 3:05 U 3:11 m2 3:14 M2 3:18 m3 3:21 M3 3:25 P4 3:28 T 3:32 P5 3:36 Floor tom U 3:44 m2 3:50 M2 3:56 m3 4:02 M3 4:07 P4 4:13 T 4:19 P5 4:25 U 4:31 m2 4:34 M2 4:38 m3 4:42 M3 4:45 P4 4:49 T 4:52 P5 4:56 Context U 5:02 m2 5:13 M2 5:25 m3 5:36 M3 5:48 P4 5:59 T 6:10 P5 6:22

I just learned something.... The major second on the tom and a perfect 4th on floor tom sounds heavenly together. Thank you.

Dude, this is an effin godsend, seriously. I've started by tuning the heads to unison, and then heard that you gotta do minor 3rd across the board because that's what's best. I just rolled with that since I didn't really have the time to experiment. After this video, I found that major 3rd for rack and perfect 5th for floor is perfect for my kit. It sounds fuller and almost pre-eq'd. Sound guy at a show took the time afterwards to thank me for making his job way easier by learning to tune the drum to really get the best out of it. Your content's really making a difference out in the real world.

Oh No! Now I have to go mess everything up.....again. thx guys. still the most valuable drum channel on youtube.

So, I spent 5-6 hours last night in my garage tuning my drums, I was struggling very much, then I came across this video, dude you helped me out so much man 🖤

This was the video I had been waiting for from you guys. Excellent

Your channel is a true gem! Loved the perfect 4th, 5th and tritone best

One of the most informational videos you’ve ever made. At least for me. Great stuff as always!

Maybe my favorite Cody staring thoughtfully at drums video yet! Excellent video! Thank you guys

Great stuff as always, now it's time for me to experiment on my drums. Definitely going to start with the minor/maj 3rds.

Wow, this is really incredible. Thank you so much for making it.

LOVE THIS!! I can tell I'm going the reference this video a lot in the future! I've seen Kenny Sharretts talking about the character of a given interval and have tried to implement as much of that into my tuning as possible but this video provides all the perspective/identification I've been lacking of the sounds. Thank you so much! As you guys said, the interval isn't gospel and the ear is more important, but the foundational knowledge of "I want this sound, x interval could get me that" with all 8 of these tunings is gold dust.

Thanks very much for taking the time to make this.

This channel is a gift to all drummers. thank you so much!

Epic video! And wow, the effect of the interval changes. I loved the major 3rd and the perfect 4th the best in this video/in your room. Appreciate all the work you put into this one!

Finally! This video will be referenced in every future tuning debate. Fascinating to really hear an excellent controlled comparison - I felt some (individual tom) tunings had overtones that my brain immediately classified as kinda dissonant and ‘unwanted’ which was surprising. And then to hear the way those same overtones can blend into the overall sound with the kit was surprising again! It’s a great proof that drum sound doesn’t happen in a vacuum, context, perception, desired result are essential ingredients. Thank you for the effort and the resource.

This is one of your best videos yet.

Great topic. Love the nerdy stuff!

Thanks man. Great video. I've been experimenting with this kind of stuff lately. Had my daughter at the piano the other day before a gig while I was tuning before a gig just to get different ideas. Very timely for me. Thanks much.

Wow, this is an impressive demonstration! Can’t thank you enough for your hard work and effort, you put into this video. This one is a gamechanger - although tuning my drums is a pretty normal thing to me :-) ❤

Cody you are the Bill Nye of drums my man! I absolutely love your content bc you answer the questions real drummers ask themselves every day. This video really ‘resonates’ with me bc I have been struggling with head tuning intervals for years. I shudder to think how long this video took you to record and I truly appreciate you! The side by side comparison was brilliant and it reconfirmed my preference for minor/major 3rd interval tuning. One little trick I learned if you like minor 3rd intervals and you are trying to tune a tom to a specific pitch: 1. Identify your target pitch and go up one full octave (E3 to E4). 2. Tune your reso head 1/2 step lower (D#4) 3. Now tune your batter a minor 3rd (3 half steps) lower than the reso (C4) 4. Strike the drum and you will be close if not dead on your desired pitch of E3. If you’re a little sharp, add some dampening to the batter and it will dial you right in. If you’re slightly flat, adjust the batter up slightly. If you like the feel of your batter already, raise the reso slightly. This method works flawlessly for me and helps determine my tom interval depending on how many toms I am using and my acoustic environment.

Great idea to cover this and well done!

Great video.!! Those hats sound absolutely superb!!!!!

Great video!!!!

I've recently been experimenting with wider intervals between heads on my toms after watching another of your videos on this subject. Last unmiked gig I played was the first one I played without any tape on anything. Listening to the support band drummers play my kit, I was super happy to hear that everything projected clearly out front but had all of the articulation and punch I was looking for. Previously, I'd tried to chase the same thing from tape all over the place including on the reso. Now, that's a sound I will still play with in some situations, because it's own thing, but it's nice having the interval between heads as another tool in the arsenal.

Awesome video

for me the perfect 4th is the way to go. Creates a nice pitch bend between the root note and the overtones. Thanks for the effort!

Right on! I've spent countless hours doing just this! I always come back to the P4 interval generally. Especially for the 12 or 13. I recently went M3 on my 10. It breaths better and the slight pitch bend just sounds cool! This video got me thinking about taking my 16 from a P4 down to a M3. I liked what I heard there. My Pearl Reference Pure kit is the house kit at my live blues venue in Japan. It only stays there so fine tuning needs to be somewhat repeatable. No mics except for bass drum. At first I tried all coated Ambassadors. Then an Emporer on the 16 made a big improvement. I'm keeping the Ambassador on the 10, but going to put Emporers on the 12 and 13 this week just to double check the sound and perhaps get durability as a bonus. Either way, at the very least, SLAD always keeps me motivated to continue my experiments. The audience loves our drum sound. And I always credit this channel with my snare sound. Snare side head leveling. I've shared that with countless drummers for the past two years. Thanks guys! Have a great summer and keep rocking this channel! Love it!

i'm glad you mentioned that there doesn't need to be a uniform interval between heads on drums in the same setup. the first thing i noticed when going through the comparisons was: hey, this interval sounds good on the rack tom, but this OTHER interval sounds good on the floor tom. i'm a fan of having formulas for doing things, and it seems that this won't really get me very far, unless i'm playing in the same place, with the same drums, with the same heads, under the same conditions, but it is a good place to get started. and thanks for going through all the iterations because i'm sure that the different intervals will produce the same relative effects when i'm trying to dial in my sound. but the important thing, of course, is not to be super concerned with the actual interval as much as - is this drum behaving the way i want it to.... i know i'm late to the party on this one, but thanks again for the top-notch, unbiased info. the thing i thought was weirdest (and i could be wrong on this - i've been playing a LONG time) is that the drums seems to get more and less resonant while going through the different intervals. i expected it to be some kind of linear change, but this didn't seem to be the case. not to my old, beat-up ears anyway.

Perfect 5th sounds perfect!!

Great stuff. The comment on dimensions was interesting. It would be neat to hear a demo with the reso head in lower pitch tunings.

I tend to stick to the same interval for all toms, but this video has me re-thinking that strategy. On your set I found unison sounded best on the small tom, but was a bit of a mess on the floor tom. Thanks for the fresh perspective!

Best youtube channel!

Really dig the major and minor 3rd. 👍

Damn, the tritone is interesting to say the least. I never thought a rack tom could sound that evil.

Fascinating. The major 3rd sounded almost pretty. The tritone was more interesting on the rack tom than the floor, I thought. The perfect 5th had an ominous sound, especially on the floor tom. I've always tuned my batter head a step higher on all my toms in my 1973 Ludwig Hollywood kit. It has always worked, and I've never really saw any need to experiment. That may denote a lack of imagination on my part, but if you heard my kit, you might be inclined to agree with me.

This is great! Thanks for doing this! I had learned tuning the reso up a minor third from Steve Gadd's drum tech years ago and had just stuck with that as it always worked for me, but it's really fascinating to hear the differences.

The one sound quality of my toms I am often very aware of, and I find unpleasant, I would have to describe as "plastic-y". Almost a fast "warble" or beat frequency overtone or "interference". Either that, or the sound of the toms have an envelope from the attack to decay that gives it a "bwap" sound. In this demo, I found that the range of minor third/third/fourth tended to have less "plastic-y" or "bwap" sound, but still with good attack, resonance, and sustain. I also have a 13"x9" tom, and 16"x16" floor tom, and I get almost the same results. Maybe my 13x9 likes the third the best, and my 16x16 likes the fourth the best... usually... but not always. Great video! very well done!

Very cool. What I find even more needed on a given gig is adjusting the pitch usually the batter to accommodate the room or outside with no ambience. In general, I find it useful on a rock gig is this: quieter gig, lower tom pitch and snare. Loud gig, higher pitch for projection. Jazz gig: basically the same except everything is starting no lower than mid range pitch. So generally much higher than a rock gig. Less boom make everyone happier except on a big band gig which is closer to the Rock thing. This was very useful, but I would guess near field experience is the most significant change. Studio is altogether different. Muffling, lower, all works.

Man, that is a LOT of work!! (that you guys put in to make this video). Very interesting; the one i really noticed as bad was the tritone; which totally makes sense.(everything is cancelling out) . I generally liked the min and maj 3rd and the 4th. Unison seemed boomy, which also makes sense!

Typically my touring kit 8x12 M3. 14x14 p4. I don’t purposefully aim for that interval but that’s where they usually end up. Keep up these fascinating vids!

Very interesting .. as I am into pitch tuning because I have really big drum set the challenge is first to repeat the tuning ( always in my studio ) keep the pitches between toms octobans and rototoms sp fpr future videos a great topic it would be on how let's say to tune a floor tom to an A or whatever pitch and the combination of tensions between the heads, and how to repeat a tuning if you are on a studio room all the time so that the conditions are always the same ... thanks again for sharing this one ... my preference is about 4ths and tritones as 5ths had a decay that sounds great but will mess up with the compressor saturators ...

Personally I live the sound of the toms tuned to perfect 4ths. Tom tuning has always been something that's trown me off a bit. Awesome video as usual guys!

Very interesting, those sound very different from one to another. The usual method I use for drum recordings in the studio is very simple. If you want a Low C on your 13" tom, tune the top head to the 5th above (G) and the reso to an octave above (C) and magic... you'll always get the most beautiful and singing overtones from your drums at a perfect deep low C. I got this from a top level engineer 20 years ago and it doesn't age :)

Major 3rd on the rack tom sounded awesome

What an absolutely stellar video!!!! This must have taken fucking forever to do! Did you have to wear the same shirt for like a week for filming the video?

To me, the 13 really vibed with the M3 and the 16 the P4 for a big rock setting. I've generally used m3 and P4 intervals but have tried experimenting with M2 and M3 tunings!

definitely heard a bigger difference with the floor tom. interesting. i liked major third the best. it made the drum decay faster without sounding dissonant.

I liked m3 for the rack tom and M3 or P4 for the floor tom best. That follows how I tend to tune my toms - intervals get wider as the diameter increases (or maybe it's depth, hard to say as I don't have two toms with the same depth). I'm only using a 10" and 14" ATM, and their intervals are somewhere around M2 and M3, respectively.

On the topic of learning to use your ears, vs following a recipe.... In my experience drum tuning has always been a bit of a black art to most musicians. Respected drummers historically tended either to NOT share how they tune drums in any meaningful way, OR they went overboard and tried to define their method as THE ONLY way to tune drums. Both of which only serve to make learning to tune drums harder for other drummers. Tuning a drum is unlike tuning any other instrument because the very word "tuning" implies a pitch or interval to be targeted and reached... yet drum sets are not really a pitched instrument like a guitar or a piano. Trying to accurately nail a specific pitch on a drum is not only difficult (and sometimes impossible), but also its not always desirable. With drums, as well, the musical context is a huge part of the final tuning of a drum. And lets not forget how much each drummer's touch affects how a drum sounds. A jazz drummer and a metal drummer are opposite ends of the spectrum, in pitch, timbre, sustain, how the drums are hit, the stick size and weight, and even drum sizes and depths. Then you get into all of the other variables like head choices, shell material, bearing edges, number of lugs, muffling (if any), intervals between batter and reso.... it can be overwhelming! All of this tends to make the practice of drum tuning appear so complex that its easy to understand why so many drummers just clamor for devices that claim to do it for you (like Drum dials or Tunebots), or cling to interweb-famous drummers who make "quick and easy" videos with tuning recipes (the vast majority of which sound like crap, IMO). When I used to teach (way before the internet, and even before things like the Drum Dial) many of my students were actually nervous about playing around with tuning. They thought they might ruin the heads or crack their drum shells, or they were afraid they would get lost, and wouldn't be able to get back to where they were tuned originally. Some of them were even afraid to change worn out heads! I told them, "Your drums came with a KEY for a reason. Get in there and experiment and learn!" I pushed students to use their ears and their brains... two skills that every musician needs to master in order to be successful. Far more useful than any Tunebot or youtube video.

My personal favorites were the major second tuning of the 13” Tom and the major third tuning of the 16” floor Tom.

My favorites are the major 3rd and tritone

Talking of different rooms,I've found that if a tuni g works in one room ,it want work in another. I don't know if it has to do with the drum/tuning itself, but I'm sure the modes(or problematic frequencies)that a certain room has ,it affects the sound of a tuning.For me sometimes floor works but the rack sounds dead and only attack.No mics.Of course when especially the bass comes in its going to swallow your low end immediately, that's why I try to ask the guys to put their amps a bit more front than my siting position, if there's any space.That way I don't get all the low mid and down dirtyness into my ears n I hear my toms n bass drum a bit better. Of course micing and monitoring most of the times isn't an option.One day I had my rack Tom on a perfect 4th n it just didn't work,I tuned up half step the battery head and it just gout alive again.That was the first time I ever used the devil's b5 interval 🤣🤣🤣 but it sounded good that day. It'd be interested to see how you tune depending on the room material on the walls...What I heard on this video, is that the more further away the heads were, the more tone you got and more bend.For some reason I liked the major 3rd interval because it had the less boxiness of all to my ears, and what we want while playing every night as drummers,is to have as much as possible EQ ready tone straight out of the drum.That would be an interested video to make.Please indicate me if you've already done it.

I dug the Major 3rd and perfect 4th respectively in this scenario

I have no resos, and this is so alien to hear the interactions between heads and intervals. I kind of prefer the Minor Thirds

tritone was by far my favourite

Hi. Something you said intrigued me: Have you talked in past episodes about raising the reso head tension and lowering the batter head tension and yet still keeping the same pitch of the drum? that´s quite interesting.

I like major 3rd for the rack tom, perfect 5th for the floor tom.

Ever thought of doing a video on drum dials and if there is any wood drum out there that getting the same measurement on all the tension rods equals an in tune drum?

Could you talk about what types of environments/situations each tuning would be ideal for?

What looks to me is that the deeper the drum the more independece between both heads you can "tolerante" (Ine could Say that inn the 16" the sound got deeper and proyected more). In shallower shells you can't be as free but going a little tighter in the top heads guves more proyection and rounds the sound. From what a Heard, that s My opinión. And what I ve been apñying

seems to me like intervals make more sense as a harmonic ratio than 12TET intervals. might worth trying out harmonic series ratios close to their 12TET counterparts to get things like the major third to resonate better.

I like that T-shirt. I like that T-Shirt a lot.

Could you do the same demonstration but with the resonant head lower than the batter?

How did you tune the heads to exact frequencies like this? TuneBot?

Would you be able to let me know the weight of those hats please. I'm interested in getting a set of them .

Am I understanding this correctly based upon the tension ratio between the two heads (Resonant Turning Factor = RTF) the tension being equal is known as a musical 1st? Then the musical 3rd = 1.25 & musical 5th = 1.50? I got this into using a tuning app I’ve found very helpful. Thanks

Also it seems that more the diferente tensión between them the more overtones You get

so how did you guys do this? were you using a guitar tuner, or a plucked guitar string? piano keys? how much up did one head go when the other head goes down??

Awesome video! I have a keller shell 9x12 tom that has given me nothing but grief. I have even sent it out to have bearing edges redone but there was nothing wrong with them. The tom has a pingy sound and i can't get a good tone out of it. Any recommendations? It's an 8 ply keller with double 45, diecast on to, triple flange on bottom. Please help!!!!!!!

I've been tuning my reso heads a perfect forth above the batter. However, the minor 3rd (in your demo) sounds very round and punchy without any wonky overtones. Is there a formula that starts with the fundamental note you want out of the drum and calculates the batter and reso pitches for the minor 3rd higher reso?

sorry if it's mentioned in the video, but which head is tonic and which head is tuned to the interval?

Down the rabbit hole...

Thank you very much for the work but ….. I have been playing drums for 54 years… And I was a professional piano tune and member of the Piano Technicians Guild… so formal and specific tunings … not just octaves but thirds, fourths, fifth, sixths, and tenths…. That’s what we did with every note… So discussing these intervals is a great idea… and please accept the following with an intention to push the conversation to a “ CLEARER” place. …... WHAT WERE THE …P..I…T…C…H…E…S…. for each variation.? As in…. What are the pitches AT THE TENSION SCREWS for each variation? Without that “ accounting statement…. This demo is missing ..THE …point. Thank you again for the work

Great video but plz let us know your starting notes of the toms and the interval between them. Your followers I’m sure would be interested in this. Thx! By the way I’ve done lots of this tuning on a Gretsch kit over the last few years. 16”B, 14” D#, 12”B, 10” D#, 8” G# All unison tuning. When my 12” drum is having a bad day I pitch the bottom up a bit.

10-12-14-16 tuned b7-5-1-5. So no 3rd to sound major or minor. In the key of C, it would be Bb-G-C-G.

the snare looks like AMATI 14x5,5 metal snare :)

Toms great. Snare is ?

So is you lowering the batter head every time you raise the reso head?

Not going Into all these details, I.made the experience that for Indoor Gigs its fine to have the resos a little Higher than the batter head, but when playing unmiked in the Open Air the tone carries a bit further If the reso Sounds a little LOWER than the top head since the Air doesn't get too choked Inside the shell. This IS for Generally high Tuning of the top Heads. The Other extreme for Open Air IS to Play without resos, which makes Things a bit more crude, Like for instance timbales sound.

Can someone provide an example of how to tune to a 2B fundamental?

Unison and thirds hands down ...not surprising

Hehe, your face when you hit that floor tom tuned in maj 3rd! :) Interesting... the primary overtone is clearly moving, which makes sense to me. And of course some of what I hear, I kind of expected to hear. There is definitely a sweet spot around the min/maj 3rd. Its very pleasing right there (which is the way I have been tuning my drums for decades). With min/maj 2nds, the sustain is choked pretty substantially, and beyond that the overtone becomes weirdly out of tune sounding with the fundamental.

the bad news is that I'm too stupid to figure out 3rd, 5ths, and so on. The good news is that these drums sound great regardless of tuning intervals!

I can't hear the difference between pitches in my toms. You you just using your ears to tell the minor 2nd, and so on?

1:25 reminded me of this Beck song ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wEXaEYpifhg.html

You like that major 3rd on that floor tom eh? lol

The thing I'm concerned with these days are the tones the toms give off when hitting the snare and kick. It can sound good, almost like a reverb of sorts. Or it can sound awful, bing bong bing bong...plus when compressing heavily, just atrocious...and so you have to figure out where's it coming from....the reso of the floor when I hit the kick! And you have to gate or muffle the crap out of everything.... Have you guys done a video on that?

Tritone👺👺👺

Ehat about not evans

Not sure about anyone else...but the idea of tuning to a room is almost impossible... due to load in time set up etc..and the last thing club owners and patrons want to hear is a drummer banging away trying to get sounds....I’ll tune the drums at home and hope they sound good when I get there 🤷🏼‍♂️...

Well your problem is your toms are too big. If you want some tone, do what I did, get a kit with a 8,10, 12, 14 tom setup! :P

Videos like this really suck without timestamps...